PTO Capstan Winch (from scratch)

[k0ua]

Well, I am impressed. Not only works, it looks better than many "factory" implements. :thumbsup:

 

[flingwing1969]

When I worked at a machine shop, we took a six inch diameter piece of round stock, about 8 inches long and cut a radii on a lathe making what you have, except mine was a curved surface rather than flat. Cut an old pto shaft end down and then slid it into a hole drilled into the end using a press fit, and then welded it in place. I used my pto winch to raise and lower a weight to drive pipes for a water well.
I will have to locate it and take a picture for posting.
David from jax

Interesting. You run it at full PTO speed?

 

[coldsteelva]

I believe he said he runs at idle and doesn't feel he needs any more than that.

 

[Rustyiron]

So I log maybe a dozen trees a year, and due to living on horribly rocky property.........

Thanks for posting :thumbsup: Very nice!

 

[flingwing1969]

I believe he said he runs at idle and doesn't feel he needs any more than that.

Ah, that's right, the OP did say that. So, with a 4:1 reduction the axles are really spinning pretty slowly, depending on the speed of his PTO at idle. Thanks for the reminder on that. I was talking about Sandman's post on his PTO winch though. I don't think he mentioned using a reduction gear box.

 

[MossRoad]

Yeah, I looked at them but didn't find any that would work for me. The 3:1 reduction is rated at only 13 hp input and my PTO is 31 hp. MossRoad only has 20 hp at his PTO. There are some others out there though that are worth tracking down.

I don't have a PTO. My machine is entirely hydraulic.

I have 8GPM @ 2500PSI, though. Works out to something like 11.6HP.

 

[flingwing1969]

Ah, good info. I missed that, guess when I saw your post about "diving for the PTO switch" it was mechanical. You still have a PTO, just one hydraulically driven as opposed to engine driven, or is your setup similar to the Skid Winch?

I would run mine with my geared PTO, of course, although I have about the same GPM as you have through my rear remotes. I will have to do some figuring on RPM at an idle with my PTO to get proper sizing of the gear box - I have 31 hp at the PTO. Using the hydraulics would let me use the gearbox from SC, of course.

 

[MossRoad]

You've got me confused with the original poster.... diving for the PTO is in the very first post.

My machine has no PTO at all. No shafts. All hydraulic. All powered implements are hydraulic. If I ever get a winch, it will have to be hydraulically powered.

 

[sandman2234]

Interesting. You run it at full PTO speed?

Yes, but not at "full pto speed, but rather as slow as the tractor will idle. I also only did a single wrap around the wheel because I needed to be able to release it to get the weight to drop. Was a little bit hard on ropes but it worked.

Flingwing1969,
Have you considered an old bush hog gear box? They typically have a reduction built in, are rated at a pretty good HP, and are available on the used market. (I have several out back, if you want to come to Jax). You might need to run corn grease in them rather than oil if you are turning them on their sides. A spline tooth can be purchased to fit and you can weld that to a capstan.
David from jax

 

[iointerrupt]

flingwing1969 - Thanks. Rope guides were actually on my todo list, but got cut from Winch 1.0 because I was desperate to see it in action. May revisit them in the future. The

Composite Polyester certainly does look interesting as well. Admittedly all the rope I've been testing with has been cheap rope, but the winch is so tough on all of it, I don't think I could stomach running really nice $300 rope through it.

Stimw - I've considered turning up some aluminum rings and welding them on to increase the flange size, haven't gotten desperate enough yet though. Especially if I end up redoing the drums in steel.


Gearbox ratings are something that I spent awhile pondering with this project. Tractor gearboxes, like snow blower and brush hog gear boxes, are rather small, almost hand-held things. And yet they are rated for 20-40HP. If you go look at industrial gearboxes, a 40HP gearbox is this 200lb beast costing thousands of dollars. I never could quite square the two.