3pt Log winch/grapple

[Everhard]

I've got a 10,500lb on my Jeep which I've been planning on taking off of it to use on the tractor - and ya I don't know that it'll run that much faster in low range with the tractor hydraulics. Or be powerful enough in hi range for that matter with the tractor to be of real use. The nice thing about those winches are they pull at a constant speed and go all day long. My thinking is it would be a very useful tool for occasional use, especially if I set it up as something that is portable and can be swapped from tractor to Jeep, and can be used on the front or rear of both. set up as a dedicated logging winch (like the unit's you can buy with pto winches etc) I'd say forget it as you'd be disappointed. Same with an electric winch. Nothing can compare to a pto winch for speed which if you're doing a lot of logging becomes a key feature.
Now speaking of hydraulics I wonder if it might be feasible to get a hydraulic motor and make a winch with it? I might look into that myself...

E.

 

[Rustyiron]

I've got a 10,500lb on my Jeep which I've been planning on taking off of it to use on the tractor - and ya I don't know that it'll run that much faster in low range with the tractor hydraulics. Or be powerful enough in hi range for that matter with the tractor to be of real use. The nice thing about those winches are they pull at a constant speed and go all day long. My thinking is it would be a very useful tool for occasional use, especially if I set it up as something that is portable and can be swapped from tractor to Jeep, and can be used on the front or rear of both. set up as a dedicated logging winch (like the unit's you can buy with pto winches etc) I'd say forget it as you'd be disappointed. Same with an electric winch. Nothing can compare to a pto winch for speed which if you're doing a lot of logging becomes a key feature.
Now speaking of hydraulics I wonder if it might be feasible to get a hydraulic motor and make a winch with it? I might look into that myself...

E.

It might be worth the $50-75 worth of hoses & fittings to check it out on the tractor. Even if you just bolted the winch to a box blade or something else that would make an easy mount for a test.

 

[CDN Farm Boy]

It's as fast as I need it to be, iirc it was around 60fpm at rated load, first wrap on drum. That's a foot a second and in my woods with all the stumps and rocks, plenty. I put it on today and noticed that I just let it work at idle speed (tractor throttle). I took some measurements and pics. I'll pm them to you. If your mostly cleaning up fence rows, I'd say skip the winch, but in the woods, esp "thinning" I find it invaluable. Maybe you could design it to take a winch later. That's pretty much what I did except the winch was first, but built to be able to add the grapple later on.
With the grapple, I'd highly recommend a hyd. toplink.

Finally got a chance to look at Ramsey's site. All their 8000s are rated at 50 ft/min first layer which goes up to 84 on the top layer. Not too shabby, I could be quite happy with those numbers except for 1 thing. Those ratings are at 15 GPM & 2500 PSI, I only have 6 GPM and 2200 PSI. So with only 40% of the rated flow available, I'm guessing it's a linear equation and I'd be looking at 40% of the 50-84 which would net 20-33 which is kinda slow. Not that I'm doing any of this in a rush but 5 min to drag a log out might get frustrating. It would be nice if I could find a similarly rated 6000 lb that was designed to run on lower flow. I see that Warn has one that is in that range 22-37 ft/min @ 10 GPM. Certainly at this time, Warn and Ramsey are both way out of my price range. Winch will definitely be further down the road, just needs to be accounted for in the design which I think is far easier to do with a hyd than PTO

Went shopping for the hydraulic components today. Got two 2x8 cylinders, hoses and a few fittings. $360 tax incl. One cyl is for the grapple, the other is for the long overdue hyd top link. I think all I need now is a chunk of steel to make the blade/anchor and some plate to make the grapple tongs which I'm stopping at the scrap yard tomorrow morning to look for.

Nothing can compare to a pto winch for speed which if you're doing a lot of logging becomes a key feature.
Now speaking of hydraulics I wonder if it might be feasible to get a hydraulic motor and make a winch with it? I might look into that myself...

E.

I won't be doing so much logging that speed is that important but don't want to take all day either. I only need to draw out a tandem load or so worth each year. Building the winch from scratch, now that's an idea I hadn't thought of.

 

[Rustyiron]

Oh I thought long & hard about building a winch being the "cheapskate" I am! To me, the best thing about a winch is it's a handy place to store cable neatly! I have a mess of cables that I used before to "reach" into the wood and drag with the tractor, it works fine except for keeping all that dang cable in order! Did you get my pm?

 

[ProjectKing]

What's your budget on this build? I ask because you can buy a Norse 290 three point winch for $2200 from Labonville. That'd be a good size for your tractor. It'll be tough to build something of good quality that is as useful as a 3 point winch for less than that. An electric winch will never approach a PTO winch in speed or duty cycle.

I agree $2,200 is a bargain!! This is no application for an electric winch.

 

[2458n]

I have a 20.00 hyd. winch that came off of a garbage truck. Used to pull dumpsters up to the truck when working alleys. If your winch is to fast in high throw in a snatch block and cut the speed in half. For 2000 dollars I could look around for a while.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I agree $2,200 is a bargain!! This is no application for an electric winch.

AMEN!

SR

 

[CDN Farm Boy]

Oh I thought long & hard about building a winch being the "cheapskate" I am! To me, the best thing about a winch is it's a handy place to store cable neatly! I have a mess of cables that I used before to "reach" into the wood and drag with the tractor, it works fine except for keeping all that dang cable in order! Did you get my pm?

Yes, I did get your pm. Sent you my email last night before I went to bed.


Stopped at the scrap yard this morning. Got the rest of the steel to finish the frame and grapple, 175 lbs and $70 later I was on my way home. I believe I now have everything I need to build once I figure out the grapple layout. Took a quick walk around the yard while I was there (he's got literally 100 acres of junk). Lots of things to catch the eye and add to the potential project list. He's got at least a dozen PTO winches that I saw, not counting anything crane-sized or ones under the little bit of snow we have left. There was only one that I actually liked but it was still on an intact 1 ton tow truck. The next smallest he wanted $300 for but it's too big for what I want. If I could get him to part with the one on the tow truck, I think I could make it work. I also saw 3 hyd winches, one on the deck of a tilt bed tow truck and a pair of Ramsey on another 3 ton tow truck. While physically they would be easy to make work, I'm guessing that since they were worm drive, they would be the SLLLOOOOWWW ones especially as I'm sure the tow truck would have way more than my 6 GPM.


The electric winch is definitely out. Called my dealer this morning to check on the alternator. Found out that it's not a real alternator but instead a dynometer or something like that with only 12.5 A of output. That certainly won't recharge things fast enough. Oh, and it's $375 plus tax. Not worth the gamble on burning it out.

 

[CDN Farm Boy]

Rusty, your email and mine must not like each other. I know you've tried a couple times and I still haven't received anything.

With some more searching, I found a hydraulic winch that fits my wishes....sort of . SCH 4900 - Planetary Hoists 4900 lbs of pull @ 52 ft/min from 8 GPM @ 1600 psi. Pretty much perfect for what I'm after. The downside (besides likely being stupid expensive) ... it's actually a crane hoist and has no freewheel option, only power in and out from what I can read. Ramsey also has a 2900 and 3600 with similar numbers. Ignoring the cost problem is there any way I can hydraulically add a freewheel option? Cross-over valve in the supply lines?

Read back thru the thread and somehow had missed Bruce's post #12. I never knew you could filter image searches like that. Thanks, that was a good suggestion. Found something I liked but couldn't open any images in my CAD program so I went old school and traced it with pencil and paper taped over my monitor and then traced that in my CAD program looking thru the paper. Scaled it up to match my 8" stroke cyl and I'm hoping it works. I've got a buddy with a decent size printer at work and I'm going to get him to print out the pieces full size that I can cut them from plywood and test. If it works, those same pieces will be my cut templates for the plasma cutter.

 

[Rustyiron]

CDN, I did not forget you. Goofball me left an "h" out of your email, even after I checked it :confused3:
I copied the text from my first try but the pics are out of order. See if it came through.