Trango
Member
- 735
- 23
- 18
- Location
- Boulder, CO
Hi Gang,
I traded for a big Garwood/Braden-style winch, which did not come with any power source, save for a roller chain sprocket on it. I would guess that it was originally PTO-powered, but that's honestly anyone's guess. I figure that mounting it and powering it is one of the little supplemental projects I can do on my project, once it's "done" and fully driveable.
I am curious, though, about what the prevailing wisdom is for powering a big, standalone winch. I want this winch to be detachable (maybe with a clevis'ed mount, or something along those lines), and so the power therefore also needs to be detachable. Winch is about 350 lbs as is (without power source), so it's not prohibitive to lift into place with a couple of guys, or a cherry picker. If I do the power source correctly, I could even use a boom or a tree, and the winch power itself, to pick it up and then lower it.
The difficulty is that there is very little room to run a PTO shaft, even a very flexible one like a Lovejoy or other ag-sourced shaft.
So, I'm looking at Hydraulic or Electrical. I'm somewhat familiar with pros and cons of each.
Hydraulic:
Strengths:
Limitless power, as long as the engine is running
Motors are small and torquey
Once the system is plumbed, hydraulics can power other devices down the road
Weaknesses:
Difficult to plumb
One leak and you're done (although setting up hydraulics so they don't leak isn't terrifically difficult)
Require PTO installation either on tranny, crankshaft, or transfer case
Electric:
Strengths:
Easy to wire/control
Not tied to engine being running
Weaknesses:
Motors are prone to overheating
Motors are bigger and heavier than hydraulic motors
The motors are current hogs
Running time is also limited to battery capacity
As I anticipate very infrequent winching, my thought is that electric will be the way to go. I was thinking of using a surplus, 28v starter motor (or even run a 14v motor on 28v), and put the correct sprocket on that (I'll of course have to look up the specs on the winch, figure out input torque, and size everything accordingly).
All of the above said, am I missing anything?
Best,
Bob
I traded for a big Garwood/Braden-style winch, which did not come with any power source, save for a roller chain sprocket on it. I would guess that it was originally PTO-powered, but that's honestly anyone's guess. I figure that mounting it and powering it is one of the little supplemental projects I can do on my project, once it's "done" and fully driveable.
I am curious, though, about what the prevailing wisdom is for powering a big, standalone winch. I want this winch to be detachable (maybe with a clevis'ed mount, or something along those lines), and so the power therefore also needs to be detachable. Winch is about 350 lbs as is (without power source), so it's not prohibitive to lift into place with a couple of guys, or a cherry picker. If I do the power source correctly, I could even use a boom or a tree, and the winch power itself, to pick it up and then lower it.
The difficulty is that there is very little room to run a PTO shaft, even a very flexible one like a Lovejoy or other ag-sourced shaft.
So, I'm looking at Hydraulic or Electrical. I'm somewhat familiar with pros and cons of each.
Hydraulic:
Strengths:
Limitless power, as long as the engine is running
Motors are small and torquey
Once the system is plumbed, hydraulics can power other devices down the road
Weaknesses:
Difficult to plumb
One leak and you're done (although setting up hydraulics so they don't leak isn't terrifically difficult)
Require PTO installation either on tranny, crankshaft, or transfer case
Electric:
Strengths:
Easy to wire/control
Not tied to engine being running
Weaknesses:
Motors are prone to overheating
Motors are bigger and heavier than hydraulic motors
The motors are current hogs
Running time is also limited to battery capacity
As I anticipate very infrequent winching, my thought is that electric will be the way to go. I was thinking of using a surplus, 28v starter motor (or even run a 14v motor on 28v), and put the correct sprocket on that (I'll of course have to look up the specs on the winch, figure out input torque, and size everything accordingly).
All of the above said, am I missing anything?
Best,
Bob