electric vs hydraulic winch

[mfrsr]

i've got a Daihatsu Delta 6 tonne truck for carrying my utes and a box-body that im turning into a slide-on camper. The theory being that it'll be on runners so i can winch it on and off. the actual design of the system is sorted, im just working on fitting a winch to the truck.

It's already got an electric-hydraulic powerpack for the tip deck (ex-council truck). i've priced up and sourced some of the parts i need to convert it to a full PTO driven system (pto unit, pump, control cables, switching valves, hoses etc) and it's working out to be around about $1600. that's without buying the drum end of a winch and an orbital motor. In that design i'd be converting the tip deck to PTO driven, single acting as it's only a drop ram, and also having a double flow circuit for the winch. It's fairly complicated but easy to make using tractor hydraulic remotes.

The downside to doing it that way is i'll end up with some fairly vulnerable parts sitting below the level of the gearbox under the truck. it gets stuck and sinks to the axles already, i use it a lot for work on the farm so i don't really want to risk damaging bits.

For about the same cost im thinking i could just mount an electric winch onto the deck instead, put a decent truck-sized battery in it, good thick cabling to the winch and just be done with it. The current problem is that the cycling load on the battery from using the tip deck a few times in a short period is enough to drain the battery almost completely, putting too much load on the alternator. Battery is only a NS70, so not very big.

The box body will only weigh about 2 tonnes max when it's finished. What size winch will i need? and can it work effectively mounted off to the side or will it ideally need to be mounted so it's a straight pull? I'm limited in that regard as the centre of the headboard is already full of hydraulic ram mounting brackets.

Whatever system i use, i still need to retain clear deck space, so the winch needs to be either under the deck or in front of the headboard.


I've been looking on http://www.winch.co.nz and that's what im basing my figures on, basically it doesn't need to be a big-dollar item as it'd only get used about 10 times a year, and it wont be getting dunked in mud/water like it would on the front of a 4wd.


anyone got any thoughts?

Cheers

[wjw]

Something like this?



http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/ecars/Foers/Winch.html

[mudlva]

for the cost and the amount its going to be used go 24 volt electric 10000lb would be heaps oof grunt and just have the truck running when you do the loading etc

its not like you are going to be going thru thompsons are you... or are you

[mfrsr]

oh, that's the other thing, truck is 12v not 24v.


wjw: i think you might have missed the mark...it's not a 4wd, it's a 6 tonne flatdeck truck. I'm thinking more along the lines of how tow trucks have their winch setups.


but if i've got the winch mounted offset to one side on the deck, if i put the rope thru a 90 degree turn is this going to reduce the pulling power much?

[wjw]

Recovery trucks usually have the winch drum center mounted in the deck (even the ones with hydraulic decks where the entire deck moves), If you wanted to side mount it, all you would need really would be an anchor point in the middle that you could put a pulley/snatch block on.

90 degree turn won't affect the power providing you use a good quality snatch block. The only issue may be the rope winding back onto the drum. This is where a larger winch, ie 12,000lbs would be better as the drums are generally larger and will allow more layers of rope in a small section of drum.

The Warn winch I bought which was off a recovery truck had 15 meters of wire rope on it, so even when wound into one spot it still didn't bind up.

[wjw]

http://www.chevroncommercial.com/new_products.aspx

<< Side Mount Winch
The Side Mount Winch allows the operator to easily adjust a sliding pulley assembly into nine different positions for a straight line pull with loading vehicles with screw in tow eyes or hooks. The option is available with a 9,000- or 12,000-pound planetary winch and requires a stationary cab protector or the SP 8,000 Sidepuller option.

[mfrsr]

now that's a neat idea. food for thought anyway.

So i should be looking at the larger sizes then? To get a bigger drum size.

Cheers for the help

[wjw]

I would say work out how long the line pull needs to be as you have a specific job for it and start from there. Can't remember the dudes name at winch.co.nz but if you know how much cable you need and call him I'm sure he could make a recommendation.

It'll need to be length of cable + whatever the minimum number of turns on the winch is.

I have seen a device that attaches to the front of the winch to spool the rope on nicely, but can't find it now

I'm sure some other guys on here will have some advice about bunching cable.

[mudlva]

the chap at winch.co.nz is Mike

[meatc]

To stop the bunching have the cable come through a small centered to the drum fairlead as far from the drum as you can (mounting the winch on the side like the pics above will work) It will still bunch a bit under light load but the greater the load the flatter it will go on. Thats how most rear winches work. Mine has 750mm from the tube to the drum and peaks when no load but is all but flat wound in under a decent load.

You aren't talking that much cable in your application either so shouldn't be a big deal , particularly if the load (ute or cabin) is comng up straight and centered.

[mfrsr]

yeah, thinking about it the deck is 4m or so long, so probably 15metres would be more than enough.

After i get the runners bolted under the box body it'll have a chain across between them with a leader long enough to reach the front of the body, so it's anchored maybe a third of the way down it's length. that way when i winch it on it'll be able to lift straight up behind the truck, then pivot as it comes up. Will have vertical guides attached to the back of the truck to stop it getting damaged.
To secure the body tidily it needs to be as close to the headboard as possible so, i'm thinking i'd mount the winch under the deck straight up through it a pulley at the bottom of the headboard. I don't want to put it on the chassis if i can avoid it, i want to be able to use the tipper as normal.


Unloading theory is to run cable out the back of the body to a pulley on something solid and winch it off the deck. Needs to be sitting flat on the ground when it's not on the truck so it's still useable.