Winches

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any mechanics out there? I have a old edger from my landscaping days that has always sucked as an edger, but might be useful as something else. thinking of using the motor to rig up some kind of winch. anyone out there made a winch before? any tips would be great as I have no experience with this.

 

[vharrison]

I bet Al could help!

 

[Al Smith]

Yeah I'm a junk yard dawg of sorts .If you had enough gear reduction you could run a winch from a model airplane engine .It's a just factor of gearing .

I'm not so certain an edger engine would be the best choice though .

The "Lewis " type of portable winchs have been around almost forever but they usually employ a 70-80 cc chainsaw engine which would have much more power .

My father used a starter motor from an automobile along with a triple reduction chain drive and a cable drum made from 6" pipe that did a wonderfull job .It would pull that Jeep CJ5 I now own right up into a tree if he wanted it to .

Next time I go to my shop I'll get a picture of it .

 

[Al Smith]

Now on second thought perhaps a method .Triple reduction boat winchs are not that costly .It would be possible to incorperate belt drive with a tightener or simply just a tilting method to engage the power in place of the hand crank which could be made to be removable .The rachet mechanism would still be in place preventing back slip if it got away from you .

When I built my shop I had to lift sheet metal panals of roofing material which weighted 175 pounds .I did it with a home spun davit made of 21/2" pipe and a boat winch powered by a Milwaukie drill .

 

[HolmenTree]

I've had all kinds of junk laying around hoping to design a better winch but ended up doing early spring cleaning and gave it all away.
The only trouble with mounting a power drive in the handle socket of a marine capstan winch is your left with poor access to the spool with the rope. I've priced out the Harkin capstan marine hydraulic winchs and just the winch with under belly motor start at $6,000.

I'm thinking of just buying a large capstan spool and attach a high torque hydraulic motor from the bottom of the spool with the spool sitting upright verticle. I'd need to mount a large flange bearing of some sort between the spool and motor. The flange bearing would bolt down holding everthing in place plus a HD mounting bracket for the motor.
With this winch I would mount it on the chipper and tee it into the chippers hydraulics and use the feed roller control bar as the forward/ reverse control for the winch. I will need 3 way direction ball valves because I already have the chipper hydraulics powering the 7 ton side dump box hoist.

 

[Al Smith]

I have a Greenlee capstan drive wire puller .That one is rated for 6,000 pounds of pull but if "doubled up " with a snatch block would equal about twice that .It's only portable in the sense you could run it from a portable generater .I once used it to drag a D4 Cat up on a trailer .No problem .

 

[Page]

Al, what your saying makes sense of course, I assumed I would have to involve some gearing, I just don't know how. when I get a chance to tear into the edger I'll take a pic and show you what I'm working with and maybe you could give me a few pointers. (in laymans terms of course. or if there are terms below that even !)

 

[Al Smith]

This junk yard dawg approach just depends on what you can get your hands on as well as what degree of force you want to apply .With a boat winch it might be good for a ton on a dead weight pull or less .

On the other end of the spectrum you might find an old PTO Ramsey winch from a wrecker and gear it down enough to pull 6 tons with a little engine but it would be slow as a snail .---more --

 

[Al Smith]

If you really did some dumpster diving and could find a right angle drive that used a worm gear drive that would work .With a worm gear it's nearly impossible put an overhauling load on it .In other words have the load reverse direction on the cable drum,capstan or whatever .

You could insert the worm drive early on in the power line with reduction on both ends of it if you wanted .Keep in mind that the closer to the load end the more robust has to be the drive line .

Fact you could use a belt drive from the engine if you have enough reduction and make it reversable by using a twisted belt on a multi belt pulley arrangement .The possibilities are only limited to your imagination and what kind of junk you can round up to make it work .

 

[HolmenTree]

I just gave away a 20 ton gearamatic skidder winch which weighs over a 1000 lbs. Just had no use for it, sat in my backyard for 20 years. Originally I planned on mounted it under a 3 ton dump truck box near the rear bumper, that didn't happen then had an idea to mount it on it's own trailer. Was into firewood at the time, so I guess I should have just bought a skidder.

 

[Al Smith]

Ha I have a heavy Ramsey from a wrecker with 5/8" cable I've also had for over 20 years that I've done nothing with either .Some times those "possibilties " just take up space .

 

[flushcut]

I've had all kinds of junk laying around hoping to design a better winch but ended up doing early spring cleaning and gave it all away.
The only trouble with mounting a power drive in the handle socket of a marine capstan winch is your left with poor access to the spool with the rope. I've priced out the Harkin capstan marine hydraulic winchs and just the winch with under belly motor start at $6,000.

I'm thinking of just buying a large capstan spool and attach a high torque hydraulic motor from the bottom of the spool with the spool sitting upright verticle. I'd need to mount a large flange bearing of some sort between the spool and motor. The flange bearing would bolt down holding everthing in place plus a HD mounting bracket for the motor.
With this winch I would mount it on the chipper and tee it into the chippers hydraulics and use the feed roller control bar as the forward/ reverse control for the winch. I will need 3 way direction ball valves because I already have the chipper hydraulics powering the 7 ton side dump box hoist.

HT have you seen the thread about the BMG winch for sale? It sounds that would fit your need perfectly.

 

[HolmenTree]

HT have you seen the thread about the BMG winch for sale? It sounds that would fit your need perfectly.

Yes I did Rajan, it looks like it was sold though if I'm not mistaken.
Speaking about capstan winchs, this just reminds me, I did some tree work for a local cottager a few years back and I noticed his neighbor had a huge cast iron capstan winch in his back yard as an ornament. The spool on it had to be around a foot in diameter , also had some kind of base to it which probably housed the gearing.........next time I'm out that way I'll have to take another look at it.

 

[flushcut]

Yes I did Rajan, it looks like it was sold though if I'm not mistaken.
Speaking about capstan winchs, this just reminds me, I did some tree work for a local cottager a few years back and I noticed his neighbor had a huge cast iron capstan winch in his back yard as an ornament. The spool on it had to be around a foot in diameter , also had some kind of base to it which probably housed the gearing.........next time I'm out that way I'll have to take another look at it.

Still available. Thread title is "mini loader winch".

 

[HolmenTree]

Still available. Thread title is "mini loader winch".

I see that ,thanks for the heads up Rajan.

 

[flushcut]

Any time.