Can I ask what you want to use it for?
If you want to be able to free spool out, you could put in a bypass valve with a check valve.
The PT winch is $950, with 50' of rope.
The Northerntool version is $1,400, plus rope.
One you can use only on your tractor, only when the engine is running.
The other you can use any time anywhere.
I think it comes down to what and how you want to use it.
Personally, I have looked at putting together a high capacity winch for years. One of my challenges is wanting to winch heavier items that the PT can't really do for weight/friction reasons. For me, it has always come down to what would I use it for that I can't do with chains and cables? For me, that turns out to be not much. Talk to me after my tractor breaks down on a hillside somewhere...
As always, YMMV....
All the best,
Peter
Bob mentioned he tried a bypass valve and still couldn't overcome the motor to spool it out. More research on that is needed by me.
I don't want to use it for recovery as the PT never gets stuck.... never, ever, never.... :laughing: If you don't count that time I was brush hogging downhill, went over a log that I thought was about 4" and turned out to be a bit over a foot on the other side, and had just enough momentum to carry me forward enough to be full turtle... no wheels on the ground. Not one.
Even then, I was able to get my chainsaw and cut a piece of wood, shove it under the brush hog and press myself off the log with the FEL arms.
I want it for dragging downed trees down some steep slopes that I'm not able to get near enough with the PT without cutting out trees I don't want to cut out. We have about 20 acres.... there was a 4 acre field, a 6 acre field and a 10 acre plot of trees. We re-forested 4 acres with alternating rows of pines and mixed hardwoods. We let the 6 acres go wild(regret that) to see what would happen. The forester estimated the 10 acre plot to have somewhere between 10-20,000 trees. So, I'm looking at about 1500 locust trees per acre, 60' high average, 3-18" in diameter, with spacing varying from 10' apart to 1' apart... in 7-8 years of wood burning, I've cut down about 50 per year, so about 400, and its cleared about 1/4 acre at best.
Intermixed with the locusts in the 10 acres are a lot of nice maples, several species of oaks, and quite a few ridiculously large multi-trunked cherries. I'm managing the forest for maples (syrup when I retire, maybe) and the other hardwoods, by removing the locusts and cherries. Every time the wind blows, some cherries come down and I'd like to cut them up and use them before they rot on the ground. They rot really fast. I can't pull them out with the little PT425 efficiently (too many cuts), so I'd like to anchor the winch at the base of the hill and drag them down and up onto skid logs to get them off the ground. Then I can cut them up as needed or give them to someone that wants to make boards.
So a hydraulic winch on a 2" hitch plate would allow me to do a few things.
1. Pull small to medium locusts out of the jumble and down the hills safely directly from the PT.
2. Allow me to anchor the winch to a tree, use the PT for power, and pull large cherries down the hill safely with the tree taking the stress of the load VS the PT FEL arms.
3. Allow me to set it on the trailer 2" receiver, power it with a gas motor, and parbuckle logs onto the trailer to take home (about 9 miles).
4. Allow me to perhaps use the winch powered off of the log splitter to lift some of the larger rounds that I sometimes get from friends/family.
Anyhow, not a huge priority right now, but if I have a plan, I can scrounge parts over time and eventually put something together.
