I thought i'd try this here as you guys know a bit about whinches, at least i hope you guys do .

Anyway my dad picked up a warn MX 8000lb winch in the fall for use on our trailer (and for use on a reciever for general farm dutioes), its was used but it had been gone through and its has new solenoids, brushes, cleaned and regrease, etc, paid 500 bucks (canadian) for it. And we finally got mounts built for it on our trailer (its removeable) and so far its worked great and we've dragged home 5 vehicles (2 running 48 ford 1 tons, 2 late 60's fairlanes for parts, and one 27' model A truck that would still turns over and has anitfreeze in it ) in the last week.

Well my question about this winch is that is it alright to leave it under load like after loading up a vehicle on the trailer (we did this then chain and boomer on the other end as we only had a few miles to haul these vehicles)? I asking as i personally have never been inside one of these things and other than the hand operated ones on various pieces of farm equipment i don't know much other than typical operating uses.

 

If it has a brake built into it, it's fine. If not, you won't want to depend on it to hold the load. Not sure of the specs on this winch, so I don't know it it has a built in brake.

I DEFINITELY wouldn't want to depend on it to hold while towing though. I do this with my ATV's, but in combination with tie downs and it's just to hold it tight against the front of the trailer.

 

yeah if we would've been going any further that what we did we would've use a chain and boomer.

I do remember that the guy we bought it from said it had an internal brake, but i'm still not entirely confident in it, but that was one of the pirposes of this .

 

Just remember that it's brake is most likely based on it's internal gears and using to hold weight "could" cause damage to it. It's only meant to hold things for short periods of time.

 

it'd be fine for short distances but i just couldn't trust the winch to hold a load like that, regardless of the brake. it'd just be safer if you could chain it down. i know tow trucks do it all the time when they have a load on the flatbed but i cringe evertime i see it! i dunno, maybe i am too careful but then again i haven't heard of any instances where a load was lost due to the winch letting go.

just my opinion!

-cutts-

 

Many tow trucks with flatbeds have a Pierce hydraulic winch that is very heavy duty and has an automatic brake and its gears (or shaft in some cases) can withstand the shock loads put on it by vehicles in transit. The min. winch line thickness is usually 5/8!

Most winches are not up to this kind of service duty or carry this heavy of a line. So, I would not do it with only a 8K Warn.

As for procedure, you are suppose to chain the vehicle on each side, without a boomer, and then use the winch to pull everything tight.

 

yea all tow trucks use hydro winches which are built differently and they can take a shock load but like i said i would still be really skeptical and prolly wouldn't get much faster than about 35mph for a couple of miles. it's just how i grew up, my dad has taught me to be careful.

just do this, load the vehicle, chain the rear and tighten the chains with the winch, then chain the front as tight as you can, then let SOME slack in the winch cable. this will provide you with 4 solid points of anchor in case the winch lets go you can still stop on the side of the road and tighten everythign down!

BTW, rebo... where are you in atlanta? i am working at piedmont hospital right now and if you are ever over there stop by the 1984 building 6th floor. i'll be chillin with the computer geeks

-cutts-

 

Yeah we usually chain everything down on all 4 corners crisscrossed (we use boomers all chains and wrap the slack around the boomer to prevent it from coming undone), but like i said before we only had 3 miles to go and we didn't get above 40mph, but i was wondering about, and now i know .

 

> BTW, rebo... where are you in atlanta

exit 43 off I-285

 

isn't that Riverdale Road? if so thats how i go home! then i get on 314 and head into fayetteville, then straight on till i get to brooks. i go to skool in griffin!

-cutts-

 

Covington Highway, Avondale