Tractor "funicula" ?

[bcarwell]

I'm trying to get a little trailer full of tools, Quickrete, etc. down from a cliff to a river bank and back up to do some work around the river and avoid many trips lugging stuff up and down the steps. The cliff is about 80 feet up vertically from the bank and at about a 40 degree angle. The trailer and tools probably weigh 300 pounds max.

The question is how to power the lowering and pulling of the trailer. A wench appears to be too slow and doesn't have enough cable length and duty cycle and costs $$.

I don't have enough horizontal space to simply drive the tractor 80 feet away from the cliff and can't watch the progress of the trailer.

Any ideas ? One thing I'd thought of is to gear down my PTO by using my existing tractor's post hole digger and replacing the auger with a pole and some sort of pillow block at the bottom where the tip is. Or maybe extend the PHD pole out horizontally some way. Seems it should have about the right rpm and torque, but don't know about whether I'd trash the PHD gear box over time running other than vertical. And another problem is how to get the cable to wind 80 feet spread over the pole while winding and not all bunched up at one place.

Anybody ever had to do something like this and have a simple, inexpensive solution or some other way ? Safety I don't think is an issue- there are NO people riding the "funicula" or anywhere near it.

Lazy Bob

 

[bcarwell]

Oops, make that "winch", not "wench" Anway, duty cycle on both of them would no doubt be insufficient.

 

[BeezFun]

I'd use a heavy rope and something like a cable spool to wind it, your idea of powering off the PHD might work, or maybe just wind the rope around the auger shaft. That's not much weight, and the ground is supporting some of it, so unless it's really muddy and the trailer is going to dig in and get hung up I think a rope would be strong enough and much easier to work with.

 

[acme97]

How would you get the cable unwound and the trailer back down? Seems like you need something that will let you reverse the direction. I thought about spooling the cable around your rear tire of the tractor, but that would not be safe as the tractor would have to be off the ground. Plus that would put a lot of stress on the one side of the axle.

 

[rsewill]

If you have another vehicle with a trailer hitch you could use that as a place to connect a pulley to let you pull in a direction that gets you 80 feet. Then find a wench to watch as you lower the load.

 

[dusty3030]

Block and tackle plus a lot of rope.
Instead of a trailer, think something slick on the bottom that will slide and spread out the weight, like a heavy duty tarp bound up with rope to make a "bag".
Would that work? Be old school and cheap.
Could secure the uphill side the end of a boom pole or the end of the boom on your PHD. If you need to stop, there are plenty of places on the back of your tractor to tie off on. I assume the concrete would be going down and not coming back up so all you would have to pull up would be your tools.

 

[dusty3030]

If you have another vehicle with a trailer hitch you could use that as a place to connect a pulley to let you pull in a direction that gets you 80 feet. Then find a wench to watch as you lower the load.

That's a good idea too. Get a snatch block and 100 or so feet of appropriate cable.

 

[bcarwell]

Haven't tried it yet but I'm wondering if I disconnect PTO takeoff shaft from the posthole digger whether the auger shaft will then turn freely in the opposite-from-normal direction with a loaded trailer to unwind the cable while the trailer goes downhill such that I'd only need a brake for travel downhill. Then with the PTO shaft reconnected to the PHD I could use the tractor/PHD to pull the load back up the hill. Otherwise I guess you're right, I've got a problem unwinding the cable from the auger shaft...

I had thought about a pulley and driving parallel to the cliff line. But again, the downside is I would not be able to see the progress of the trailer up and down the hill.

I really don't want to manually pull ropes- that's a lot of rope to pull especially in 100 degree Texas summers...

I appreciate your suggestions and any others to come !

Bob

 

[acme97]

What about a rope pull hoist like this one? Slow going, but positive control and only dependent on length of cable.

Northern Industrial Wire Rope Pulling Hoist — 3.2-Ton Capacity | Hoists, Lifts + Cranes | Northern Tool + Equipment

 

[dusty3030]

So I take it not a one day project?
How many times / days do you think going up and down?
How many sacks of quickcrete?

And last but not least, do you have good access to the river that it might be easier to boat it in? Load up the boat with your stuff each day and put in the river at a ramp and boat it over? We do that a lot building duck blinds. Some times easier to float it than tote it, even if the float it route is a little longer.