Excavator winch?

[treeman82]

Hey fellas, I am just pondering something here. A friend of mine just bought himself a new excavator and wants to get rid of his old one. The old one is maybe 15 years old (bobcat) and is a 6500 pounder, or somewhere around there. The guy doesn't want too much money for it, so I was pondering that as a purchase for over the summer if I can get the money together for it. What I was wondering though was IF I could afford it, would it be possible to put a winch on the dipper with maybe 50 feet of cable for pulling logs and brush out of places where the machine just could not get into. Do you guys know if this is possible, and if so where I could find one and how much it would cost? Thanx fellas.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

That should be an easy setup to put together. Using a hydraulic winch is much better than electric. Way more power and you don't have to worry about burning out the motor through overloading. You could start at the implement dealer but you'll probably find a better price if you find an old winch from the front of a highway truck or the like. Talk with a hydraulic shop to find out how much CFM and PSI you need in the B'cat to run the winch.

Be sure to use really high quality winch wire and make up a screen in front of the cab in case the cable parts and comes back towards the operator.

Tom

 

[treeman82]

My concern with putting on a permanent winch though is should I use the machine for digging it would mess up the gear box in there and all that stuff. Again though this is just thoughts.

 

[Nickrosis]

I have no idea what the excavator looks like, but could you mount a winch somewhere else? How about somewhere on the cab or frame? As long as it's a solid mounting point, it would seem to be a better place. I agree with Tom about some kind of protection for the operator. When I broke a come-along, it was pretty nasty with pieces of wire going everywhere.

Nickrosis