interesting read in this thread..... im still working on a wee idea i had some time ago.. since I had several spare chainsaws lying around doing nothing i thought "why not build a portable winch, powerful enough to pull out anything that the steel rope will handle, and yet light and small enough to keep in a relatively small tool chest on the back, and carry to where it will be used..."
the result, planetary gears on a spool driven off a 52cc chainsaw pto..............
basically the spool will have a wishbone off the axle to connect to the strop round a tree, so its only putting pressure on a 16mm axle, the chainsaw is basically off to one side and wont be affected by the weight on it......
any angle, any situation, no need for the vehicles engine to be running and no need for bigger or duel batteries......
still trying to work out the planetary gears I will use.... thinking somewhere along the lines of 256:1 with a ratchet locking system on the spool.... only problem i can forsee is that chainsaws cant run backwards, you will just have to turn the spool manually with a big bar to unlock the ratchet to spool it out (if theres weight on it)
with no weight on it, it should spool out easily.....
PATENT PENDING! haha
