SRW swapping the rope to the rear - procedure?

[Aernan]

background:
My truck came with the SRW fitted. I went to an offroad park to get stuck and practice with the winch. As many people warned. It's much better to winch to the rear and pull yourself out of the mess you just drove into.

Procedure:

• find the roller leads with the rope sticking out
• on the top left roller is a clip like a safety pin. remove it
• the center pin in that roller should then be free to go: up?
  • hammer?
• remove roller
• slide rope through
• unwind rope past inline roller guide near front passengers wheel
• reverse rope past wich
  • do you need to weave it past the drum?
• reverse for refitment

So I'm stuck getting that pin out. There is a zerk (grease) fitting on the bottom. The one on the rear of the truck has stripped hex area so I ordered a special tool to remove it and some spares to swap it. I'm hoping a BFH and some kroil will get that pin unstuck. Any ideas?

 

[Aernan]

Based on out of band discussion. It looks like those pins should not be frozen in place but easy to manually remove. I'm going to use a BFH and some kroil to get them free. I will update when parts arrive.

 

[NDT]

Suscribed, I have yet to try doing this myself. What are you planning for a tailchain and hook? I'm going to use a deuce one.

 

[Aernan]

All the recovery we have been doing involved a flat strap and regular shackles to vehicles. The permanent end of the steel rope is actually an odd size and we were forced to remove the cotter pin and main pin to attach shackles to it.

It would be nice if we could find something that was easier to attach to it. I have a Factor 55 for my other winch but it has not been fitted so I can't say if I like it or not yet. Maybe something like an ultrahook would be a good permanent end.
http://factor55.com/product/new-ultrahook/

TBH if the rope had just an eyelet on the end it would be much easier to slip through the rollers to re-deploy. I wonder if it would be worth it to change the system over to synthetic rope with a permanent eyelet.

 

[Ohiobenz]

subscribed, I just bough an SRW and have missing parts, not sure if I can use it with my RV plans

 

[coachgeo]

subscribed, I just bough an SRW and have missing parts, not sure if I can use it with my RV plans

hmm... ohio.... and benz.... were you a unimog guy? Either way.... its good to see another one of us Overland RV kinda folk in here from OH

 

[Camel Driver]

The first thing in any winch cable handling procedure.......HEAVY gloves! You really don't want to see what even a slightly frayed cable can do to your hands. Otherwise, thanks for posting the procedure. I'm going to pick up my M1083 sometime in the next week. It does have the winch and, I'm sure I will need it eventually. Best to practice before hand!

 

[Aernan]

I was able to swap the rope. Here is the procedure:

Recommended tools:
- air chissel
- kroil penetrating oil
- 3/8 extension
- clean ground you will be under the truck
- new zerk fittings
- razer blade or wire wheel to clean axles

Locate the roller on the rear of the truck. The rightmost roller has a axle pin that is removable. Remove the safety pin. Apply kroil to the top portion of the axle and the lower portion as well. Remove the zerk fitting from the bottom of the axle with the pin in place. Using an air chisel press the pin from the bottom upward. You can use a 3/8" socket extension to get some extension and avoid marring axle.

After removing the axle use a razer blade to scrape any rust off the axle. Test fit the axle in the roller and repair any damage caused during removal. I had to file mine a bit on the edge.

Lift the cab at least 1/2 up to reveal the front roller assembly. Using the same procedure remove the front axle and roller.

Feed the rope through the slot in the fairlead and back past the wheel and under the loops behind the gas tank.

To get the rope free of the roller guide in the winch. Bellow/above the roller is a bar. You can press the bar towards the frame of the truck. It's spring loaded. pull the guide all the way to the end. Push the guide bar in. Slot the rope between the guid bar and the frame of the winch. Remove eyelet.

For the next part I thought I needed to unfurl the winch but then realized I didn't. The frame on the front of the winch is triangular where in the rear it's just flat. Feed the lead through the front large triangular gap. Repeat the captive pin trick to put it into the top wire guide on the winch frame. Weave through the guide above the rear axle and out the rear rollers. This should all be very intuitive.

Replace the pins in both rollers using a small hammer and some patients. I found lining up the safety pin to be tricky.

At this point I found it challenging to put the zerk fittings back in so I left them out in search of a magical socket or 3/4 box wrench.

I feel confident that now I have removed and cleaned the axle pins they will come out with just a hammer the next time I need to swap the cable. At this point I used the winch to rewind the line on. The roller guide on the winch frame ended up stuck on one edge and fed all the line onto the outside edge. I need to clean that guide and manually rewind the winch line on a second time.