Hydraulic winch build

[PreacherM]

Here's what I've come up with so far. I'm open for input on the design as well as features I should include.

The horizontal slot is where the winch cable will exit. Oval hole is just to be able to see the winch drum. Base plate is 36" wide. Overall height is 29".
I'll be fastening some kind of boxes on top for storing snatch blocks, oil, gas, etc. Probably put a chainsaw holder on too. Will make a couple steel tubes on the tractor side to hold chains.
Also will be fabing an adjustable support leg out of square tubing.
The main plate will be 1/4, with the 3pt brackets, chain hooks, etc 3/8. So far with the winch it should be right about 300lbs.
I will be doing the welding, but plan to have the sheet steel CNC cut.

 

[Gordon Gould]

Nice project. In a lot of ways you are better off building your own. One of the hardest things to do is to find a pto forestry winch that is actually designed to fit on a small tractor. Farmi used to make a 290 for that but no more. If you did find a different motor to speed it up I think 4 or 5 Klbs, or even less, would be plenty for what you are doing and your light tractor.

I know you are not there yet but I would want the drum to free spool to make pulling out cable faster. You can do it with the motor control valve set-up if if the winch itself has no free spool mode.

Keep your reports coming !!

gg

 

[PreacherM]

Nice project. In a lot of ways you are better off building your own. One of the hardest things to do is to find a pto forestry winch that is actually designed to fit on a small tractor. Farmi used to make a 290 for that but no more. If you did find a different motor to speed it up I think 4 or 5 Klbs, or even less, would be plenty for what you are doing and your light tractor.

I know you are not there yet but I would what the drum to free spool to make pulling out cable faster. You can do it with the motor control valve set-up if if the winch itself has no free spool mode.

Keep your reports coming !!

gg

Yeah I should mention that my tractor only weighs about 3000lbs with loader, fluid, etc.

The winch has a freespool mode.

 

[Tinhack]

My old JD 420C was converted to a pipe layer in it's early years. It has two winches. One for the boom and one for the line out. Only the line out winch has free spool. There's a large lever that shifts that in and out. I had the boom almost straight up and down--Just enough to clear the edge of a trailer. The line out would only lift about a 3,000 pound OBI punch press off the deck. That was all it had in it. As a side note, the winches use 3/4" hoses.

I can't find my pictures except this old one from the auction. It shows the free-spool lever sticking up.
Edit: Don't confuse the throttle lever on the dash.

 

[Rustyiron]

I'd suggest a simple mock up enough to actually run the winch under a load enough to drag the tractor.
This could be something as simple as a channel about 30" long with 2 pins for the lower lift arms. You shouldn't really need a top link for this. My thinking is to prove the winch and the tractors ability to run it before you design and build everything around that particular winch. You'll need the hydraulic lines anyway.
You're design looks good but since you don't have to worry about driveshaft (pto) angles, I'd build in a vertical selection of lower pin locations. My observation is that smaller tractors really can't lift a conventional pto winch very high to clear obstacles and keep most of the log out of the dirt.
And for the safety police, careful operation is required the higher you pull from.

 

[2manyrocks]

I've only had an Igland 3501 for a few months so others with more experience will know better than me. What comes to mind as really useful is having storage for the choker chains, chainsaw, log peavey, gas, oil, wedges, chainsaw file, wrench. The 3501 has a couple of pins on the lower blade that can be removed to allow it to pivot if needed for more ground clearance.

The other thing that is super useful is having extra log sliders on the cable. The ability to pull 3 or 4 choker chains is a great time saver because I can pull a bunch of limbs at once to get them out of the way.

If I were going to adapt a hydraulic winch, it would seem simpler to me to start with a used box blade for the base?

 

[PreacherM]

Been emailing a metal shop trying to get pricing on the cnc plasma cutting and bending.
In the meantime I took apart the fairlead rollers. A couple wouldn't turn freely. The pins were rusty and had to be hammered out after letting them soak with PB blaster. Will need some polishing and lubing, but the nylon bushings are still intact.
I unbolted the winch from its mounting plate. I will be cutting that plate down and reusing it. It's pretty rusty and needs wire brushed. The holes for the mounting bolts look like they have heli-coils in them? Or what am I seeing here? It was mounted with 3/8 bolts. All four holes are the same.

 

[PreacherM]

I also removed the hydraulic motor. It needs to be turned 90 degrees to allow the hoses to be better positioned. Which can be done. The motor has 2 machine screws, but the winch has 4 holes. The hydraulic motor shaft fits into another shaft that runs through the winch and drives the gears at the opposite end. Very simple. It would be very easy to fit a different motor on here. Will try this one first.

 

[Too many Kubotas]

Most likely it's not Heli Coils but standard (for winches) square nuts.

 

[PreacherM]

Most likely it's not Heli Coils but standard (for winches) square nuts.

I'm not sure I understand.

 

[GrandpaSmurf825]

This might be a replacement motor for your existing motor. It has a case drain though. Also a 4 bolt mounting. Higher operating pressure which might be to your advantage too. They also have PTO drive pumps if you decided to make it a self contained unit.
I would be nervous about running the winch currently off your tractor hydraulics. You have minimal filtration and certainly not enough to keep from damaging the tractor pump if the motor begins to come apart. The suction screen can only do so much. In the long run a self contained system would be the ideal setup if this is going to be something you will use frequently.

12.5 cu in White Hydraulics W80329 Hydraulic Motor [902602]

surpluscenter.com

 

[GrandpaSmurf825]

Most likely it's not Heli Coils but standard (for winches) square nuts.

Square nuts? I see nothing but the contact area where the winch was mounted. The threads are below the surface and might be a helicoil but I can't see it well enough to be sure.

 

[PreacherM]

Square nuts? I see nothing but the contact area where the winch was mounted. The threads are below the surface and might be a helicoil but I can't see it well enough to be sure.

Correct. It's hard to see in the picture, but there's definitely some kind of coil threaded in there. I'm not sure if I want to try removing it or just using as is.

 

[Too many Kubotas]

Square nuts? I see nothing but the contact area where the winch was mounted. The threads are below the surface and might be a helicoil but I can't see it well enough to be sure.

I can check my MileMarker tomorrow, but every winch I've ever had (and it has been at least 20) has or had square nuts that are inserted into the "feet" of the winch.

 

[WranglerX]

Most likely it's not Heli Coils but standard (for winches) square nuts.

Looks like helicoils to me... I have installed several in different applications....