Greetings all.

I was taking a break yesterday when the garbage truck came to empty the dumpster. They hooked a cable up to the rear of the dumpster and tipped it up and emptied it into the truck. At first I thought it had a winch on there but it doesn't. On top of the truck is a cable fastened to the rear of the roof. The cable loops around a pully on a hydraulic ram and comes back through a steel guide, and hangs off the back. Retracting the ram loosens the cable and extending it pulls the cable in.

I'm thinking I could make a setup like this under the bed of my truck. I'd only get a pull length of half the length of the ram, but usually that's all that's needed. Multiple rams in opposite directions could increase the distance, or allow front and rear pulling.

Heavy duty winches are expensive but I can get almost any hydraulic parts for nothing.

Any comments or thoughts? Anyone done anything similar?

Just a thought.

Kevin K.

 

no ofense meant but if you only have to pull a short distance (10-15 feet) you must not have ever been really stuck with the neerest anchor being 150 feet away with deep mud for at least 50 feet in every direction as in an open field. But yes for very short distantance it would be ok if you already have onboard hydraulics

 

The real problem is cable slack and cable stretch. I think four feet of stroke might do it for a short run of cable <50 feet. Remember, the garbage truck is using a 3/4 to 1 inch cable with little slack or stretch.

This cyl. from northerntools.com might do. I know they use Prince for a lot of the aftermarket dump bodies.

To pull a stuck pickup truck, for the pulling I think you would need a one inch pin and min. of a three inch tube and 36 inch stroke.

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Buy the time the smoke clears you'll have spent more than the price of a winch for something that doesn't work as well as one. But it's always good to look at different ideas.

 

You're probably right. But I'm more the "Junkyard Wars" type than the "Two Guys Garage" type. I'd rather build than bolt on.

I mean, what's the point in bolting on a winch that'll work perfectly from the start when you can spend days and weeks and twice as much money building a psuedo-winch that probably won't work at all, and if it does, would probably break the first time you use it?

Where's your sense of adventure?

K.

 

ya that can be fun, My sense of adventure is going places where you need a good winch but building is fun to.