Electric winches on expo trucks.

[whatcharterboat]

I am not sure if you have gotten the information you need yet.I think you were specifically interested in peoples experiences with recovering 6 ton vehicles under all conditions in order to make an appropriate decision or recommendation for a RTW truck build.
Is a hydraulic winch still off the table? I understand that it is possible in some cases to upgrade the power steering pump, add a small tank and run a relocatable or permanently connected winch that runs from the engine?
I know this means that the engine must be running for this to work.
Perhaps the owner of this vehicle needs to be gently persuaded to reconsider his wish list or throw more cubic dollars at a realistic solution.

Exactly. Hydraulic setups are always our first and normally our only recommendation for these trucks.But very unfortunately this is what we are stuck with. There is a power steering pump based hydraulic system available here in OZ. Alot of the serious guys use these though I've never installed one yet. The electric/hydraulic units we used to fit are no longer.

 

[whatcharterboat]

I'll post a recovery story tonight. Gotta go . On lunch.

 

[Jacob7963]

I've been thinking about this issue myself recently. Whether it's 12V or 24V, the currents required for large DC winches are extremely high. But on an expedition camper, typically we'll already have decent sized inverters (at least a few kW). So how about using 110 or 220V AC power? A 6 kW 12V winch would require 500 amps, but at 220V you only need 27 A. That could be handled by a regular heavy-duty extension cord. Unfortunately there are not a lot of ready made off road truck winches that are 110/220V and high capacity. But there are lots of high capacity industrial winches that could theoretically be vehicle mounted with some modification.

As an example, here are some nice AC winches from Columbia Winch & Hoist:

http://www.columbiawinch.com/ACW3.html

Browsing around their website I see winches from 2000 lb all the way up to 40000 lb! They offer washdown and marine ratings as options, which might be good for off road applications. The "Frame 3" pulling winches in particular look like they might be straightforward to mount. They will do custom designs as well.

 

[ntsqd]

I still see the most basic, inescapable problem being that someone is going to have to manually carry what ever the winch is, regardless of how it is driven, to where it needs to go in order for it to be of any use. If we're considering a Warn M6 or M8 then it's just a bit heavy but doable. Neither of those winches have much if any place on a rig of this size, and where they could be used on it would not be for self recovery or insertion.

So move the cable "outlet" and permanently mount the winch.

 

[whatcharterboat]

Hi Jacob, Yes you would solve a few problems with an AC winch but create many others. I certainly like your thinking though. The main problem you would create is that due to the ineffiecncy of the inverter you would put even more load on the batteries and also there is the safety issue to consider as well as any ECU dramas loose high AC voltage on the chassis could create if there was a water ingress.

The lower current would only need a fraction of the cable size of course and over heating would be like wise reduced but I dunno >>> just can't see it ever a reality.

 

[M.Bas]

Some of the Volvo C306 firetruck versions have a front wounted winch, wich can also be mounted on the rear.

I do know a owner of one of these that has the front mounted winch. He said to me once it is undoable to move the winch to the rear alone.
You really need 2 strong guys to do it.

 

[Isuzu 4x4 Bus]

10000kg Isuzu Bus

Hi, We own a 10 ton over land motor home with a 16000 lb 24 volt electric winch, we have used it a few times and found it to be ideal for what we want. we live in our bus and set out 3 months ago to travel around the world. we dont tend to do any serious offroad tracks but do all back country roads, beachs and river crossings. we have a 250 amp alternater. The winch gets hot on any large pulls as we have to double or triple the pull and is a slow process. If you were doing a lot of hard off road we would not have used electric but it is the cheapest and easiest way to set up. We have pulled our truck sideways useing pullys and worked well.

 

[michaelgroves]

A small winch can do anything a big one can, if you carry quite a bit of extra rigging. It's slower, but requires less power, and is much more manageable if you want to have two mounting points. And on simple light-duty pulls, you won't even need the extra rigging. And it's cheaper.

 

[whatcharterboat]

Hi, We own a 10 ton over land motor home with a 16000 lb 24 volt electric winch, we have used it a few times and found it to be ideal for what we want. we live in our bus and set out 3 months ago to travel around the world. we dont tend to do any serious offroad tracks but do all back country roads, beachs and river crossings. we have a 250 amp alternater. The winch gets hot on any large pulls as we have to double or triple the pull and is a slow process. If you were doing a lot of hard off road we would not have used electric but it is the cheapest and easiest way to set up. We have pulled our truck sideways useing pullys and worked well.

Hey, you can't get away with only one post. Firstly welcome to ExPo and please tell us more. Pics and Specs. Please.

So basically the alternator on your truck (FSS 550???) is as big as your load from your winch. I'm assuming if the 16,500 lb 12volt winch is over 500 amp@12v then the 24volt one is 250amp @24v. This means when winching with the engine running there is no load on the batteries at all. BTW is that a second alternator or a replacement.

The FG by comparison has a 100 amp @12volt alternator and a 500 amp load. As soon as you load the batteries they drop to maybe 10 volts at least (if there new) so the current will be more like 600amps. That's still a 500 amp drain on the batterries. My mind smokes whenever I think about it.

I've fitted a few 12000lb winches to FS550's before. No problem with a second battery bank. The standard battery bank on those in my opinion is not big enough. Great truck. The last model was my favourite. Very good to drive with a SRW conversion if you're thinking about that. Ask Naturebound. An outback tour company in Brisbane. He has one on super singles. Loves it.

 

[Isuzu 4x4 Bus]

hi

we run super singles and model of truck is a 1999 Isuzu frs 600, the motor has been rebuilt and is a 205hp with 5 speed manual with 2 speed transfer, we have the high speed diffs with locker on back axel, we cruise at 95kms an hour but will do 110 if we push her or 60 mile an hour or 70 mile an hour. yes the alternater works hard as duel belts scream when under large load. we had the bus custom built by a motor home company, we planned to do it our selves but ran out of time and i could not have done as good a job. Its not as good as a mog but mogs are bloody expensive and this is what we could afford.. we do not have as much axel travel but just have to drive to the conditions... we carry 800 ltrs diesel, 800 ltrs fresh water, 400 ltrs black and 400 ltrs grey, 900 amp hours of battery, 600 amp hours of solar panel, 12 volt fridge freezer, 12 volt chest freezer, 240 volt convex oven microwave, 240 volt washing machine dryer, 3000 amp invertor, seperate toilet and shower, diesel cook top, diesel hot water heater, diesel air heater, 240 volt air con, 4kva diesel gen set, sat nave tele, thats the basics..

 

[alan]

Thats a good start! now we want pictures.

 

[Isuzu 4x4 Bus]

not sure how to add pics here, have put some on our profile, still needs a paint which will happen one day when it stops raining

 

[Isuzu 4x4 Bus]

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/album.php?albumid=169&pictureid=369

 

[whatcharterboat]

I'll send you a "pic posting" step by step. Probably best to post the pics in the Mitsubishi Heavy Truck > "Mitsu Camper examples" thread.

I know it's not a Bitsamissing but I've been putting a lot of other Isuzu stuff in there as well as they are so similiar.

Regards John.

PS I know you guys suck at Rugby but I have no doubt the truck will be good. Lol.

 

[charlieaarons]

, 600 amp hours of solar panel,

..

Do you mean 600W solar panels? That's a very impressive camper as far as mechanical systems.

Charlie