how to make 3 point pto logging winch

[Youare]

I don't see why you can not reproduce what Farmim Norse, and others have made. The key element will be some part of the winch frame contacting the ground. I have an old Farmi winch which has two legs that set on the ground when in the working position. They will bite into the ground to prevent the tractor from sliding backwards when pulling with the winch.

The newer models have a rest that looks like a rear blade which acts as a sliding stop, which can be used for pushing logs and things into a pile. Square steel tube or Schedule 80 pipe the right size should work quite well. As long as you have the means to shape and weld the various parts together you could save a few bucks.

I have not seen many used logging winches for CUT's for sale and new ones are a bit pricey. However, once you have one you will find out why there are not many used ones for sale.

Look at what is out there that works and copy it.

Randy

 

[agh]

I have a winch like you're talking about. I built an arch of 4" schedule 80 pipe (cause it was free). It hinged off brackets under my loader frame at the rear axle. Lifted with the 3 pt hitch. The feet of the arch dug into the ground when lowered so it did not rely on tractor brakes when winching. The arch held a pulley 4' off the groung when winching. Used a low hitch & chains for dragging to minimize the load on the 3pt hitch. I'd send pictures but don't have a digital camera & it's 150 miles away.

mike, what size pto winch did you use? is it driven by a tractor type pto shaft? is winch mounted so that what feet engage soil winch is directly in line with pto shaft? what size cable and how much on your winch? do you operate it from tractor seat or down at the winch? thanks for your help. agh

 

[Pooh_Bear]

Also with hydraulic, you can get multiplication of force, trading speed for pulling power.
And, if you get in a really hard pull, with PTO you bog the motor down, with hydraulic you just cause the pressure safety valve to blow open.
With PTO you would get a lot of power transmission losses.
With hydraulic you don't have all those power losses due to drivetrain.
And with hydraulic you don't have to worry over electrical issues,
such as draining your battery or overworking your alternator,
or just plain burning out the winch motor from overloading it.

But electric is more portable than hydraulic. Electric will work on most any vehicle.
So if you can mount it to the vehicle you can run it.

do you operate it from tractor seat or down at the winch?

If you got a winch on the back of your tractor, you don't operate it from the seat.
If the cable breaks it will act like a buggy whip and split your head open.
Always operate a winch from as far to the side as you can get.

Pooh Bear

 

[Renze]

I would make sure that your PTO winch is at least shear bolt protected at 75% of the cable break strain.
Then once you have broken enough shearbolts, you realise why hydraulic would have been better.

 

[agh]

I would make sure that your PTO winch is at least shear bolt protected at 75% of the cable break strain.
Then once you have broken enough shearbolts, you realise why hydraulic would have been better.

could you use a slip clutch like on a bushhog shaft which has about 8 nuts you tighten or loose the springs on a clutch assembly instead of shear bolts?
also what happens if you overload a hydraulic winch, broken cable or what?
agh

 

[RonMar]

What happens to a hydro winch when it is overloaded? Same as when any other winch is overloaded, something breaks. The beauty of a Hydraulic is that you can limit the force available with the hydraulic safety valve on the hydraulic system. You can set the safety to not exceed the maximum pressure rateing for the winch. You can also quite easilly place a hydraulic pressure gauge on a "T" fitting where the pressure is supplied to the winch and monitor how much pressure/power is being applied to the winch and how much load it is under.

 

[MikeD74T]

mike, what size pto winch did you use? is it driven by a tractor type pto shaft? is winch mounted so that what feet engage soil winch is directly in line with pto shaft? what size cable and how much on your winch? do you operate it from tractor seat or down at the winch? thanks for your help. agh

The winch is about 12-15k w/100' of 9/16 cable. It came from a wrecker. The only control is an in/out drum engagement. I built this for a Ford 801 that does not have live pto. I free wheel the drum, pull the cable to a tree, return & engage the drum, then run the pto from the seat. This leaves the fine control to the tractor clutch. Being a worm drive it will not freewheel unless disengaged. I just realized that this may not work as well with my new Kioti with electric pto. I'm not sure it will disengage easily under load. It should as that's the way it worked on the wrecker. The arch has legs that reach the ground when lowered. The winch is 3' behind the tractor axle just ahead of the arch. The cable leaves the drum upward at about 75 degrees to a pulley then out the back of the arch. The pto shaft runs straight back to the winch.
Look for companies that service / sell wreckers or bucket trucks as a source of winches. There are a few on EBAY.

 

[MikeD74T]

AGH, I failed to specify that this is a 3point hitch setup, not a trailer arch. The winch angle only varies when lifted & is always directly behind & inline with the tractor. A couple of times I used it to pull the tractor out of the mud or up a muddy hill. Had to let the cable down off the pulley and use a straight pull off the drum. Pulling over the pulley with the arch off the ground will immediately lift the front of the tractor skyward. I have hooks welded low on the winch frame & use short chains to twitch with. Likewize it would be unstable to twitch using the cable over the pulley.

 

[agh]

AGH, I failed to specify that this is a 3point hitch setup, not a trailer arch. The winch angle only varies when lifted & is always directly behind & inline with the tractor. A couple of times I used it to pull the tractor out of the mud or up a muddy hill. Had to let the cable down off the pulley and use a straight pull off the drum. Pulling over the pulley with the arch off the ground will immediately lift the front of the tractor skyward. I have hooks welded low on the winch frame & use short chains to twitch with. Likewize it would be unstable to twitch using the cable over the pulley.

mike , sounds like you have a working pto winch for sure, this gives me furthur ideas, i really like the TBN discussion to learn from others experience. I am leaning towards making something like you have. looking for a used or new pto winch, found some surplus one at boyceequipment.com as well as pierce wrecker but am going to loook locally for used wrecker winch at junk yard. If you get a chance to post a pct. of your setup i'd like to see it. agh

 

[sandman2234]

One of the drawbacks of PTO winching is the PTO only turns one way, and if you get in a bind, how can you back it up enough to relieve the stress on the cable so that you can reposition it or reverse it?
Say your pulling a log and it catches a large tree root or a V between two trees. How do you back it off?
With hydraulics, you just flip the handle the other way and your in business.
A lot of PTO winches don't have a forward/reverse lever. They rely on the power supply to have it. I bought a Bradenton 20t winch that had the reverse lever.
Good luck with it, hollar if we can help!
David from jax