Deuce tail roller and bed winch, skid loading setup

[tim292stro]

With the PLS, Oshkosh put on guides with angled "blind alignment" wings that center the load as it comes into contact with the guide. I'm sure you could put some sort of wing on the bed-box to emulate this.


From some seat-time I had in a Hook and Ladder tiller (no I'm not a Firefighter), there are some optical/physical things you can do to align the truck to the shelter. On the tractor of a ladder trailer, they usually put a lamp-post (white) in the center line of the tractor roof (sometimes this is disguised with an American flag) - the point of the lamp is that while seated in the tiller house looking towards the cab, when you are tracking the tiller-end in line with the tractor that lamp should be centered in the open end of the ladder.


You could do some similar setup on your selter/bed - an inverted stencil "V" in a contrasting color on the top edge of the shelter roof (winch-end), plus a bump of some sort on the door end of the shelter. Couple this with a contrasting line painted in the center of your bed box and two vertical black stripes on your rear cab window. when viewed through the rear view mirror during backing, it would look like this roughly (forgive the quick sketch in paint - tried to keep it somewhat perspective correct):


This would help you back up straight and aligned with the shelter - doesn't use any power or welding either.

 

[m16ty]

I thought about some guides. Most winch trucks setup for oilfield work have just a big steel rod sticking up on each side of the tail roller for guides. The problem with this or the guides in your pic is that the sides of the shelter could be damaged as they aren't very heavy.I think I'll be ok without anything now that I know a little more about how to set everything up before I start winching.

I have found I can line everything up pretty well by just looking in the mirrors. My problem at first is I thought it wouldn't matter to be a little off and it would square itself up when I started winching, I was wrong. After the front of the shelter is started onto the bed you can also make adjustments by pulling the truck up a little and cutting the wheels whichever way is needed.

 

[red]

Now that you've had the tail roller for awhile how do you like using it?

 

[rchalmers3]

I think we were promised a loading video. Ty.

Rick

 

[Another Ahab]

I think we were promised a loading video. Ty.

Rick

 

[Nitrodiver]

Did you ever build the gin poles for it too?

 

[cattlerepairman]

I know this is an old thread but I would really like to see a loading/unloading video!

 

[m16ty]

I know this is an old thread but I would really like to see a loading/unloading video!

I'll try to get a loading/unloading video. The shelter is currently sitting in the deuce, I need to unload it in the near future anyway.

So far I've used the bed winch for all kinds of stuff. When needing to winch something, It's a lot easier to use the hyd winch in the bed than it is to use the stock front pto winch. I don't think I've used the front pto winch once since I mounted the hyd bed winch.