# Anyone ever make a homemade Winch?



## czar800 (Jan 15, 2008)

I have been thinking about making a homemade winch from a old truck transmission & rear end. Any one with pictures of a homemade Winch out there?


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## LNG24 (Jan 15, 2008)

How BIG of a winch are you talking about? Have you seen one you are trying to copy?


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## czar800 (Jan 15, 2008)

LNG24 said:


> How BIG of a winch are you talking about? Have you seen one you are trying to copy?



I want to pull tree tops out and the hills are steep the logging Co. used a Cat D4 with a winch. No i have never seen what I planning on doing I will try to get a drawing posted later.


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## Adkpk (Jan 15, 2008)

Sounds ambitious, interesting.


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## Mike Van (Jan 15, 2008)

What do you plan to mount it on & power it with?


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## czar800 (Jan 15, 2008)

Hear it is lol!! View attachment 62893


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## czar800 (Jan 15, 2008)

I have all so thought about using a hyd. motor in place of the P.T.O


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## LNG24 (Jan 15, 2008)

I would think a simple Ramsey or Warn winch would be much easier and more reliable. I can't imagine how big of a tree you would pull out that a Truck mounted winch could not handle. Just use a skidding cone and some cable, no? But then again, I am a newbee to all of this, but mu quad seem to be working real good. I cut off all the branches and pull out what I want.


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## czar800 (Jan 15, 2008)

Hear is a crude drawing with a transmission and a Hydraulic motor for power. View attachment 62911


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## habanero (Jan 16, 2008)

Dad had a homemade winch on his flatbed straight truck for years. It was powered by an old starter of some sort (it may have been a 24 volt starter he was running on 12, I'm not sure). I'm not sure what kind of transmission it had on it, but it had 3 forward gears and a reverse. I'd guess it was some kind of garden tractor transmission, as it wasn't terribly big. The biggest load I ever saw it pull onto the truck was an oak trunk measuring almost 5 feet in diameter by maybe 8 ft long. 

The truck doesn't run anymore, but the winch is still on it and probably still works. I'm going to have to look it over one of these days when I'm home...


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## avalancher (Jan 16, 2008)

I use a portable warn winch in my trailer in addition to the mounted one on the bed of the trailer. Like you, I sometimes have to winch tree tops up a steep hill to the top, and I found that the portable winch works best. I keep a truck battery hooked to it, and can move the winch from one side to the other depending on what side I am working on. It comes complete with a set of chains with hooks to hook on to whatever you have to attach to, and I have found myself hooking that same winch on to the front of the truck to get me out of some muddy situations. It has a 4700lb pull single line, and will run most of the day on a single battery charge. Cant imagine doing this job without it. I bought it at Lowes for around 400 bucks.
For a long pull I remove the cable, and run a 200 ft rope twice around the drum. Hit the winch and keep pulling the loose end of the rope from the winch, kinda like they do on sailboats.If you have to run any further down the hill to get your wood, get a skidder


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## fireman31 (Jan 16, 2008)

*maybe a winchlike this one?*

http://www.vintageprojects.com/farm-construction/hoist-farm-plans.html

except maybe a pto shaft or electric motor instead of the crank handle!!!


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## Patrick62 (Jan 17, 2008)

*american ingenuity*

I would never discourage someone thinking outside the box  

After all the thinking is done, you have to think it over. Is it practical? Does it matter? It is my creation, and I did it my way!!!!  

Now let's think this one over (get comfy, this could take some time)

Hyrdaulic motor has some advantages. You can PULL forever and not over heat the thing. Drawback is that it ain't cheap. Plus you have to provide a pump somewhere, and a valve plus hoses.

Electric can be overloaded severly for a few seconds. Is also relativly cheap to buy and hook up. In the smaller size, even quite affordable! Beware of china motors.... some quality control issues.

Okay, using a spare tranny and a rear axle. *Heavy is the only real drawback. If you open up the diff and weld the spiders together then you can cut one tube off completly. This would give you the same ratio as the diff.
Sticking a tranny in there.... gives lots of options, and some fast pulling, or severe major grunt when needed.

I just looked up a hydraulic motor (northern) low speed, high torque.
310 ft. lb torque, 150 RPM, about 16 gpm.

One of your drawings showed a granny tranny. Let's make some assumptions. 6 to 1 first gear? Maybe a 3.5 to 1 differential?
7.14 RPM Ah yes I know this speed! It is the speed of evolution!!!  
Your basic really slow mode. What is the torque? 6510 not counting friction. This is in pounds/feet. So.... that means if you were using a wheel, with the cable about 1 foot from the axle it would pull 6000 lbs. cut the wheel to 1/2 size and you can double that. 12000.... Which would not work for long. THe axle would break. Or the bearings would explode. The U-joints between the tranny and the differential have a torque rating as well.....

Okay, leave a wheel on there for now. makes a nice place to spool cable onto. It will pull almost 3 tons like it is. Now let's get something done!!
High gear! 42.85 rpm, and 1085 pounds! This is brutal.

It would pull over 1000 pounds at 3 mph!!!! This could work...

Your mileage may vary... This is based on a "wheel" of 24 inch diameter.
In actual fact, you may be using a 15" auto steel wheel Which is gonna be considerably smaller (more pull) but slower.
I like the 3 MPH idea, that is fast enough to actually get-er-done !! 

Food for thought from a guy who has been there, and done things like this.
-Pat*


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## czar800 (Jan 17, 2008)

Patrick62 said:


> I would never discourage someone thinking outside the box
> 
> After all the thinking is done, you have to think it over. Is it practical? Does it matter? It is my creation, and I did it my way!!!!
> 
> ...


*


There a two reasons I plan to do this 

1. It will all be free except welding rod.

2. I love build stuff.*


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## Wismer (Jan 17, 2008)

When we need a winch bigger than the quads winch (2500lb) we bring out a winch a buddy built. It is an 8000lb truck warn truck winch mounted on a big heavy piece of angle iron, chain it to a tree hook it to a 12v battery and you are off to the traces. It's weight and battery make it a little hard to be portable but it works for us. From your drawings I get the sense it will be mounted on a tractor? That would make it alot easier. Just hook in to the tractor electrical and all you need is the truck winch mounted on the 3pt hitch.


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## Patrick62 (Jan 17, 2008)

*Go for it!*

I love to build stuff too!

Just think things out pretty well, it will work.

I don't know what the tractor's hydraulics are capable in terms of GPM, or PSI. You might want to determine that first.

The bonus is that welding can be "fun". Atleast I enjoy it at times!!

Send pix....

-Pat


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## czar800 (Jan 17, 2008)

Patrick62 said:


> I love to build stuff too!
> 
> Just think things out pretty well, it will work.
> 
> ...



I don't know the gpm or the psi of the tractor, but i don't see a problem it is about 150hp.

P.T.O power may be how i run it and mount it off my 3 point 


I will send pic & thank for the info


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## czar800 (Feb 5, 2008)

*Started work on the winch today*

I got a start..

View attachment 64321


View attachment 64322


View attachment 64323


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## MRCONRAN (Feb 5, 2008)

One thing you should be careful of, you will be pulling off center watch your tractor doesn't skid around and pin you into a tree. Also do you think you will be able to anchor the tractor so it won't slide backward or pick the front end up?


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## czar800 (Feb 5, 2008)

MRCONRAN said:


> One thing you should be careful of, you will be pulling off center watch your tractor doesn't skid around and pin you into a tree. Also do you think you will be able to anchor the tractor so it won't slide backward or pick the front end up?



I will set it on the ground, My tractors weigh from 11-14,000lbs I only plan on pulling tree tops.


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## WidowMaker (Feb 7, 2008)

Patrick62 said:


> I would never discourage someone thinking outside the box
> 
> 
> 
> ...




====


Patrick

Can you tell us how you calculate these load winching abilities????
Inquiring minds wantta know....


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## Patrick62 (Feb 7, 2008)

*I thought it was simple enough....*

>Patrick
>
>Can you tell us how you calculate these load winching abilities????
>Inquiring minds wantta know....

Gears convert RPM into torque. Or torque into RPM. Not complicated.

Torque expressed in foot/pounds. A 1 foot lever with 5 pounds on the end of it.... would that not make a measurement of 5 ft. lb.  

You just gotta sit there and play with a stick and think about it a bit....

-Pat


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## WidowMaker (Feb 7, 2008)

Patrick62 said:


> >Patrick
> >
> >Can you tell us how you calculate these load winching abilities????
> >Inquiring minds wantta know....
> ...



====
Your basic really slow mode. What is the torque? 6510 not counting friction. This is in pounds/feet.
=====

If you don't mind would you explain how you arrived at this figure..


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## ropensaddle (Feb 7, 2008)

They have been making pulp trucks with rear ends for years here!
I have an old cable loader it is actually a real loader not homemade,
the good thing about them is they are fast and work off a brake
and drum and master cylinder, two sprockets and chain pto powers
mine! It will skid load a good log 20' long and 36" across or it would
until the motor went out! Very fast but the safety factor has a learning 
curve, I learned or I would not be typing!


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## WidowMaker (Feb 8, 2008)

WidowMaker said:


> ====
> Your basic really slow mode. What is the torque? 6510 not counting friction. This is in pounds/feet.
> =====
> 
> If you don't mind would you explain how you arrived at this figure..



Got it, thanks...

For anybody else needing help, it's

Torque input x Trans grear X diff ratio...in this case

310 x 6 x 3.5 = 6510


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## czar800 (Feb 9, 2008)

*just about done.*

Use an old rope for the videos, still need to put cable on it. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEFcfHA_LJc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43HeelplQIU


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## Sprig (Feb 10, 2008)

Very cool to watch the vids Mike (hey I gives ya 5 stars even though it wouldn't play right, I could track through it though), as I said, stay outta the bite man! 
I think Treeco meant something like this stuff (just scroll down the page a bit), its double braided polyester, 1/2" is rated at 7200lbs, pretty respectable and its the type my friends and me use for many boating uses (sail lines), tough stuff and not expensive, here> http://www.portablewinch.com/en/05.asp
Up in price would be stuff like Tectra rope, info link here> http://www.heightec.com/equipment/anchor-lines-rope/general.html
Then there is rope like HTP static, their 5/8ths has a tensile strength of 15000lbs (man I'd love ta have a couple of good lengths of this stuff!), here> 
http://www.lifesaving.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/page36.html
And lastly some just plain old good stuff about ropes, theres a decent rundown of various species at the end of the article, a good refference imho> 
http://www.cncphotoalbum.com/rope/

 to a cool project!

Serge

FYI, I am very cautious about the 'bite' due to several gory stories (of big ropes and cables, logging and tugging boats) and my own experience with a wee 1/4" poly rope, a speed boat, and an unsecured anchor, I wear a nice scar on my bicept and am lucky I didn't lose my fingers, or worse, don't mean ta be a nag about it so take no offence eh!


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## nessmunk (Oct 12, 2009)

*winch from truck rear end*

I built one over 30 years ago. I placed the rear end in line with the truck frame. used a right angle gear reducer off the pto shaft into the u-joint of the rear end. for control I got a brake master cylinder from a 1950 era chevy and plumbed that into the unused wheel of the rear end. I used that type master cylinder because it has a arm on it. I would put a pipe over the arm of the master cylinder and apply pressure when the pto was on, that would stop the non cable wheel from turning and would apply force to the end with the rim and cable on it. I had holes cut into the rim and a bracket. to lock the load i slipped a bar through the bracket into the pulling wheel. I loaded a lot of car bodies with that set up.


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## czar800 (Mar 25, 2011)

In Video #1 at the end i put my 026 with a 18" bar in the shot for size
Sorry the videos are bad done with my cell phone.

YouTube - ‪Homemade Winch 1‬&rlm;

YouTube - ‪Homemade winch 2‬&rlm;

YouTube - ‪Homemade winch 3‬&rlm;

YouTube - ‪Homemade winch 4‬&rlm;


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## RAMROD48 (Mar 26, 2011)

I see a problem WAITING to happen....You need to build a pretty sturdy cage around them saws...and i would probably make the back of it solid...just saying...

Other wise you did an awesome job...

Good luck with it...


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