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Doing a Winch upgrade looking for opinions. Malibu might not be installing them properly.


vanamp

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I am inprocess of a winch upgrade and it looks to me that Malibu may have failed to RTFM.  Manual clearly says use three bolts and they only use two.  My winch bent in the corner where there is supposed to be a bolt.  I know I have seen another picture from someone on here with the same bend.  

What do you think I should do for mounting the new winch?  Drill new bottom holes or use single bottom hole use big washer. I have some thick aluminum stock I could cut a rectangle washer from to go end to end on the winch.

 

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Edited by vanamp
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I put a plate 1/4" thick under mine then bolted the winch to it in all 4 spots.  That plate just happened to be the bow step I made. Figured to kill 2 birds with 1 stone! Original winch will not bend now. The new plate is countersunk for bolts to set flush, then nuts go inside winch frame to mount to it. Original 2 bolts hold it all to the trailer frame.image.thumb.png.cb1861e4a52dac8b0297a37e8f65536a.png

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Factory winch is garbage. Actually that’s not fair. I’m sure it works great for the jon boats it is rated for. I replaced mine with a higher rated Fulton. Still only uses two mounting bolts but has a much thicker base plate. Feels way stronger. 

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I ended up disassembling and straightening out the winch base and made a 1/4 thick steel plate to reinforce the base. It seems to be working as intended so far. I just couldn’t bring myself to spend more money on another winch which may or may not last and deal with the company that won’t stand behind their products. I am thinking crappy trailer jacks as well.

Edited by wdr
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1 hour ago, wdr said:

I ended up disassembling and straightening out the winch base and made a 1/4 thick steel plate to reinforce the base. It seems to be working as intended so far. I just couldn’t bring myself to spend more money on another winch which may or may not last and deal with the company that won’t stand behind their products. I am thinking crappy trailer jacks as well.

Yep easy fix but still inexcusable for Malibu to let this happen. I have actually had good luck with Fulton on replacing stuff.

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14 minutes ago, dalt1 said:

Yep easy fix but still inexcusable for Malibu to let this happen. I have actually had good luck with Fulton on replacing stuff.

The most recent thing I have called them about I ended up talking to the “Grand Inquisitor” and got the “well, its not designed for that” song and dance so I just gave up.

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ahopkins22LSV
31 minutes ago, dalt1 said:

Yep easy fix but still inexcusable for Malibu to let this happen. I have actually had good luck with Fulton on replacing stuff.

They changed to a 3 bolt mounting pattern for 2020’s from what I’ve seen. 

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13 hours ago, ahopkinsVTX said:

They changed to a 3 bolt mounting pattern for 2020’s from what I’ve seen. 

That is all that should be needed. Did they add a plate in back to make the horizontal span? Who has a pic?

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13 hours ago, wdr said:

The most recent thing I have called them about I ended up talking to the “Grand Inquisitor” and got the “well, its not designed for that” song and dance so I just gave up.

I just had to send pics of my broken parts and they replaced the whole jack for me no questions ask. :whistle:

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ahopkins22LSV
1 minute ago, dalt1 said:

That is all that should be needed. Did they add a plate in back to make the horizontal span? Who has a pic?

I’ll get pictures of ours next week when we pick our boat back up from Tommy’s from having the first service done. At least I hope, weather looks like rain almost everyday...

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3 minutes ago, dalt1 said:

That is all that should be needed. Did they add a plate in back to make the horizontal span? Who has a pic?

Just went back and looked at my previous pic, Looks like there is enough span on the upright tube to just drill 2 holes in bottom instead of 1. Now if the upright don't break off because of the 2 holes close together, they will be good!

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On 5/10/2020 at 8:58 AM, dalt1 said:

Just went back and looked at my previous pic, Looks like there is enough span on the upright tube to just drill 2 holes in bottom instead of 1. Now if the upright don't break off because of the 2 holes close together, they will be good!

Just weld the old holes up, and start fresh with whatever holes and placement you need to work!

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I ended up using the existing holes.  Even with the 3 bolt setup the fulton winch will require a trip to the hardware store as the included bolts are not long enough to through bolt. 

They really over engineered the mounting of the new winch I got. You can't put the bottom bolt through because the gear is in the way you have put bolt head through the back.  I 3d printed a plug to hold the bolt in the center and then slid the notched down under bolt head aluminum from the inside. Hard to explain but it was a pain and I wpuld not recommend this winch as an easy replacement for trailers with the two bolts. 

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On 5/11/2020 at 5:59 PM, dielawn said:

What winch did you guys go with from Fulton?

Yes --  curious what folks recommend. I am in the market for replacing the original Fulton XLT winch on my boatmate trailer for my VLX.  I was thinking about going with a 2-speed Fulton (see link below). Looking for more leverage in pulling my boat onto the bunks as I seem to encounter more and more shallow boat launches and it's getting very difficult to get the boat fully onto the trailer.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0036PUHN6/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_apa_i_VhkWEb29TJ2PC

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1 hour ago, Boat4Fun said:

Yes --  curious what folks recommend. I am in the market for replacing the original Fulton XLT winch on my boatmate trailer for my VLX.  I was thinking about going with a 2-speed Fulton (see link below). Looking for more leverage in pulling my boat onto the bunks as I seem to encounter more and more shallow boat launches and it's getting very difficult to get the boat fully onto the trailer.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0036PUHN6/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_apa_i_VhkWEb29TJ2PC

That is the one I got.  The winch itself seems fine just the install was a pain.  I have not tested it out yet.

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