logging winch

[6sunset6]

I think I started this before but cannot find it. whatever.
Want a way to pull logs out of the woods. I have a wet woodland with a woods road , 6 " of fill on geotextile, that I have started around the perimeter. I cannot drive off the road bed , permanent trenches everywhere if I did. I could rig up a snatch block on a tree and pull down the road , but it is tedious with a lot of walking back and forth. I have a Warn 8000 # winch with a 12 vdc motor on it, only powered one way. Here is the plan.
7gpm at 2200 psi on a remote. bungy cord the handle back. Now I have flow.
Use a Vickers 12vdc double coil OC motor valve (see attached) to control a hyd motor on the winch . ( still a challange) . Use a two channel Muticode gate opener, 12vdc to control the Vickers ( see attached) Mount it all on a carry all. I sent a note off to Warn asking them what the rpm and developed torque is on the motor. ( see attached). I bought the unit in 1970, be interesting to see what they say. I really only need to see the input rpm and I can turn it for a while and figuire it out. I pulled the motor today and the armature shaft is integral with a spur gear and bearing on the end. I am really annoyed because this is the second motor on this winch , having replaced it probably 25 years ago and threw out the old one , it was frozen solid. The gear is with in industry standards but not commercially available. Which leaves me with the option of cutting it out of a perfectly good motor assembly. Which I will never use but still. I can use a gas engine to SAE A adapter for the hyd motor and then make an adapter for the winch housing to hold the stub shaft in place. IT will be metric 25mm and the hyd motor will be 1" but Lovejoy makes both end and McMaster Carr carries them.
I ordered the multicode units to play with but will not order anything else till I figuie out what motor I need. It's all flow,psi and torque and how fast the wire comes in. Following post has Warn .pdf

 

[6sunset6]

The Vickers valve needs a base plate and connectors.
A lot of welding on the carry all of course. Ahh Warn .pdf exceeds 1 meg
I will try a .zip Save the .zip to open it

 

[rdbrumfield]

This what I put together. It has a koenig 8000lb unit. Is a bit slow with the large hyd motor though, but at least it pulls. I can pull several up, chain to hooks that are welded to the frame, pick up the ends and go.
You could use a milemarker, they use less gpm and have a high low gearing. To build another one that is the way I would go. I just happened to have this unit on hand.
The upper link is able to reach the ground to pick with the tongs, or remove the tongs and put a pulley on to run the winch line through as it will help rairlead the cable onto the winch. This part can be removed and you can see the other attachment for the top link of the tractor. It also has the hitch reciever at the bottom for a ball, hook, pintle, to be used as needed. A good addition to any tractor.

 

[MossRoad]

I could rig up a snatch block on a tree and pull down the road , but it is tedious with a lot of walking back and forth. I have a Warn 8000 # winch ...

Interesting project. I have a few comments. Not being negative or critical, just throwing them out to ponder.

You want to convert your electric winch to a hydraulic winch and then use a gate opener to control it. The problem with a gate opener is it sends one momentary signal to the motor to open it. You push the button, it sends the signal, then it runs and runs until the gate either hits a limit switch or over torques the motor, then it stops. So, if you start your winch, it will continue to run until you stop it. What happens when your battery croaks after you hit send? What happens when your leg gets caught on a log and you drop the remote? What happens if you simply get out of range and it cannot receive the stop signal? See what I'm getting at?

You need to figure in some sort of DEAD MAN CONTROL that only allows the winch to operate as long as you hold down a button. It needs to stop if it loses the continuous signal from the remote.

You will still have to walk into the woods to attach the cable to the logs and you will still have to walk out of the woods to detach the logs. So why not just stand next to the tractor and operate the winch from there?

 

[Treemonkey1000]

I agree with Mossroad that you need to be able to shut things down in a hurry. Using a garage remote would work but it would take some dialing it in to get a safe system. You might do a Google on used Hydraulic winches like this site.Marine Hydraulics, Hydraulic Deck Machinery, Used Equipment, Winches & Capstans.
If you can rig up a large enough drum with cable you can make longer hauls. Skidding logs can grab and bind into the ground which can break things. If you are pulling from one area set up a pulley on a pole or tree to lift them up a bit. Hydraulic will beat out a DC winch pretty much hands down once you get it connected.
Sitting in the seat of your tractor winching in logs isn't a safe idea either if a cable breaks.. So there you would need a very strong screen on the back. Or better yet don't be in the same direction as the log being pulled. In other words go through a pulley at 90 degrees from the log.

 

[MossRoad]

Don't some of the logging winches have ropes to control the hydraulics? You stand off to the side at an angle and operate the valves by pulling the ropes. You are out of the cable path if it snaps.

 

[6sunset6]

I am only using the receiver part of the gate opener . Hold the button down and the relay closes, let it go and the relay opens. one button for spool in and the other for spool out. The vickers valve draws 3.5 amps and the tractor engine has to run for the hydraulics. So the amp draw is not even a headlight. Stand off to the side when running it. These tranmitters/ receivers seem to work at 150 ft suppossed to be line of sight only . I can't see my winch line being longer than that. A kill switch would be a good idea and releasing the bungy cord would do that or turning off the tractor.
I think the 7gpm is a little low. Worst comes to worst I will put the dc motor back in the winch and run the winch and see how fast it goes , measure the current loaded and unloaded and work it backwards to the hydraulic motor. I cannot run the DC motor on the bench the bearing by the spur gear locates the shaft end when it is all assembled. All comments appreciated, don't worry about that. I am trying to keep this below $500.
My wife , who really likes me ,said how much are real ones?

 

[Dead Horse]

yes, even the big Farmi's are built that way with both the clutch and brake control on lanyards off to the side of the tractor.

When I have to do a pull that is 90 degrees from the angle of the winch base, I chain a slider to a tree (nearly) straight back from the winch base, or use a large open sided block to affect the same result. The key is to avoid kinking the cable.

Walking to and from the pull site is a fact of life, especially when pulling through woods, around stumps, large rocks.

Running a winch remotely sounds risky to me. My farmi is strong enough to pull my tractor over sideways (which is why you should always rig to pull straight back). Plus pulling through the woods can bring down "widow makers". I don't want to be any where except a couple of feet from my tractor when doing a pull

When I start a pull, I watch the cable at the winch head........... not the piece I am pulling. You need to react quickly to a hang up..... watching the cable gets you there faster.

Just my 2 cents, from plenty of pulls out of the forest.

 

[jimgerken]

I can't help with your project but have a couple questions since we seem to have a few experienced winch operators "on the line". Are the Farmi winches PTO operated? It seems to me that the easiest and most efficient way to get pulling power is use PTO shaft power, add a clutch to engage when I pull a rope from 10 feet away and to the side of the tractor, when clutch is released (spring loaded), the spool goes into free-wheel mode so I can pull out the cable to hook it up to the log. The way I am imagining it (for all I know about it), it is an all-mechanical system with no conversion to hydraulics, electrcal controls involvement, etc.
I am using 45 feet of chain to rescue logs and large branches now, and have dreamed of a simple winch system, but don't want to spend any money on it so would want to put something together from parts. Silo unloaders had a couple hundred foot spool of cable on a hand-run winch.

 

[6sunset6]

Dead Horse makes some good comments and a lot of sense. I am also having a big problem with cutting up a perfectly good electric winch to get the motor drive gear. I should just sell the whole thing and buy a hydraulic winch. I can run it standing along side the tractor for all the safety reasons.
Mile marker has a good one for $1100 6000# 2 speed, that would run well at 7gpm. I thought I could sell mine for $500 but then I saw Mile Marker had a brand new one for that.
Guess I need to find a buyer who does not have internet.
Yes running something off the PTO would be the best way , just like the commercial ones but fairly complicated to build from scrap parts. Hard to make it safe. But then again it all depends on the scrap pile and what you are good at.