Thread: Cheapo hand winch

In general, you get what you pay for, even when it comes to hand winches. A lot depends, of course, on the intended use. On the other hand, a cheap winch that won't do the job when needed isn't worth a single buck.
I have a Tirfor, slightly oversized for my vehicles, and am happy with it. Good to know it could -theoretically- lift the vehicle straight out of the mess .

Originally Posted by Jojo

I have a Tirfor, slightly oversized for my vehicles, and am happy with it. Good to know it could -theoretically- lift the vehicle straight out of the mess .

If your arms are big enough !!

Most of those types of winch are pretty useless. The reason is simple EFFORT REQUIRED!

Perhaps Jojo or someone with a Tirfor or similar could post a pick of the handle on one of the "proper" hand winches. (Remeber Archimedes? Hope spelling is right!)

I bought one of the cheaper cable one's once. Very hard work and very slow as the line pull is also fairly small. This means you need drag chain or something else that won't stretch to reach something suitable to winch from. Then you find half your winching effort/line pull goes in to taking up the slack before you have to reset the whole lot again!

We use Tirfor's in the SES to shift just about anything, including the Unit Cruiser, which the last time we did it, had the park brake on and 1st gear engaged. I dragged it over two pieces of 100x50 timber and a couple of bricks and so did the others in the Unit, including a 14 year old female cadet; the Cruiser was in our compound which was dry bitumen! In neutral with no brake on, the winching is very easy if somewhat slow.

It can also be used as a hoist, provided a strong enough beam can be found.

I recommend them very highly!

Cheers Chazza

Originally Posted by chazza

We use Tirfor's in the SES to shift just about anything, including the Unit Cruiser, which the last time we did it, had the park brake on and 1st gear engaged. I dragged it over two pieces of 100x50 timber and a couple of bricks and so did the others in the Unit, including a 14 year old female cadet; the Cruiser was in our compound which was dry bitumen! In neutral with no brake on, the winching is very easy if somewhat slow.

It can also be used as a hoist, provided a strong enough beam can be found.

I recommend them very highly!

Cheers Chazza

One of my last jobs witrh a hand winch we dragged a mates Holden Drover (remember them) up a fairly steep hill on Monkey Gum trail only to find the guy had left it in reverse, took a fair bit of effort but we did it. (Remember that one Numpty)

I've also used a T-35 to drag a 4x4 bedford truck sideways, they are a lot of work but pretty reliable.

Martyn


Martyn

Originally Posted by HangOver

I was just thinking about those wire "come along" winch thingy’s.
I saw one in supercrap for about $70 bucks or some thing like that, it said it's SWL was around 4500kg, but a tirfor (however it's spelt) costs 4 times as much and the SWL is about the same?

In those immortal words "Please Explain" ?

They ought to be thrown in Jail for advertising that pile of Crap with a SWL of 4500kgs. That would make the cable have a Guaranteed Breaking Strain (GBS) of 27000kgs, Safe Working Load (SWL) is figured as a Fraction of GBS in this case a Safety Factor (SF) of 6, i.e. 1/6 of the GBS is the SWL of the cable. A simple formula for working out the SWL of wire rope, in this case Galvanised High tensile 6 strand wire rope with a rope inner core (general purpose), measure the diameter of the wire, e.g. 10mm, formula for SWL is Dia. Squared X 10= 10x10x10 = 1000kgs SWL, for a winch or Tirfor rope add about 20% to this figure, because proper winch rope has 7 strand construction with the seventh strand replacing the rope inner core of standard wire cable, this is to prevent crushing when rolled thru pulleys or onto a winch drum. Most of the cable hand winches (cum-alongs) have about 6mm wire rope (dont know if it is 7 strand or not), so SWL would be 6x6x10 360kgs SWL, a far cry from the advertised SWL. Most electric winches on the market advertise the GBS of the wire rope as the Working Load of their winches, this is DANGEROUS and Probably ILLEGAL, always work to the SWL of your Cable and not the Ridiculous loads spruiked by winch manufacturers and sellers, Regards Frank.

Originally Posted by HangOver

I was just thinking about those wire "come along" winch thingy’s.
I saw one in supercrap for about $70 bucks or some thing like that, it said it's SWL was around 4500kg, but a tirfor (however it's spelt) costs 4 times as much and the SWL is about the same?

In those immortal words "Please Explain" ?

P.S. what should have alerted you to the ridiculous claim of the same Load as the Tirfor was the difference in the size of the 2 cables, the Tirfor's cable would have been twice the dia. of the cum-along, SIZE really does count, at least in winching, Regards Frank.

Originally Posted by cookiesa

Perhaps Jojo or someone with a Tirfor or similar could post a pick of the handle on one of the "proper" hand winches. (Remeber Archimedes? Hope spelling is right!)

Well, here comes the pic, the whole lot in the back of the Disco. The handle is a telescopic one and can be extended to double the length (not seen on the photograph, though).


Cheers