Manual winch

[YooperCracker]

I'm working on adding a manual winch. I need it to lift/rotate timber frame bents into place for my cabin build. The winch is rated for 3500 lbs and a bent is around 500 lbs, so no issues there. The winch will be attached to the mounting bracket which in turn will mount to the receiver extension. The three white spots (the leftmost dot is just glare) on the extension mark where I'm going to drill for 3/8" bolt holes for attaching the bracket.

Suppose I need to winch myself or someone else out of a spot? I looked at videos by Robert Pepper on using two snack blocks/rings to gain a 3:1 or 4:1 mechanical advantage. In his examples, his straight pull winching load is usually 2200 or 4400 lbs. So the rating on the winch is well above what would be needed using two snatch blocks.

Would it be dangerous/foolish to use the winch in such cases?

If it would be ok, would SAE grade 2 bolts be sufficient? I calculate a shear strength of 7000 lbs per bolt cross-section using web knowledge. I have grade 2 bolts, but maybe I should buy grade 5 or 8 bolts?

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[charliez]

I see you are preparing for a big workout in your future. That's more of a winch built for a boat trailer. Your not going to get much leverage out of that small crank. You might consider a come-a long instead.

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[YooperCracker]

I see you are preparing for a big workout in your future. That's more of a winch built for a boat trailer. Your not going to get much leverage out of that small crank. You might consider a come-a long instead.

Well, the safe working load for that come along is 4000 lbs, so I think I would need at least one snatch block, meaning a reset after 5 feet of movement, 3 feet if I use two snatch blocks. That was why I went with the boat winch. I had thought of using 2 come alongs in series, but it seemed too weird.

Also, the winch handle has an 8:1 gearing, so only 45 lbs of effort to move 3500 lbs (at the cost of 8 times the number of revolutions). No ideal solutions for manual winching, but an electric winch is way overkill for the winch's primary purpose.

 

[fourfa]

My 10k Warn electric winch only produces 10k of pull if you pull all the line out, down to the first wrap. On the full drum 5th wrap, it’s only 5k. So down in the neighborhood of what we’re talking about. I have the equipment - blocks, pullies, x-lock - to pull out the whole line to get max force if the 5k pull on the 5th wrap doesn’t do the job.

And you know what, that’s been really rare. A lot of stuck situations (maybe most?) don’t really need that much force, and don’t need it for very far. Could I have used the manual crank winch for some of those, definitely. Will it be a workout, probably yeah. Better than a hi-lift though, and people have been doing that since the Stone Age too.

I would upgrade to grade 8 bolts for sure. That’s nearly free safety factor, and not hard to find at well stocked hardware stores. Though if it’s Chinese it’s probably metric, and 10.9 (metric equivalent to SAE grade 8) is usually a bit rarer

 

[Panthers65]

If you're on big dumb rims and rubberband street tires and get stuck in wet flat grass you MIGHT be able to use that to move yourself. Anything else would be less than useful.

That thing might say 3500lbs on it, but you'd have to be superman or use a 9' cheater bar to actually get 3500 lbs of pull out of that thing.

I think youi're going to hate moving the 500lb logs around with it, much less anything else. If you are looking at getting unstuck and can't afford a real winch even some traction boards would work a ton better than one of those.

 

[XJhawk]

I see some epic knuckle damage in your future.

 

[Badunit]

One thing to consider with a manual winch or come-along is how far it can pull. They usually do not pull very far. In my opinion, if you can't get the entire job done in one pull (one cable length), it isn't up to the task. The exception to that is if you are in a situation where you have to make do with what you got. What you don't want is to get a timber frame bent partway up then have to tie it off, disconnect the winch, spool it back out, reconnect, winch some more, etc.

If you need it to be manual, have you considered something like an ARB Magnum cable winch? The advantage is it can pull a long distance. The disadvantage is the cable is separate from the winch and needs to be unfurled, fed into the winch, then spooled back up manually when you are done. I've not used one but it looks pretty handy. There should be a way to hook it to a hitch.

 

[Lost1wing]

I started breathing hard just looking at a manual winch. I think for moving something maybe a few feet, yeah okay.

 

[Volt0]

Maybe use this manual winch during deer season? ;-)

 

[Zachanadandy]

What nobody talks about when rigging up the 3 and 4 line pulls is you are quickly going to exceed the rating of the winch line and/or the winch itself in a structural capacity. Using pulleys to increase the force generated is great, but you're still putting all that strain on the line/mounting points/winch itself etc. The difference is with an electric winch you can and should be clear when you're using it, especially under heavy load. A manual winch puts you right in harms way. You can buy an xbull winch for $350, what is your life worth not to mention the labor/ time savings?

 

[Pilsner]

I've used those before. I would buy an electric winch. Also I wouldn't trust that bent plate mount for much more than 500 lbs. None of that gear is rated for lifting. Neither is a standard electric winch, but keep it in mind when working around weight in the air.

 

[YooperCracker]

I'm not worried about raising bents with this rig. They will be 17 ft tall so going from horizontal to vertical will mean the apex will travel along a 27 ft long arc (if I've done my geometry calculations right). So no reset needed for a 33 ft winch.

And no, I won't be shifting 500 lb logs!

As to getting myself unstuck, I will take your advice to heart and depend on the kindness of strangers to help me out.

 

[Blade1668]

I use one like that to remove my Wrangler hardtop and R.T.T. it's mounted an a stand made from 4x4s and it's a b###### to lift much more than a few hundred pounds. Stability may be questionable using it to lift if a single point on ground. You can with it but it will suck doing a recovery that. I've got a few winches mounted on 2in receiver hitch mounts. One is a small electric winch 2000 lbs. formerly on my 300 4wheeler. It's good for light duty work, dragging a log or something like that. If it wasn't raining I'd go take a picture of it for you.

 

[YooperCracker]

I'll be rotating the bents from horizontal to vertical. The feet of the bents will never leave the ground/foundation. I don't have the math skills to figure out the pull on the winch rope, but I know it will be significantly less than the weight of the bent.

 

[gladtohave]

looks like work . It might actually get the job done but a cheap electric option might be worth it as well .

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