Thread: Capstan winch-what are they worth?

Whilst I cant comment on why the Ebay one sold for such a price I can say that they were not intended for self recovery.EG they were fitted to most Army landrover ambulances to winch stretchers up cliffs as there is no limit to the rope that can be utilized.
When I was in the CMF we had an exercise to winch a series 3 ( our unit LWB that "scored" a winch from a loan ambo) up a moderate hill and it knackered 4 of us over 30 metres as the pressure req on the rope needs 2 strong people and that was thru a snatch block. We never bothered to try and self recover out of a bog as everone thought it would'nt do it.
Also the mounting points will be different for a Rangie and dont forget the weight.

I have never heard of them being used in cliff rescue, and it is 'illegal' for rescue agencies to use mechanical winches in high angle rescue IIRC... You could be right though.

Also, not all Ambulances were fitted with winches. Ambrose wasn't nor were any of the other 30 vehicles in his contract.

Capstan winches were fitted to a lot of civilian vehicles as well (to my knowledge) and from what I know these were implicitly for vehicle recovery.

Seems strange to go to that much effort to fit a capstan winch if it were just for minimal loads when it probably would have been just as expensive to fit a Bamford that could recover a vehicle... (assuming that the Capstan type could not)


*Disclaimer - I have never used a capstan winch and by the time I was born they were largely obsolete.

The capstan is the single most versatile mechanically driven winch out there....

BUT...

Its the high lift jack of the winching world if you have the experience and knowledge they are capable of doing a great many things but none of them to excellence. If you dont know what your doing or something goes wrong it will go very pear shaped very quickly.

the main bonuses are....

it can winch forever so long as you have the rope to make the distance it will pull it all back in one go (joiners and all)

it always pulls at the bottom layer rating, if it needs to pull harder the rope will slip down into the center part where the capstan is thinnest, once its there it will slip or stall.

usually its engine driven so you dont have to worry about cooking or killing the batteries.

It will pull with a variety of ropes.

you can use it to drive a spit if needed.

the down sides..

its got no positive engagement to the rope, you back off the tension and it will back feed.

Its hard on most ropes and not really suited to SWR or the new nylon plasma type stuff but it can still wind them in.

its very hard to safely make a normaly configured rover setup capstan winch outwards in the middle of a winching process.

wet/muddy ropes slip.

if the engine stops you can no longer winch.

Ive got one Im putting in the back of Fozzy and will be running it either hydraulicly or off of a shaft drive from the PTO rear drive flange.

Id love to have a second one for the front.

I think you have to use particular (sisal?) rope as nylon does not have the friction required.
So maybe you were using the wrong rope.
I have seen numerous weak looking poms looking quite relaxed using them in the pom mags, or maybe they were staged photos
Regard sPhilip A

Originally Posted by PhilipA

I think you have to use particular (sisal?) rope as nylon does not have the friction required.
So maybe you were using the wrong rope.
I have seen numerous weak looking poms looking quite relaxed using them in the pom mags, or maybe they were staged photos
Regard sPhilip A

They were great winches


20-30 years ago , things have moved on and they are now just a large anchor on the front your truck , Sorry but pretty much it about them

All the Series Landrovers I had up to 1970 had them, and I used them fairly regularly for self recovery. Although specified for use with natural fibre rope, I almost always used them with 6x19 1/2" galvanised steel, which is not really recommended for this use, but works.

The drawbacks are:-

1. As Dave says, you need to know what you are doing.

2. The safety device is a shear pin on the capstan itself (I think later ones changed to a shear pin on the drive, which was an improvement). This means that if it shears, you cannot hold the load, so it should not be used for lifting a heavy load that will fall back if the shear pin goes. (but fine for pulling out of mud)

3. The Landrover installation has no side rollers, so you can only pull more or less straight ahead, without using a snatch block.

4. Unsuitable for use with almost all synthetic ropes, as they will melt when slipped making them more slippery.

The reason that prices vary so much is probably that there are very few on the market, and very few buyers - and the price varies dramatically depending on which "very few" is larger at the time.

John

All the advantages of owning a capstan winch have been well covered in the above posts and I support what the others say in that this type of winch is very suited to vehicle recovery, like anything, knowledge of the equipment and its capability's go along way in achieving the best of equipment.
In my 40 odd years of army and civilian employment i have used many types of winches in lots of situations.One of the main thing about winch operations is safety regardless of it type and I feel the captains is the safest of all to use but like anything common sense will make or brake the day.

Cliff

One of the reasons why that winch went for $1400-$1600 was it was complete with all the drive shafts. Many come on the market without the driving linkages. Diana had some linkages made up and there were a few takers so there certainly are a few capstans around sans linkages.

Another possible reason is that which is best left to the rivet counters to explain the differences but there are ones that came with series one LRs and then there are many more that came with series twos or later.

Capstans are easy to use once you know how, if the rope slips and will not pull the load because you cannot put enough tension on the rope it just means that you have to throw another turn around the capstan. The same principle is used on fishing boats to recover nets, pots etc as well as on yachts to raise the sails

The going rate is a little variable as it depends like all things on ebay as to who else is looking for one at the same time as you. The series two ones without the driving links go for $350 to $450. I am pretty sure that there are capstans that came with RR and they are rarer than the series two ones and I would put those at over $500. The one person that would have all this stuff at his finger tips is the chief 80" anorak and also has one of the first RRs that came into Aus but he is not on this forum.

I am sure that Diana will be able to provide some further info given her research when getting the driving links made up.