[CraftMan]

After snapping the cable on my HF winch and then running a frayed piece in my finger repairing it, I decided to replace the whole thing with a 5000lb tow strap I had lying around. Sunk 5(overkill) short self tapping screws in the drum to secure it, it's about 10 feet long so I can still pull on whatever I need to.

The problem I'm having now is the winch doesn't want to hold a load very well, it still pulls great it just wants to slowly lower the blade when there is pressure on it. I had plans for a clamshell in the future and this will cause a problem. Is there anything that can be done(short of rebuilding it) to help this? It was a cheap winch and that may just be the nature of the beast with these. I will probably upgrade winches before I spend to much time and effort on this one.

Any thoughts?

 

[mikeinri]

If I had to guess, I'd say that's the nylon stretching under load, over time (even the short time it's holding the load). These straps often say that they are not designed for lifting.

Mike

 

[TUDOR]

You're pulling at a bad angle. Make a vertical frame up from your winch about a foot or so and put a roller on top to protect the strap. It may not totally cure the problem, but it should help with the 2 sharp turns to act as a buckshee braking system, and you will be pulling at an angle that will lessen the load trying to unwind the winch.

Just because the power is available to pull a load at a wierd angle doesn't mean that you should do it that way. Winches aren't meant to hold a load suspended and you have to work around that fact to make it easy for them.

 

[SonnyT]

I would say it is the strap. When you let the blade down and you get a little slack in the strap, the slack goes way down into the wraps and when you lift up the blade, the strap will not tighten as well as a cable does but with weight on it, over time it will tighten up, which results in the load dropping. Just my theory.:fing32:

 

[TooManyToyz]

Ok, it's easy enough to see who is right on this one. With the winch all the way up put a witness mark on the drum and frame. After it goes down check the marks to see if the drum moved or not.

 

[TUDOR]

Ok, it's easy enough to see who is right on this one. With the winch all the way up put a witness mark on the drum and frame. After it goes down check the marks to see if the drum moved or not.

Excellent idea!

There will be some stretch involved either way, but there will be less stretch with the higher lift point due to less force being applied.

 

[hgl1]

Mount 2 more pieces of angle iron to the fairlead mount and move the fairlead up. It may give a better set of angles for the strap to work with. And with it pulling up and down you should not have to add any supports or gussets. It will give it a better 2 to 1 ratio and not have to pull the strap so tight to make the blade move either up or down.

 

[Shingetter]

Most likely the winch, I've had the same problem.

 

[CraftMan]

Well I can tell you guys that it's not the strap stretching, it's definatly the drum on the winch backing out, I can both hear and SEE it. Secondly about the angle of the pull, I debated on that myself. I may try another approach but did not want to put to much up or down force on the winch bracket, that's why I tried to go with more of a straight line pull.

 

[TUDOR]

Well I can tell you guys that it's not the strap stretching, it's definatly the drum on the winch backing out, I can both hear and SEE it. Secondly about the angle of the pull, I debated on that myself. I may try another approach but did not want to put to much up or down force on the winch bracket, that's why I tried to go with more of a straight line pull.

It's a blade. There's not that much force involved in lifting it straight up. At the angle you're currently working from, the force required is almost doubled. As a bonus you are applying all of that extra force to the rear mount of the plow harness so that it is constantly under load, not just when you're pushing something.