Re: Electric Winch vs Manual Winch
Any good manual winch will do fine, those with a double row of gear teeth are the strongest.
I never go with the electric winches, they are slow, they require adding a high amp power lead and outlet to the rear of your truck which also limits the use of that trailer to that truck unless all of your vehicles has the same outlet added, if the winch fails, and they usually do at the worst possible times, the manual handle that they come with requires that you crank against the gearing in the winch, which is about five times harder than with a standard manual winch.
A 2000 lb boat is light, any decent manual winch will do fine.
Another thing I don't like about most electric winches is that they are clutch type winches, if the clutch is wet or rusty it can slip and not allow the winch to hold the load while still on the ramp, (read: boat slides backwards the minute you let off the switch, had one do that to me today, that winch is in the scrap heap after only two years).
If I feel I need an electric winch, I would probably go with a small, non boat trailer type of winch, one with a remote control, positive clutch and an open spool. They seem to hold up much better.
