chim
Elite Member
Nice project! A bit late for the party, but I have a few comments. We use pulling machines (Greenlee , Maxis, Condux) for pulling electric power cable.
Capstan Wear - Our ropes pick up dirt, grit and water. Apparently the factory-made capstans are made of an alloy that is fairly robust. The ropes generally just polish the drums.
Ropes - Back in the day, we used triple braided ropes. We recently tested some Amsteel Blue and only some of the guys liked it. There were some complaints that it slipped too much on the capstans due to the smaller diameter of the rope in a given rating. To go with a rope with twice the diameter for the same pull increases the contact area of the rope / capstan for better traction is my guess.
Very low stretch polyester is what we normally use. I once pulled a long cable run (4-500MCM & Ground) with Greenlee braided rope where we needed to change the setup with about 300 feet remaining to be pulled. When we stopped and eased up on the rope, it went about 15-20 feet back into the conduit before stopping. I'm not sure Greenlee even sells this type of rope in the larger diameters any more.
In our application, most of the energy released in a rope failure would either be contained in the conduit and the cabinet we are pulling into, or shoot straight out of the end of the conduit. Using the winch in the open increases the area of exposure to flying things. If a chain would decide to ride the stretched rope back to your tractor it could get ugly.
Number of Wraps - In general, we have anywhere from 2 to 4 wraps on a capstan. The capstan diameter, load, rope and amount of finesse the operator has determine that. All of our ropes slip some on the capstans. Someone with good mechanical aptitude can quickly figure out how many wraps they need to do the pull without excess slippage while limiting the manual force they need to use pulling the rope.
Somewhere I saw a guy pulling logs who used some kind of cone on the end of the log so it skipped over small obstructions. When choked as in your video, it looks like logs like to go chain up. That would seem to make the nose of the log into the dirt (and roots and rocks).
Capstan Wear - Our ropes pick up dirt, grit and water. Apparently the factory-made capstans are made of an alloy that is fairly robust. The ropes generally just polish the drums.
Ropes - Back in the day, we used triple braided ropes. We recently tested some Amsteel Blue and only some of the guys liked it. There were some complaints that it slipped too much on the capstans due to the smaller diameter of the rope in a given rating. To go with a rope with twice the diameter for the same pull increases the contact area of the rope / capstan for better traction is my guess.
Very low stretch polyester is what we normally use. I once pulled a long cable run (4-500MCM & Ground) with Greenlee braided rope where we needed to change the setup with about 300 feet remaining to be pulled. When we stopped and eased up on the rope, it went about 15-20 feet back into the conduit before stopping. I'm not sure Greenlee even sells this type of rope in the larger diameters any more.
In our application, most of the energy released in a rope failure would either be contained in the conduit and the cabinet we are pulling into, or shoot straight out of the end of the conduit. Using the winch in the open increases the area of exposure to flying things. If a chain would decide to ride the stretched rope back to your tractor it could get ugly.
Number of Wraps - In general, we have anywhere from 2 to 4 wraps on a capstan. The capstan diameter, load, rope and amount of finesse the operator has determine that. All of our ropes slip some on the capstans. Someone with good mechanical aptitude can quickly figure out how many wraps they need to do the pull without excess slippage while limiting the manual force they need to use pulling the rope.
Somewhere I saw a guy pulling logs who used some kind of cone on the end of the log so it skipped over small obstructions. When choked as in your video, it looks like logs like to go chain up. That would seem to make the nose of the log into the dirt (and roots and rocks).
