If it helps anyone make a purchase decision--I had occasion to use a Lewis winch a few years ago when I was a driver for a local logging company. Why a geologist ended up hauling logs is a long story, but it was a bucket-list thing. I'd often wished I had one in the many years spent in exploration, would have been way cooler than winching the Landrover through a creek with a come-a-long.
The company president had lost the belly pan from a JD 892 excavator somewhere around the bottom of a~50 acre cut block on a steep mountain slope; this is a 3/4" X 36" or so diameter round steel plate that allows access to the underside of the swing motor in the undercarriage frame. They asked if I might be able to find it with some of the geophysics equipment I still had from a previous career. I said sure, but I'll just use a simple metal detector--if someone experienced in finding orebodies can't find a 200 lb steel plate with a Canadian Tire metal detector you turn in your degrees and walk away with head bowed and shoulders slumped.
We did find it, completely buried under slash and the first time walking over it; good hero day that Saturday. We then winched this plate up about an eighth mile, 40 degree Coast-mountains slope using a Lewis winch. My lasting impression was that they cannot be busted, and will do pretty much anything asked of them. That one, already pretty old at the time, paid for itself once again in that one job.
Lots of sets of course, zig-zag progress going stump-to-stump and around cliffs, but we did get it up to the landing and into the back of a pickup. Still on the 892 as far as I know.
The company president had lost the belly pan from a JD 892 excavator somewhere around the bottom of a~50 acre cut block on a steep mountain slope; this is a 3/4" X 36" or so diameter round steel plate that allows access to the underside of the swing motor in the undercarriage frame. They asked if I might be able to find it with some of the geophysics equipment I still had from a previous career. I said sure, but I'll just use a simple metal detector--if someone experienced in finding orebodies can't find a 200 lb steel plate with a Canadian Tire metal detector you turn in your degrees and walk away with head bowed and shoulders slumped.
We did find it, completely buried under slash and the first time walking over it; good hero day that Saturday. We then winched this plate up about an eighth mile, 40 degree Coast-mountains slope using a Lewis winch. My lasting impression was that they cannot be busted, and will do pretty much anything asked of them. That one, already pretty old at the time, paid for itself once again in that one job.
Lots of sets of course, zig-zag progress going stump-to-stump and around cliffs, but we did get it up to the landing and into the back of a pickup. Still on the 892 as far as I know.
