Winch Cable - Hard or Soft Eye

The cable at the rear allows the winching of a vehicle or heavy stuff onto a trailer if you are towing one.
The only time I have needed the cable on the front is when I think I may have trouble with the track ahead and may need to self recover forwards and I am usually able to do this before hand.
The best example I can think of is towing a 1.5 tonne Jayco camper van into the Silent Creek camp site on a Winter rallie with the AMVCS one year and it was wet.
It turned out the winch was never used.........but was prefitted to the front , just in case.( before the lockers were fitted too)
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...09/09/1006.jpg
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p...ugust05021.jpg
The biggest problem winching with the 101 is it tends to be used for pulling other vehicles out of trouble which are normally heavier than the 101s 2 tonnes.......kitted patrols and cruisers usually are about 2.5 tonnes........ is pegging the thing down is it doesnt move whisle winching.

As standard the 101 winch has one speed out and four speeds in with three of them alot faster.
I would if re threading the cable back on the storage drum would thread it though the capstan the opposite way to give three faster speeds winch out as you always tend to winch in slowly and need the speed to winch out because of the no free wheel on the cable like a normal winch.

Thanks for that Ron, the previous owner of my 101 said that in the 8 or 9 years he had been travelling around he had only ever used the winch once and that was in a salt lake pan in SA. The winch was set up on the front and the guy said it took him ages to change the cable to the rear to winch back out. But it did work well.

In the little possy in the drivers footwell - I found a ring spanner all by itself which matches the bolts on the winch fittings so I assume it was being kept specifically for the winch.

Garry

By having the cable at the rear it is nice to know you can get out of the poo as fast as you got in.
The 101 in the vid below is idling itself out on the winch with out me in the cab
[ame=http://s131.photobucket.com/albums/p299/101Ron/?action=view&current=CLIP0075.flv]https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...09/09/1005.jpg[/ame]
Note the speed of the winch in third gear near the end of the vid( the wheels were not driving.( I love the little girls comment)

Same poo hole , but this time the 101 is nose on to a tree with a tree truck protector to the front pintle and winching the cruiser out in second gear....rear pull from the 101.
[ame=http://s131.photobucket.com/albums/p299/101Ron/?action=view&current=CLIP0068.flv]https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...009/12/944.jpg[/ame]

Same poo hole again with a different vehicle being pulled.
The cable doesnt show up in the vid, but it shows the 101 set up anchored to the tree and winching out the rear.
[ame=http://s131.photobucket.com/albums/p299/101Ron/?action=view&current=CLIP0071.flv]https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...09/09/1004.jpg[/ame]

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Originally Posted by garrycol

Thanks Dave - that is the sort of information I am after specifically related to the pros and cons. However the other information that has come out is really interesting and I will have a closer look at a Wedge Socket.

As always - thanks to Ron for your input - I will ask on the 101 site if anyone knows where I can get a genuine 101 cable swage.

Thanks

Garry

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Garry, a suggestion, have a long loop put on the end of your rope, say a foot long, get a hard eye, fit it in the end of the loop and tie it in place with whipping twine (greasy string), like you see in the rigging on sailing ships/boats.
This will hold your hard eye in place, will allow you to use it like a swaged in hard eye and most importantly when you want to remove the rope all you have to do is cut the whipping and remove the hard eye, Regards Frank.

Thanks Frank - that is an option.

Cheers

Garry