Logging winch- New user with questions!
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John_Mc
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Many winches have a separate "drag brake" that puts a slight drag on the spool, preventing it from completely freewheeling as you pull out cable. Some cable (especially newer cable) wants to "self unwind" (almost like winding up a spring and then letting go. Also, if you are pulling cable out quickly, the spool has some momentum and can keep turning, throwing a bit of slack in the wraps on the spool. On my winch, that drag brake takes the form of a thumb screw with a lock nut. I loosen the lock nut, and set the drag do that the cable is still easy to pull out, but things stop turning when I stop pulling.
I think the type of slack noted above is what Agvg was thinking of when he asked about your drum brake. This is not the main brake that holds the cable when you are not actively winching or pulling out cable.
My impression is that you are talking about slack from a different cause: when you pulled out more than you needed to reach some logs you will be winching (or as I mentioned in a previous post, when slack develops for other reasons, such as releasing a snatch block). In Agvg's case, the key is preventing one cause of slack from happening in the first place. In the other case, it's about what to do with slack that is already there on the ground.
[Edit: oops. I see Agvg already responded with a clarification]
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John_Mc
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That was an interesting read, hslogger.
How do you get a good coating on your cable without also getting it on your clutch/brake? It would seem there is a pretty good risk of that if you just dump it on your spool (my spool is also difficult to reach). It would also seem that you wouldn't get good lubrication throughout your cable. I don't relish the thought of unspooling all 230 feet to apply the length of the cable - and as the article you linked notes, it's better to oil when it's flexed and under some tension (on a spool or pulley) since that opens up the wraps a bit.
rd_macgregor
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FWIW, a couple of years ago I found a navigation buoy washed up on the shore; the anchor eye had ripped out. Cutting off the flat end and the eye end, yields a nice (if a bit large) skidding cone. I also thought a (trashed) polyethylene kayak could be converted into two skidding cones, after a little creative alteration...but whitewater country would be a better place to find an irreparably damaged kayak (the only whitewater here is white because it is frozen).
Agvg
Elite Member
Pointless to fill your winch with dirt following a wire that is lubricated. Wear on a logging winch wire are hard pulls over rocks and other surfaces, and usual the wire get damages and have to be replaced long before they wears out.
Oil and grease in dirt don't work vell.
Oil and grease in dirt don't work vell.
Agvg
Elite Member
You must retention the wire from time to time, attach the wire to a tree, drive untill you have a couple of turns of wire, then pull the tractor in, is it flat push the brakes so it is some resistance.
I pinched the wire once and had to use the power of the tractor to get it free. I guess I may be overly afraid to pinch it again so each time I start the winch I just want to be sure there is no slack in the line.I do the re-tensioning with a tree each time I remove the winch from the tractor. I have a moderate hill so I winch the tractor uphill to get everything tight. One tip I can add to this thread is put some paint on the cable when there is 3-4 roll left on the drum. You don't want to start a pull with less, so its easy to see when your at the end of the line.
Coyote machine
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I agree, interesting read, and I'm not saying it's wrong, but it might not apply as much as the article is about mostly industrial machinery in a different environment than logging winches, IMHO. They are really referring to technical aspects of winches uses on cranes and the like, which also get dirty, but not in the same way. Cranes and what else they mentioned are mostly overhead lifting uses, not direct ground contact dragging through dirt, leaves etc.
I'm all for lubing things, but the inherent risk to the drum clutch is way more of a concern than having to replace a wire rope cable when it is past it's useful life due to frays, kinks, broken strands of wire, etc. I suppose if one were heii bent on lubing their wire rope I would extend it all the way out less a few feet left on the drum, and spray it when it's taught to a tree or similar on a sunny summer day. If possible I'd leave it sitting in the sun until the best 'dryest' lube available were soaked into my wire rope and had saturated through its entire-section:thumbsup:. Once dry I would wind it back onto the drum, and go from there. If it turned out to 'grease' the clutch disc - I have no solutions other than using Brakleen and compressed air to try to degrease the disc and hope for miracles...
There are dry graphite sprays available now too, which may not be the industrial standard for cranes and such, but might be more suited to logging winches- a compromise so to speak. Let me know when one has done a lubing of their winch wire and what your results are!?
Like hsLogger said- to each their own.....
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Rustyiron
Super Member
I thought a "skidding cone" was a safety item. :laughing:
After several pages I guess I'm the only cable greaser on here, that's ok I'm used to going without the camp. My biggest cable ware is within the 5 cable slides when winching the trees up because most of trees that I fall are not in a nice neat row, more like zig zag pattern, one of the issues I have when select cutting, at times I have 5-8 trees chain-up so it looks like cats cradle, and thats why I put some grease on my slides and cable, if no grease, I use some oil.
Rustyiron
Super Member
I've put Fluid Film on my cable. Kinda a non decision in the "lube/no lube" conversation as water will eventually take it off. I understand the dirt idea creating a grinding compound more or less, but I'm in the woods with mainly leafy matter and no bare dirt. It has to be a help esp. when doing a lot of snatch block work. Pulling around a 4-5" sheave has to be hard on the cable internally and yes the slides have to effect the outside layers.
Anyone replaced with the "swaged" cable here? It's a good bit more expensive.
Anyone replaced with the "swaged" cable here? It's a good bit more expensive.
("Anyone replaced with the "swaged" cable here? It's a good bit more expensive.") Rusty, I dont understand the question, can you clue me in?
Fluid Film dont sound like a bad idea to me, if one is logging in the mud, I dont think it matters if lube or no lube, some mud/dirt is going to wound in, one solution is hook up a sprinkler system to spray water on the cable as it it being winched in, or better yet, it's to muddy out there so I'm gonna take another month off.
I almost forgot to mention, the only time I got grease on my Fransgard winch clutch disc so it wouldn't work, was when I put to much grease on the chain that turns the cable drum. I had to tear it all apart and spray the brake disc with brake solvent, put back together and from then on, more careful applying grease to chain.
Fluid Film dont sound like a bad idea to me, if one is logging in the mud, I dont think it matters if lube or no lube, some mud/dirt is going to wound in, one solution is hook up a sprinkler system to spray water on the cable as it it being winched in, or better yet, it's to muddy out there so I'm gonna take another month off.
I almost forgot to mention, the only time I got grease on my Fransgard winch clutch disc so it wouldn't work, was when I put to much grease on the chain that turns the cable drum. I had to tear it all apart and spray the brake disc with brake solvent, put back together and from then on, more careful applying grease to chain.
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Rustyiron
Super Member
It's ''squished" down for a much smoother surface. From what a friend tells me it's a little stiffer & tougher and stronger for the same size that's meant for your winch.:confused3: Labonville has it in their catalog.
No longer have the logging winch, but Fluid Film was what I had used also. No problems with the clutch on the winch. Tried to keep the line as clean as possible, avoided working in mud and stored the winch indoors when not in use. Admittedly, that may not be practical for everyone.
Agvg
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Have seen them and if I'm correct the are much less stiff than a ordinary wire.
Gordon Gould
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I am not sure lube on a forestry winch cable matters one way or the other except for the clutch issue. Probably the best case for using lube is when your winch sits idle. Lube may help prevent some rust. Winch cables are not used like hi-rise cranes where hundreds and hundreds of feet are spooling on and off all day long and cable friction, internal and external, are the cause of wear. It seems forestry winch cables, at least mine, have to many other things that will destroy them before they will wear out from friction and lack of lube. Maybe this is just me justifying the fact that I am to lazy to lube.
gg
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