Vehicle & Technical > Not Anything Listed Above....

Hand Winch

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Disco Matt:
Those cheap "Power Puller" type winches have one major problem, they can only pull for about a metre and a half before you run out of cable. The one we have here is marked as "3m cable" but as it's permanently rigged with a snatch block on the hook that length is obviously halved.

They might just work for a short distance, but to be honest I'd buy a hilift instead. Weighs about the same and can be used for other purposes too.

Saffy:

--- Quote from: Disco Matt on May 28, 2009, 12:42:00 ---Those cheap "Power Puller" type winches have one major problem, they can only pull for about a metre and a half before you run out of cable. The one we have here is marked as "3m cable" but as it's permanently rigged with a snatch block on the hook that length is obviously halved.

They might just work for a short distance, but to be honest I'd buy a hilift instead. Weighs about the same and can be used for other purposes too.

--- End quote ---

whoooooa I missed understood if that was the OP intention. I'd never recommend a 'power puller' for recovery ESPECIALLY a cheap POS eBay special - no way, puttin aside their restricted length of pull, they near impossible to release after load and they can also be released under load by accident. Tirfor griphoist totally different beast entirely which could pull a load a mile if you had a cable long enough and energy of a mutant mule from Mars.  Their stated rating is for dead weight lift which is increased many times for pulling. They are used in industry, demolishion crews, rescue services, recovery. Mines a ex ministry of defence Tirfor with a  3.5 SWL LIFTING rating, it's huge with a 15mm dia cable.  Tirfor didn't maintain their patient so in recent years there have been many cheap copies made of various quality, some on par, some not.

Disco Matt:
Well, I assumed that to be the case based on the £20 bottom end of price range. They are not well made and the method of changing direction is a bit unorthodox - call me weird but I'm not putting my fingers anywhere near those teeth to push the spring across and change the ratchet to "pay out" mode!

william127:
yeah ive got one of the sub £20 ones for the quad bike/small bush removal and i change the direction using a pair of fencing pliers and a claw hammer to change direction :D

incidentaly i had to pull the 110 out of a ditch using the highlift tonight, tryed towing it with a 90, didnt move an  inch, highlift made it look like it was a broken down mini we were recvering, not a badly bogged landy :) using the 90 as a winch point overcomes the rigging problem as well- just move the truck.

highlifts are also really versitile. a couple of weeks ago i spent some time trying to dig out a broken concrete post, got a chnel dug round it, wrapped it up in a strop and pulled it straight out with the jack. and a couple of years ago i used it to pop a conifer stump out the ground that a 1/12 ton mini digger couldnt even lift never mind get out the grond.
so bottom line- get a high lift  :)


ps- aparantly you can evn use them when changing a wheel, surley a myth?

Disco Matt:
The other trick for the hilift re-rigging is to get a shortening chain. They seem quite tricky to find, I got one on ebay recently after about three years of searching. It's a length of chain with hooks that clip back onto the chain, enabling you to make pretty much any length you need. They are heavy though - mine is currently stored in a small old ammunition box as a demonstration of density, it weighs a lot more than a box that size has any right to!

Edit, having re-read previous post:

You don't want to use a hilift to change a wheel, as they are very unstable and should never be left unattended with a load on them. Even when attended the handle needs to be upright when the load is not being moved, as if the handle is left down with the jack set to lower it can go out of control, flailing up and down with enough force to fracture anything in its way. I have seen a demonstration of this and it is downright scary. So when, a few months later, I saw a TV wildlife documentary crew changing a diff with the back of the vehicle only supported by two hilifts with the handles down I was not amused!

They might be ok if you have a mate to hold the jack steady while you change the wheel, but I use my standard LR bottle jack for that as it's a much more stable platform.

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