sewer bucket machine as source for winch?

[JimS]

I ran across an old sewer bucket machine cheap and am wondering if this might make a decent logging winch for small to medium logs. I haven't been able to find out much about them in the way of specs but here is a bit of what I know:

On small 2 wheel trailer. About 300 ft of 1/2" cable. I think spool can hold more...
Unit is missing the motor but is said to have had about an 8 Hp engine.
Line goes up to a pulley on a frame and then (I think) straight down into manhole. Two units are used at different manholes to pull a bucket through the pipe to clean it. Pulley could be moved or removed for horizontal pull.

What I don't know is pulling force and speed - with 1/2" cable I would think the force would be quite a bit. With an 8 Hp engine the speed may be somewhat slow.

Anyone with experience with these? Since this is missing the motor I was thinking of running it with a hydraulic motor. And adapt it to 3 point hitch like some commercial logging winches.

Seems like it has some interesting possibilities...

 

[user.69169]

Today could just be your lucky day, a fellow here has 2 of them machines and he was using one of them for log pulling just like you say.

Best I can recall from back a few years when I was helping him pull firewood the machine has a 2 cylinder Wisconsin on it, about 20 horsepower as I recall. The motor drives a shaft between the motor and the winch and a chain drives the winch from that shaft. There's 2 controls, a belt tensioner that winds her in and a brake that holds the drum where you stop it.

Theres a bar across the back that usually has a pintle hook so you can hook another machine on the back. When you pull logs what you do is put a snatchblock on that pintle hook and run the cable from the drum up through the yolk and then down through the snatchblock out to the log.

If youre halfway to smart you want an old tire between the choker on the log and the winch cable cause if you don't have a shock absorber in there and that log hooks you can bet on a lot of problems before you get the machine stopped. The other thing you want to do is chain the front of the machine to something it ain't going to move, and that something best be bigger than a pickup truck. I had the thing hooked to back of my Dodge Power Wagon and watched the back end of that truck pulled to one side like it was a stroller when that puller took a bite on a big log. After that we always chained off to a tree that looked like it had good roots in the ground, and used a 4" wide nylon strap to do the chaining so the bark didn't get chewed.

On back of the machine right at the base of the yolk should be a pair of jacklegs you can crank down to the ground and lock. They will help a lot, but they won't keep the machine from tipping forsure.

I say you going to need a lot more than 8hp on that machine less you want to change the pullys and slow it way down. Never timed the dang thing pulling but she do move at a pace faster than a walking man can keep up. You sure going to build yerself some muscles pulling that cable back out too even with the drum shaft all greased up proper. That cable pulls real hard when it dragging on ground.

I'm pretty sure you can wind at least 800 feet of half inch on the drum with space to spare. Thing you gotta remember when you get a lot of cable on the drum you loose a lot of pulling force.

Fellow running the machine got to keep on his toes too. You need to make a stick up with a eyehole in one end to guide the cable back & forth on the drum or you get into a mess when the cable don't wind up even. Some of them machines came with a winder like a fishing reel has but that system never worked as good as a stick. Fellow here has himself a deadman switch on the engine for them just in case moments, and I recall him using it a time or two.

There was some newer machines built that were all hydraulic, but they didn't seem to work out good. If you want to go hydraulic with a winch you gotta put a planetary drive on it.

Other machine the fellow here has is set up with an electric motor and a generator, same machine just a different drive. He is in the electric business and they use that one for pulling wires underground. It runs real slow.