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.

 

[SHORT KID]

WOW nice job. Sure could have used something like that to speed up clean up after Sandy. I had several large trees broken and hung up or wedged. Just took longer but everything worked out safely. Enjoy using it and be careful!!!!!!

 

[Baby Grand]

That looks great -
can I borrow it?

 

[easygo]

Baby Grand, You can come by any time after April. It just sits idle in the Summer. I do want it back by October tho.

 

[Baby Grand]

Fair enough!
You have inspired me to knock something together.
I have a truck rear axle that I was going to make a post hole digger out of, but now I'm not so sure ...

 

[schmism]

action shots! youtube video! need!

 

[pacerman]

Easygo, looks great! I really appreciate all the pics. I just came across an ernest holmes winch myself and was thinking about doing the same thing so this is really going to be great in guiding me when i build my frame. I'm knew to the whole winch world and need a little advice from you folks. The forks for the free spool mechanism are snapped and it looks like some pieces are missing. I was wondering if you or anyone had or could snap a pic of what slides the lock next to the spool. I think I can fab it if i know what it looks. Also can you put it in forward or reverse with the pto moving? Or does it have to be before. If so does it stay in gear? Thanks again for the help and sorry crazy long post:laughing:

 

[muddstopper]

Looks like you got more winch than you have tractor. Please be careful with it.
Several years ago, my dad made a winch for his old Dexter tractor. We where logging whitepine after a Tornado back in 1974. That thing would pull a 150tree, 4ft dia at the base, all day long. Problem was if it snagged the tractor had a tendency to get pulled toward the tree. His old winch only had a cogged dog to engage the winch. it either pulled or it freewheeled. Once you had pressure on the winch, you couldnt knock it out of gear. We where winching a large tree across a small branch. We had backed the tractor up against a small longleaf pine to help hold the tractor in place. Well, the end of the log dug into the bank of the creek and decided that was as far as it wanted to go. Dad couldnt disengage the winch so the tractor started being winched up that small pine tree the tractor was backed up against. Dad bailed off the tractor and it was winched up the tree, but only so far, the tree decided it didnt like the tractor on its back so it straightened up and flipped the tractor on its top. Of course the diesel engine on that tractor just kept running so that now the tractor was skidding across the ground on its top. Dad reached up under the tractor and pulled the fuel cutoff and the engine died. We had a few more incidents similar before dad decided that his winch ideal wasnt going to work out without getting someone killed. He eventually got rid of that winch.

 

[pacerman]

Wow thanks for the advice muddstopper. The old girl is a smaller tractor so we planned on cutting the trees into smaller sections to pull. Sounds like my winch is the same style as yours. I have been racking my brain trying to figure out how to put in a secondary way to slacken the cable, other than backing up ofcourse, based on some of the suggestions here.

 

[David Devuono]

I would think about using the B7800 hydraulics. It would not be too difficult to put a hydraulic motor in place of the shaft. maybe you can tap into one of the FEL circuits with quick connects. This would give you reverse, though might not hold a load without an external valve.

 

[plumbstraight]

that is the thing about the worm gear winch. Do put your tractor against anything for stability. You must leave yourself an out by being able to back up for slack. The only other way is to stop it all and wind the shaft backward by hand. Using hyd is fairly slow unless you have a lot of volume. Here are a couple of mine, one is electric the other hyd. tossed in a small arch/dumptrailer I made for my quad. Did one several years ago for a tractor and it worked well, just larger.