Post by neil on Mar 10, 2013 8:44:08 GMT -5
Winches and winching
I wanted to go over general winch information, service and use.
Ropes, care and use.
Starting with Winches themselves.
There are a ton of them out their on the market from very expensive to very cheap. They all do the same thing, the question is how well.
I personally have never pulled a winch apart to find that one had better internal design than another, although the brakes vary greatly in design and function.
What you are going to pay for is the Name, quality, and duty cycle.
Planetary drive winches (the most common) use a combination of planetaries in series to reduce the drum speed and increase the pulling power of the winch.
That is why it is not uncommon to see the same motor and relative size on multiple models of winches. The lighter winch will spool faster due to the gearing, which in turn reduces the overall capacity.(Example: really big tires on a stock vehicle without a gear change)
Worm drive winches are generally very stout, don't require a braking system due to the worm drive and are very pricey.
Hydraulic winches are not quite as popular, but are out there. There is no real difference in the drive of the winch other than having a hydraulic motor versus a electric motor. Some hydraulic winches also have a hydraulic pressure released brake, so that while your not winching the brake is continually applied.
There is also the old PTO driven winches that were very popular on fire-trucks and military trucks.
How winches are rated
Winches are rated for line pull off of the first wrap of the drum. Every consecutive wrap after that first wrap reduces the power of the line pull. The reason for this is that you are effectively gearing the winch higher with every new wrap.
If you look up ratings online, most of the popular winch manufactures list the ratings per wrap for each model in the specs.
The next thing that goes into the rating, would be the duty cycle of the winch at a given load. This is generally where cost plays a big role. Cheap winches generally have a very low duty cycle.
Example: 20% duty cycle equals 2 mins of use at 100% load and 8 mins of rest, to cool down so as not to burn up the motor.
More expensive winches use better motors and have heat dissipation incorporated into the design. Be sure to verify The parameters of their duty cycle rating if this concerns you.
It should.
Motor HP doesn't really have any real bearing on the power of the winch. What it will change is the internal gearing of the winch. Hence faster or slower line speed at a given load and duty cycle.
Electrical powering of the winch
This really plays into price. What type of controls are used. The quality of relays (which will play into the duty cycle). Integrated (built into the body of the winch), water proof or not. Electronic, solid state, or mechanical. Any winch that uses standard relays at one point or another has one that sticks , Give it the old fonzie tap and away it goes.
Rope Type, Care and Use
There are pretty much 2 types....synthetic and wire
Synthetic
Synthetic rope is all generally rated in the 9-10k lb range.
Things to consider:
Synthetic rope is deteriorated by UV rays.
You should try to keep it clean and dry.
Dirt particles get trapped in the fibers more easily and wear the rope.
You want to be more cautious while winching that the line is not rubbing on rocks that will compromise it.
Major Plus to synthetic line.
It doesn't store energy like wire rope, so if a break occurs, it drops to the ground with very little recoil.
It is much lighter than wire
It doesn't splinter like wire
CARING FOR SYNTHETIC
Keep it clean, dry, and protected from the sun....cover it up!
Synthetic may require more frequent replacement depending on care and use than wire.
USE
Remember to mark the rope when you begin spooling it onto the drum of the winch so as not to remove any more than the last five turns off the drum. The hold down on the drum is not designed to hold weight. The friction of the rope on the drum is what holds it in place. Some of the synthetic ropes come from the factory with the initial length colored differently.
I use 10ft as a rule of thumb. Mark the synthetic rope with a colored electrical tape.
Wire Rope
Wire rope was all there was for many years. A lot of the old ropes were bare metal and would require oiling to keep them from rusting. In those cases a castor or mineral oil was generally used....vary sparingly.
Luckily, the new wire ropes come galvanized and require very little maintenance. The one thing that should be done though, is a good cleaning from time to time,or after wheeling that required your winches use.
The reason.....because like the synthetic rope, dirt and rock chips get lodged between the individual wires and cords and can wear on the cable over time.
It's always a good idea to straighten out your cable after trail use by unwinding the entire cable and clean, inspect and rewind it under load so as too remove any kinks or flattened cable from an unevenly wound drum.
When inspecting the cable look for severe kinks that have deformed the cable.....the cable should be replaced.
Look for broken wires....if there are more than 3 in a single cord, The rope has been compromised. The last thing you want is a flying steal whip.
When pulling wire rope ALWAYS WEAR GLOVES, because it doesn't feel nice when a broken strand finds it's way into your hand.
They even make cool straps to hang from your hook to pull the rope. That way you don't need to handle the cable too much.
The same as synthetic.....when winching never spool off more than the last 5 wraps on the drum......this is what provides the friction to pull the rope. The anchor is not load bearing. Mark the first 10ft from the anchor so that you know not to pull anymore off.
Important
You should never wrap the cable around something and hook it back to itself. This damages the cable......it will also damage synthetic rope as it cinches tight on itself.
If possible place your hook open side up. This way if it breaks it will throw itself into the ground. IF POSSIBLE.
Winch Maintenance
Winches can be pretty much maintenance free, but that doesn't mean there shouldn't be any preventive maintenance done.
Generally, most of us aren't going to do anything with it until it doesn't work, so maybe a trial run before running out wouldn't be a bad idea. At least that way you can repair or get it repaired before going on your trip.
If you happen to submerge your winch it would be a good idea to disassemble it and clean it very well. I have seen a lot of winches nearly ruined because of this and left unattended to.
There are some new winches on the market that claim to be waterproof, and may not be an issue, but your standard winch is definitely not waterproof.
The brakes are located in the drum, and if the inside of the drum gets badly rusted or mud in it, the brakes may stick, making it hard to free spool, or they may not work at all and not maintain the weight on the cable. The drum ends generally are not sealed and do not use bearings that would be sealed. They generally only have brass bushings pressed into the housings in which the drum spins. This is why the water and mud gets into the drum.
The mud and water then travel to the motor and the planetary gear house along the drive shaft. Because of the aluminum of the housings, this can seize the motor. It also only takes small amounts of grit to intermittently seize the planetaries while your trying to free-spool, not to mention the possibility of damaging them while under load.
The shift handle to engage and disengage the winch also is not sealed very well at all, and over time will cause issues as water gets in and begins corroding or rusting the shift ring inside the housing.
A good cleaning, some new grease in the gear housing and some new end seals go a long way in keeping your winch working for a very long time.
Solenoids and buss bars.
Check for corrosion. Should you find corrosion on the buss bars or wire connections, clean them thoroughly to a bright new luster, because all you electricians out there know that the electricity moves over the surface of the wire strand or buss bar (or energized item in general) and not thru it. Make your new connections nice and tight and then clear-coat everything. This way you seal out the moisture and oxygen that causes the corrosion.
Obviously this would be the time to check all the solenoids if you are having a sticking one from time to time. Better to replace it now.
New solenoids don't guarantee anything though. I put all new waterproof, high duty cycle and amperage solenoids on my winch a year or so ago, and there's one that still intermittently sticks
Don't forget to check your cables and connections to the battery. If there's corrosion in the wire ends, it may be time to replace them. Buldges under the insulation are a sure sign.
A loose or corroded connection can cause a massive source of heat under load. I've already had a battery terminal melt completely off the battery post because of a connection getting loose while wheeling and then winching .
Remember to keep an eye on the connections for the remote. CRC has a really good electrical connection and contact spray that increases conductivity and prevents corrosion. WD 40 will work also. Dielectric grease is an option too...but can be messy.
Last but not Least.....Finally.....
Using your Winch
Things to keep and mind and practice when winching.
1. Make sure that all the components used with your winch are rated for the load at hand and at least what the winch is rated for. Example If you have a 9k lb winch, then everything (shackle's and straps) should be rated with a WLL(working load limit) or SWL (safe working load) of 4.5 ton.
Shackles and straps to be used in conjunction with a Snatch Block should then be rated for a minimum of double the winch rating, or 9 ton.
Note refer to shackle and snatch block threads if your not sure of ratings or use.
Be sure to check the condition of all of the above mentioned accessories before using them.
2. Always use a Tree Saver or like strap to wrap around a tree to be used for winching. This protects the tree and gives you a shock absorber.
It's not necessary, but is better for the strap if used with a shackle in which your winch line hook is placed.
3. After taking up a little initial tension, inspect all connections and throw a winch line blanket, sweatshirt or jacket over the winch line mid span.
In the event that a connecting point or rope failure, the blanket works as a point of contact and damper to drop the flying cable and or attachments.
4. Try to avoid having the cable in contact with anything on the ground while winching. This protects the rope and lessons the chance of injury of bystanders should the rope jump left or right as it comes off of whatever it's snagged on.
5. Everything being set up and under light tension, make sure all people are out of the dead zones, which should have already been assessed. Do your best to know where all involved parties are located.
6. Have a designated person as a spotter and to keep an eye on the drum and how the cable is spooling. You don't want to bunch and wedge the cable, ultimately ruining it. Small adjustments of your wheel or rigging can prevent this.
It's not a bad idea to unwind any badly wound cable and respool it nicely, so as to be ready for the next pull and not let the cable take a set to a bad spooling which will leave kinks in the cable. Those stress points are the first place of compromise.
Remember to use gloves when handling wire rope.
Refer to the Snatch Block thread for dead zones while winching.
I wanted to go over general winch information, service and use.
Ropes, care and use.
Starting with Winches themselves.
There are a ton of them out their on the market from very expensive to very cheap. They all do the same thing, the question is how well.
I personally have never pulled a winch apart to find that one had better internal design than another, although the brakes vary greatly in design and function.
What you are going to pay for is the Name, quality, and duty cycle.
Planetary drive winches (the most common) use a combination of planetaries in series to reduce the drum speed and increase the pulling power of the winch.
That is why it is not uncommon to see the same motor and relative size on multiple models of winches. The lighter winch will spool faster due to the gearing, which in turn reduces the overall capacity.(Example: really big tires on a stock vehicle without a gear change)
Worm drive winches are generally very stout, don't require a braking system due to the worm drive and are very pricey.
Hydraulic winches are not quite as popular, but are out there. There is no real difference in the drive of the winch other than having a hydraulic motor versus a electric motor. Some hydraulic winches also have a hydraulic pressure released brake, so that while your not winching the brake is continually applied.
There is also the old PTO driven winches that were very popular on fire-trucks and military trucks.
How winches are rated
Winches are rated for line pull off of the first wrap of the drum. Every consecutive wrap after that first wrap reduces the power of the line pull. The reason for this is that you are effectively gearing the winch higher with every new wrap.
If you look up ratings online, most of the popular winch manufactures list the ratings per wrap for each model in the specs.
The next thing that goes into the rating, would be the duty cycle of the winch at a given load. This is generally where cost plays a big role. Cheap winches generally have a very low duty cycle.
Example: 20% duty cycle equals 2 mins of use at 100% load and 8 mins of rest, to cool down so as not to burn up the motor.
More expensive winches use better motors and have heat dissipation incorporated into the design. Be sure to verify The parameters of their duty cycle rating if this concerns you.
It should.
Motor HP doesn't really have any real bearing on the power of the winch. What it will change is the internal gearing of the winch. Hence faster or slower line speed at a given load and duty cycle.
Electrical powering of the winch
This really plays into price. What type of controls are used. The quality of relays (which will play into the duty cycle). Integrated (built into the body of the winch), water proof or not. Electronic, solid state, or mechanical. Any winch that uses standard relays at one point or another has one that sticks , Give it the old fonzie tap and away it goes.
Rope Type, Care and Use
There are pretty much 2 types....synthetic and wire
Synthetic
Synthetic rope is all generally rated in the 9-10k lb range.
Things to consider:
Synthetic rope is deteriorated by UV rays.
You should try to keep it clean and dry.
Dirt particles get trapped in the fibers more easily and wear the rope.
You want to be more cautious while winching that the line is not rubbing on rocks that will compromise it.
Major Plus to synthetic line.
It doesn't store energy like wire rope, so if a break occurs, it drops to the ground with very little recoil.
It is much lighter than wire
It doesn't splinter like wire
CARING FOR SYNTHETIC
Keep it clean, dry, and protected from the sun....cover it up!
Synthetic may require more frequent replacement depending on care and use than wire.
USE
Remember to mark the rope when you begin spooling it onto the drum of the winch so as not to remove any more than the last five turns off the drum. The hold down on the drum is not designed to hold weight. The friction of the rope on the drum is what holds it in place. Some of the synthetic ropes come from the factory with the initial length colored differently.
I use 10ft as a rule of thumb. Mark the synthetic rope with a colored electrical tape.
Wire Rope
Wire rope was all there was for many years. A lot of the old ropes were bare metal and would require oiling to keep them from rusting. In those cases a castor or mineral oil was generally used....vary sparingly.
Luckily, the new wire ropes come galvanized and require very little maintenance. The one thing that should be done though, is a good cleaning from time to time,or after wheeling that required your winches use.
The reason.....because like the synthetic rope, dirt and rock chips get lodged between the individual wires and cords and can wear on the cable over time.
It's always a good idea to straighten out your cable after trail use by unwinding the entire cable and clean, inspect and rewind it under load so as too remove any kinks or flattened cable from an unevenly wound drum.
When inspecting the cable look for severe kinks that have deformed the cable.....the cable should be replaced.
Look for broken wires....if there are more than 3 in a single cord, The rope has been compromised. The last thing you want is a flying steal whip.
When pulling wire rope ALWAYS WEAR GLOVES, because it doesn't feel nice when a broken strand finds it's way into your hand.
They even make cool straps to hang from your hook to pull the rope. That way you don't need to handle the cable too much.
The same as synthetic.....when winching never spool off more than the last 5 wraps on the drum......this is what provides the friction to pull the rope. The anchor is not load bearing. Mark the first 10ft from the anchor so that you know not to pull anymore off.
Important
You should never wrap the cable around something and hook it back to itself. This damages the cable......it will also damage synthetic rope as it cinches tight on itself.
If possible place your hook open side up. This way if it breaks it will throw itself into the ground. IF POSSIBLE.
Winch Maintenance
Winches can be pretty much maintenance free, but that doesn't mean there shouldn't be any preventive maintenance done.
Generally, most of us aren't going to do anything with it until it doesn't work, so maybe a trial run before running out wouldn't be a bad idea. At least that way you can repair or get it repaired before going on your trip.
If you happen to submerge your winch it would be a good idea to disassemble it and clean it very well. I have seen a lot of winches nearly ruined because of this and left unattended to.
There are some new winches on the market that claim to be waterproof, and may not be an issue, but your standard winch is definitely not waterproof.
The brakes are located in the drum, and if the inside of the drum gets badly rusted or mud in it, the brakes may stick, making it hard to free spool, or they may not work at all and not maintain the weight on the cable. The drum ends generally are not sealed and do not use bearings that would be sealed. They generally only have brass bushings pressed into the housings in which the drum spins. This is why the water and mud gets into the drum.
The mud and water then travel to the motor and the planetary gear house along the drive shaft. Because of the aluminum of the housings, this can seize the motor. It also only takes small amounts of grit to intermittently seize the planetaries while your trying to free-spool, not to mention the possibility of damaging them while under load.
The shift handle to engage and disengage the winch also is not sealed very well at all, and over time will cause issues as water gets in and begins corroding or rusting the shift ring inside the housing.
A good cleaning, some new grease in the gear housing and some new end seals go a long way in keeping your winch working for a very long time.
Solenoids and buss bars.
Check for corrosion. Should you find corrosion on the buss bars or wire connections, clean them thoroughly to a bright new luster, because all you electricians out there know that the electricity moves over the surface of the wire strand or buss bar (or energized item in general) and not thru it. Make your new connections nice and tight and then clear-coat everything. This way you seal out the moisture and oxygen that causes the corrosion.
Obviously this would be the time to check all the solenoids if you are having a sticking one from time to time. Better to replace it now.
New solenoids don't guarantee anything though. I put all new waterproof, high duty cycle and amperage solenoids on my winch a year or so ago, and there's one that still intermittently sticks
Don't forget to check your cables and connections to the battery. If there's corrosion in the wire ends, it may be time to replace them. Buldges under the insulation are a sure sign.
A loose or corroded connection can cause a massive source of heat under load. I've already had a battery terminal melt completely off the battery post because of a connection getting loose while wheeling and then winching .
Remember to keep an eye on the connections for the remote. CRC has a really good electrical connection and contact spray that increases conductivity and prevents corrosion. WD 40 will work also. Dielectric grease is an option too...but can be messy.
Last but not Least.....Finally.....
Using your Winch
Things to keep and mind and practice when winching.
1. Make sure that all the components used with your winch are rated for the load at hand and at least what the winch is rated for. Example If you have a 9k lb winch, then everything (shackle's and straps) should be rated with a WLL(working load limit) or SWL (safe working load) of 4.5 ton.
Shackles and straps to be used in conjunction with a Snatch Block should then be rated for a minimum of double the winch rating, or 9 ton.
Note refer to shackle and snatch block threads if your not sure of ratings or use.
Be sure to check the condition of all of the above mentioned accessories before using them.
2. Always use a Tree Saver or like strap to wrap around a tree to be used for winching. This protects the tree and gives you a shock absorber.
It's not necessary, but is better for the strap if used with a shackle in which your winch line hook is placed.
3. After taking up a little initial tension, inspect all connections and throw a winch line blanket, sweatshirt or jacket over the winch line mid span.
In the event that a connecting point or rope failure, the blanket works as a point of contact and damper to drop the flying cable and or attachments.
4. Try to avoid having the cable in contact with anything on the ground while winching. This protects the rope and lessons the chance of injury of bystanders should the rope jump left or right as it comes off of whatever it's snagged on.
5. Everything being set up and under light tension, make sure all people are out of the dead zones, which should have already been assessed. Do your best to know where all involved parties are located.
6. Have a designated person as a spotter and to keep an eye on the drum and how the cable is spooling. You don't want to bunch and wedge the cable, ultimately ruining it. Small adjustments of your wheel or rigging can prevent this.
It's not a bad idea to unwind any badly wound cable and respool it nicely, so as to be ready for the next pull and not let the cable take a set to a bad spooling which will leave kinks in the cable. Those stress points are the first place of compromise.
Remember to use gloves when handling wire rope.
Refer to the Snatch Block thread for dead zones while winching.