I had the opportunity to use my winch again this past weekend. I needed to pull 1000' of 1/0 triplex cable up to the construction site.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkLrOX0Rjls
This was a perfect use-case as it played to the capstan's strengths... I have a 600' rope meaning I only had to do setup 1 intermediate pull and the ability to progressively slip to control the speed made it much easier to work with my son who was following the leading edge to avoid snags. And it wasn't a very heavy pull. It probably topped out at about 500lbs. The one time I was able to see my pressure gauge move it only went to 100PSI which translates to about 500 lbs so the math works.
Once we got to the last bit where I had clear line of sight I cranked up the speed a bit and probably got close to 60fpm. That was about as fast as I could comfortably pay off the rope. Any faster and I've have just been dumping it anywhere instead of making (somewhat) nice loops on the ground.
As you'll see in the video, even with the taller capstan and the fairlead now lined up perfectly I still had problems with the rope wanting to climb over itself. What I eventually found with practice is that if I use a lighter touch on the tension I could find a happy medium where it didn't slip too much and it didn't bunch either. By the end when I was pulling more load I added an extra loop which helped reduce slipping but still let me keep only very light tension on the rope.
I think with the capstan all the way full of loops (about 14) I might be able to get a decent heavy pull and still be able to balance the tension enough to avoid the rope bunching issue but I'm not sure. It definitely worked better than before but still not as good as the Norwood videos unless they were pulling hollow logs. The other adjustment that seemed to help was shortening the toplink to tilt the winch backwards some. I didn't have a chance to try any other ropes yet.
I'll try some heavier logs next week and report back.
P.S. Stomper, one thing you need to have for sure is some way to very quickly stop the capstan. If the rope does bunch over on top of itself you lose all ability to release tension so it will pull until something breaks--usually shredding your rope. In my experience, it always happens right before you need to stop suddenly.
I don't use my flow control valve for actual flow control (engine throttle is much more effective for that) but it does make a handy cut-off. I mounted mine on the tractor side of the frame to keep it safe from logs when dragging but I wish I'd found a more accessible place.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkLrOX0Rjls
This was a perfect use-case as it played to the capstan's strengths... I have a 600' rope meaning I only had to do setup 1 intermediate pull and the ability to progressively slip to control the speed made it much easier to work with my son who was following the leading edge to avoid snags. And it wasn't a very heavy pull. It probably topped out at about 500lbs. The one time I was able to see my pressure gauge move it only went to 100PSI which translates to about 500 lbs so the math works.
Once we got to the last bit where I had clear line of sight I cranked up the speed a bit and probably got close to 60fpm. That was about as fast as I could comfortably pay off the rope. Any faster and I've have just been dumping it anywhere instead of making (somewhat) nice loops on the ground.
As you'll see in the video, even with the taller capstan and the fairlead now lined up perfectly I still had problems with the rope wanting to climb over itself. What I eventually found with practice is that if I use a lighter touch on the tension I could find a happy medium where it didn't slip too much and it didn't bunch either. By the end when I was pulling more load I added an extra loop which helped reduce slipping but still let me keep only very light tension on the rope.
I think with the capstan all the way full of loops (about 14) I might be able to get a decent heavy pull and still be able to balance the tension enough to avoid the rope bunching issue but I'm not sure. It definitely worked better than before but still not as good as the Norwood videos unless they were pulling hollow logs. The other adjustment that seemed to help was shortening the toplink to tilt the winch backwards some. I didn't have a chance to try any other ropes yet.
I'll try some heavier logs next week and report back.
P.S. Stomper, one thing you need to have for sure is some way to very quickly stop the capstan. If the rope does bunch over on top of itself you lose all ability to release tension so it will pull until something breaks--usually shredding your rope. In my experience, it always happens right before you need to stop suddenly.
I don't use my flow control valve for actual flow control (engine throttle is much more effective for that) but it does make a handy cut-off. I mounted mine on the tractor side of the frame to keep it safe from logs when dragging but I wish I'd found a more accessible place.
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