Winches have been conventionally utilized to facilitate pulling loads or objects. It is well known in the art to permanently mount a winch on the front of a vehicle to enable the vehicle to extract itself from a river bed or muddy terrain. By permanently mounting the winch to the front of the vehicle, such vehicle can be extracted only if an anchor object, such as a tree, is in front of the vehicle. Extraction of such vehicle is much more difficult, if not impossible, if the only anchored objects are located behind the vehicle.
Another variety of applications involving winches includes vehicles to which trailers are mounted, such as boat trailers. In this situation, the winch is fixed to the boat trailer which is connected to a hitch mounted to the rear of the vehicle. While such winches are well adapted for drawing the load onto the trailer, the difficulty encountered is in backing the trailer, often in a blind situation, thereby necessitating the use of rear-view mirrors and reverse turning directions.
Rear hitch-mounted winches have been used advantageously to extract vehicles, but are thereafter removed. Disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,159,368 and 3,718,317 are winches which are detachable from rear-mounted hitches. The structures of these winches loosely engage around a hitch ball to sustain a pulling load, but cannot sustain a downward load, such as experienced by a trailer or other transportable load attached thereto.
It can thus be seen that a need exists for a portable winch which can be easily, releasably mounted to the front or rear of a vehicle. There is also a need for a winch that is mountable to a vehicle hitch, and that is load-bearing as to other trailer equipment mounted to the winch. There is yet another need for a front-mounted hitch, which may be employed in connection with a load-bearing winch, for connection to trailers so that the trailers can be pushed by the vehicle.
In accordance with the present invention, the disclosed portable load-bearing winch, construction and use thereof substantially reduces or eliminates the disadvantages and shortcomings associated with the prior art winch structures. According to the invention, a portable winch is mounted to a drawbar structure having at one end a receptacle, and at the other end a stub. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the drawbar is adapted for releasable engagement with a class 3 load-bearing vehicle hitch. The stub of the winch drawbar can be inserted into the hitch receptacle and pinned. A conventional ball-type hitch and plug can then be inserted into the winch drawbar receptacle. A trailer or other towable structure can be connected to the ball, thereby interposing the winch in the pulling train between the vehicle and the load. The cable of the power driven winch can be connected to the load so that it can be pulled onto the trailer.
In accordance with the invention, the vehicle can also be equipped with a hitch mounted to the front thereof, for releasable engagement with the portable load-bearing winch. With this arrangement, the winch can be mounted either at the back or the front of the vehicle so that it can tow or push loads and reposition such loads, as well as winch loads from the front or back of the vehicle. When the winch is mounted to the front of the vehicle, a trailer or other equipment can also be connected to the winch ball equipment so that the trailer can be pushed to a desired location. Moreover, when the winch is mounted to a frontal vehicle hitch it can be utilized to winch loads onto a trailer which is also connected to the load-bearing winch.
The environments or uses of the invention are not limited to use with utility or boat trailers as noted above. Indeed, the load-bearing winch of the invention can be utilized to pull a disabled vehicle on a wheeled dolly at safe low speeds. Also, while the winch of the invention is disclosed for use with square receptacle and stub drawbar elements, other shapes and types of connecting structures can be utilized. To that end, a trailer tongue other than the ball type can be used in conjunction with corresponding structures engageable with the winch.
While the preferred embodiment of the invention has been disclosed with reference to a specific winch structure and method of use, it is to be understood that many changes in detail may be made as a matter of engineering choices without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, as defined by the appended claims.
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