Winching

If you have to winch it up into the garage, how do you propose getting it back down/out again? 1450kg will take a bit of managing and (braking) control to stop it getting away from you, have you considered that at all? Have you thought about an extension onto the back of your garage so that you can reverse it in (including drawbar) so that it can be hitched to your vehicle in order to drive it out. The extension wouldn't have to be all that long - proably only the length of the drawbar.

Why don't you push the van in by the drawbar(either by reversing your vehicle or with a front mounted towball) as far as it will go into the gargare and re shape the front of the garage door to suit and enclose the drawbar.

Bloody hell ......I'd hate to see you blokes if you had to manage 42.5 tonne .......or more, Would be a good idea and in the safety of all other road users that once you get it in the garage you leave it there for-ever.

Hi Learning,

Have you consider a folding drawbar such as fitted to the Eco-tourer lift-top caravans? Looked at one recently and they look very robust.

So Doug, apart from letting us all know what a competent truckie you are - what exactly is your point (in any)?

If your figures are right the slope is 0.5%. 0.04 metres is 40mm. Almost negligible. Two strong people could push it. Consider concreting a square steel tube socket into the ground outside the back doorway. Put a square steel upright into the socket. Bolt a boat trailer winch (5:1 reduction) to the upright. Use that to winch up the van.

Hi All, Thank you for your reply's. I cannot make any changes at the back or front of the garage. The back roller door is not wide enough and is off set to the front door. The idea for the steel tube and insert will do fine for pulling the van in. I thought I will put another tube in the ground just outside the front door and put a insert in it with a eye on top. Then to pull the van out just run the cable from the winch to the eye and then back to the draw bar.
I would not need to pull it very far, I think I will only need to get the wheels out of the garage. I have stopped my xTrail with both front and rear wheels just out of the garage and the xTrail will slowly roll down the driveway. The wheels on the van are towards the rear and this where the most weight is.

Instead of loading up the winch with a lot of cable, think about doing the winching in two bites. Wind winch all the way out, attach a 'winch cable extension' of some description between winch cable hook and van. Wind winch cable all the way in to the hook. Secure the van with chocks. Remove extension, wind cable all the way out, attach to van direct and wind in again. The cable on a boat winch for a 5-6 metre boat would be more than adequate.