Homemade Logging Winch project finally started

[Travelover]

The bottom lateral I-beams that you added would be better if they were tubes, as the bottom plate will be in torsion when the winch is pulling. I-beams are strong in bending, but weak in torsion.

Attaching the top link near the top of the winch itself would be more effective and more metal efficient.

Fun project. I have an old wrecker winch that I occasionally think about mounting to the PTO.

 

[easygo]

The bottom lateral I-beams that you added would be better if they were tubes, as the bottom plate will be in torsion when the winch is pulling. I-beams are strong in bending, but weak in torsion.
Attaching the top link near the top of the winch itself would be more effective and more metal efficient.

You are probably right but that is the material I have and I don't think my tractor is stout enough to do damage. I'm more worried about the winch being too powerful and hurting the tractor.

I made the frame so tall because I still have to build the fairlead and that has to fit in there as well as I wanted to build the frame tall enough that the winch will be removable in case a repair is necessary. If the frame was any lower I could not do that. While it is a bit of a pain to make a fairlead I need one to properly guide the cable onto the winch and also to change the direction of pull. That way the winch itself will be pulled up instead of backward, reducing the twisting force on the base plate.

 

[easygo]

I think it looks great. The only concern I had, was the brackets holding the two pillow blocks. I realize you just tacked everything up, but you might want to think about bracing the mounting plates, to each other, in effect making a one piece mounting bracket for both pillow blocks. I would think you might get some stress on those brackets in field conditions, under load, on uneven ground.

I have thought of that and will look for some suitable material in my metal pile.

I just read through the posts again to take stock of the suggestions that were made so far. I noticed two people mentioned the week top link connection. I plan on doubling that part up and brace it both vertically and horizontally. I didn't want to do it yet because I plan on building the fairlead between the piece that the top-link connection is on and another that will be welded on the other supporting member and lower (by about 3 1/2").
The cable will exit between these two. Hopefully in a couple of days I can post some pictures of the idea formed up in steel.

Thank you guys for the input.

 

[easygo]

Thought I give a little update. I had very little time but put in some bracing and have the fairlead mocked up. Anyone can suggest a good source for 0 or 00 weight grease? I think I will try to refill the winch with that to curb leaking issues. Is that a reasonable idea?

 

[Baby Grand]

Looks great! Keep at it.
-Jim

 

[Yoseph]

looks tof and strong, it seems to be a worm gear reductor, you shoud look to the limit of your worm limit pulling force, they are not strong enaugh, beacause you do not have a pto clutch to avoid exeded hp input to your wormbox, if your box clutch releases when over loaded its ok if not be careful its very dangerous. then you sould stay away from your wire

 

[lostcause]

i haven't checked in for some time, so i didn't see this thread get rolling. here's one i threw together for a friend of mine a couple years ago:

in the spirit of maine, most of the frame of the winch was built from the discarded tongue of a house trailer, and the rest came from the local junkyard. it surely isn't the speediest thing, but if you have a couple of trees in a bad spot, it'll do the trick. definitely not for production use.

the friend i made this for bought a different tractor that came with a real skidding winch, so i believe this one is coming home to roost. i'm going to try it on the back of my 770 and see how it works. there's still another winch left from the wrecker body too if i can come up with any other bright ideas.

 

[easygo]

Thanks for the comments guys.

Lostcause,
That looks really good compared to my ugly duckling. I remember you posted a picture of the finished winch here or on the Forestry Forum.
I also used stuff I have had laying around after a trailer fabrication a couple of years ago. I hope to complete it for this firewood season, but as usual I'm way behind my originally planned time frame. In any case I will happily take a slow winch over no winch.

 

[amscontr]

This is the forum I have been looking for!~!
We have 2 old wreckers with wheel lifts a Holmes 480 and a Holmes 500 both with split booms and dual winches 8 ton and 10 ton. Now if I can just figure out where to put the splitter on this thing???

 

[easygo]

It's been quite a while since I started this thread and the recent inquiry abut self-built winches prompted me to post a couple more photos of the finished product. It is no prettier then before but it is a proven hard worker. It is a slow but very reliable winch that pulled out 5 cords 2 years ago and 11 cords (4x4x8) of wood last year. The two shelves that hold the saw, gas, wedges, chains, snatch block ect. are removable. The PTO drive worked out well. I run the engine at around 1500-1800rpm. If there is a hint of drop in engine speed while winching, I know the log fetched up on something so I instantly disengage the winch. I tend to use it in an overly cautious way so nothing broke so far. Just the way I like it.