Alternate Winch Uses

[Bobmog]

other winch uses

Using a snatch block I use my for many types of moving and lifting. Here I am recovering my lawn mower that I got too close to the side of the yard. In the other photo I am loading a snowcat that won't start on to a tilt trailer. The Pinzgauer is hooked on as an anchor for when the trailer tilts to stop the cat.

 

[SDDiver5]

When I was about 10 my dad was remodeling the house and adding about 20 feet to our living room. He needed to get rid of a wall so we made a hole through the wall, made a big brace on the inside of the wall. Connected the winch line to the brace and pulled it back. Thing came right down. I remember thinking it was so cool.

 

[dwh]

Probably the one thing I've done most over the years is straighten bent bumpers. Mine and others. Mostly others.

Had a buddy with a ten by twenty goat barn out in the desert. Wind storm ripped it out of the ground and flipped it upside down. Flipping it back over without destroying it took a few different attempts before we finally figured out a rigging plan that worked.

I've also used a winch and the remains of an old delapidated swingset to rig a cherry picker to help a buddy pull an engine from a derelict car he found in a junk pile out in the middle of a field. The swingset came from the same junk pile.

 

[PPCLI_Jim]

when i had my Suzuki i used t to get my boat on top of my ride. throw the winch rope over top attach to the boat and start winching !

 

[FlyFishermen]

Here are a couple of my alternative winch uses, although off-truck. I couldn't live without a power winch now that I've started using one - with a remote. They make life so much easier, and some things possible that were not otherwise possible before.

Set 1 is a lift I made for my truck cap. F350 long bed with a Leer 180 cap. The first "winch" was a come-along. That broke and I replaced it with a hand operated brake winch. That was too much work. The electric winch does the job. The multi-stage blocks are required for three reasons - current draw, structural (less backwards pull on the up-right frame members), and most importantly - speed reduction. Even the 4:1 ratio is too fast but I can control it adequately.









Set 2 is raising ham radio antennas. I've had this set up for about 12 years and spent a couple years trying to figure it out before that. The antennas I set up with this are beam/yagi style directional antennas = they are turned with a rotator. The rotator mounts to a tram with a large bracket/frame that allows the upper mast to be supported above the rotator (like if the rotator was mounted inside a tower with a thrust bearing at the top of the tower). The whole rotator bracket is mounted to a pipe that slides over top a support mast (military aluminum tent poles). Important note - the bottom of the tram has a guy star for holding out the guy line attachment points. This stabilizes the whole set up in the wind, otherwise if guy lines were mounted close to the tram pipe the force of the wind on the antennas would torque up the guy lines like a drum on a winch. I raised a 6 element Mosley CL36 tri-bander on this at Field Day one year - before the era of the power winch/remote. What a pain in the ***** that was.

The 2:1 ratio here is just for speed reduction. The tram and antenna set up is less than 100lbs, maybe 75 or so. The haul line attached to the tram and guy lines once raised are steel. The haul line is also the lock to keep it up once raised (clamps attached to the cable at the bottom block, then the winch is backed off and removed). Rope guys are used in the raising process as they have to be worked as the tram goes up - without them it would bend over. Rope is a ton easier to work than steel cable like that. Once up the steel cable is secured = stronger than rope and doesn't stretch.





This next shot is down the haul line from the base of the mast







If you look close you can make out the guy star where the guy lines anchor to the tram.

 

[rayra]

Not a winch, but the rigging in here is interesting and this sort of fits in, in that regard. A method to turn the lateral force into a lifting force. I used a chunk of 4x6 in this case but a chunk of firewood would work well. Round its edges or shield them with a tarp or something sacrificial to shield your cable. With the wood angle it acts as a pivot / lever and as the wood goes vertical during the pull you get some lift. In this case, I wanted to pull out a dead bush trunk without tearing up my brickwork. Worked perfectly.

 

[Scoutman]

I have a man-door in line with one of the bay's in my shop and have used the winch on our XJ to pull things inside the shop. It works out pretty well. Here's pulling our truck camper in for repairs.

 

[Warn Industries]

I have a man-door in line with one of the bay's in my shop and have used the winch on our XJ to pull things inside the shop. It works out pretty well. Here's pulling our truck camper in for repairs.

That's pretty cool!

- Andy

 

[dwh]