DIY tirfor winch handle

[Haironyourchest]

Could be, but doubtful. I'm no expert, but if memory serves, industrial chain has more plasticity and less elasticity than wire rope, reason being it doesn't have to flex over shieves. Whereas wire rope does, so when it goes around the shieve, the outer most side of the rope has to stretch, and the side contacting the shieve has to compress. Elasticity is required for this, or the wire rope will suffer bending fatigue. Chain is elastic up to a point, but as a percentage of it's length it's very little. After it's stretched beyond it's elasticity it just continues to stretch and not return to it's original shape. A really high grade chain can stretch to shocking deformation before it fails, but most of the energy is not stored. Wire rope is really safe though, it gives warning well before failure, as individual wires start to break one at a time, pinging loudly. I think the injuries we hear about are mostly from the off-roading community, using negkected, damaged and undersized wire rope with overpowered electric winches without overload clutches to move impossible loads. Or unrated bits breaking off of vehicles.

[Macpherson]

2 hours ago, Haironyourchest said:

(Quote - 5thement) "I’ve got a better idea. Rather than f**k my quality gear up trying to prove a point, why don’t you do it, make a YouTube vid and post it instead, I work for a living."

I only got the China clone with the generic 7x19 strand steel core wire rope. 😞 I work too, but not hard enough to afford a genuine Tirfor. I suppose I could stretch (pun intended) to just the Maxiflex rope, for the sake of experiment, but I know how it would end. Steel rope is steel rope, regardless of the construction. There is no such thing as a non-elastic type. All steel ropes are elastic, store energy. Even chain stores energy, and will recoil some when stretched to breaking point. I'd like to know where you got this information that Maxiflex has no memory. I'm guessing its Tractel marketing speak refering to the property of being able to tolerate a smaller bend radius over snatch block shieves without suffering plastic deformation. If this is the case, as I suspect, it would mean the Maxiflex rope is actually more elastic than the bog standard kind, and therefore more dangerous in a breakage scenario...now, as for operating a Tirfor in reverse, this is one of the intended modes of use. Tractel's own literature, and common sense, indicate this. It don't make any difference to the winch whether it's pulling the rope and load through itself, or pulling itself and load, along the rope. In any case, nobody is going to be able to break a medium to large size Tirfor rope in a month of Sundays, assuming the rope, hook etc is sound. The danger is the sling or strop failing, or slipping off the load.

 

Hi, I use a TU 35 [ occasionally ] which I have pulled a 5 ton [ estimated ] boulder about 30 yards with the Tractel wire rope, wire rope slings and chains... it was at it's limit,

I don't think that the handle was anywhere near long enough and watching your video has given me PTSD😄

 

I don't think that the Tractel rope stretches hardly at all and if a chain slips it's very undramatic.. but it's also very eye opening just how much even large pp  ropes and strops stretch before you get any movement of what your trying to shift.

 

That wee version  looks very handy from my point of view ..  and for a Tirfor what you need is a cable long enough that you do as few resets as possible or you just wear yourself out taking up slack.... But there's no better tool when needed.

 

 

[Stubby]

5 hours ago, Macpherson said:

 

Hi, I use a TU 35 [ occasionally ] which I have pulled a 5 ton [ estimated ] boulder about 30 yards with the Tractel wire rope, wire rope slings and chains... it was at it's limit,

I don't think that the handle was anywhere near long enough and watching your video has given me PTSD😄

 

I don't think that the Tractel rope stretches hardly at all and if a chain slips it's very undramatic.. but it's also very eye opening just how much even large pp  ropes and strops stretch before you get any movement of what your trying to shift.

 

That wee version  looks very handy from my point of view ..  and for a Tirfor what you need is a cable long enough that you do as few resets as possible or you just wear yourself out taking up slack.... But there's no better tool when needed.

 

 

I could never get mine into neutral so that I could pull the wire rope through manually . That was a pain .

[Vedhoggar]

On 02/09/2021 at 13:09, harveyWhite said:

I've lost the handle from my tirfor winch and would like to know whether anyone has made their own rather than replacing it for over £100. If anyone has any ideas on what to use I would appreciate it.

Use a section of scaffolding pole for years on one with no problem.

[openspaceman]

9 hours ago, Haironyourchest said:

Whereas wire rope does, so when it goes around the shieve, the outer most side of the rope has to stretch,

Yes but that's why it's twisted in a cable lay so the tension on any individual strand is the same even when it goes round a pulley.

 

I suppose the type of steel in a chain differs between types as a load binder chain is much milder than a grade T choker chain and yes the load binder deforms plastically a long way before it breaks. Choker chain less so and it always struck me breaking a choker chain was more exciting than breaking a wire rope.

[openspaceman]

25 minutes ago, Vedhoggar said:

Use a section of scaffolding pole for years on one with no problem.

I cannot remember how I got my Tirfor handle, it didn't come with the winches which were second hand, but before that I would use the handle from a Hi Lift jack as that was in the Land Rover and held on by a split pin.

 

Scaffold pole would be far to heavy for me to carry in to the sorts of places I needed a winch. Now the Eder 1800 with 100m of rope and a pulley and chain can be carried in and is lighter than the t35 and its wire rope.

[Khriss]

12 hours ago, roys said:

I use my Tirfor on a fairly regular basis and I use the maxi flex rope, I can’t argue one way on the other about its memory but something i was taught back in the 80’s and still do it, is once the rope section under tension is more than about 5 or 6 meters is to put a tarp / salvage sheet or even a big jacket over it. This was in case part of the system failed the flying rope energy would be arrested, no idea if this idea is out of date or superseded.

Yes, always good to put a 'drogue on the attachment. Often noted in training, K

[Rough Hewn]

I use my Tirfor on a fairly regular basis and I use the maxi flex rope, I can’t argue one way on the other about its memory but something i was taught back in the 80’s and still do it, is once the rope section under tension is more than about 5 or 6 meters is to put a tarp / salvage sheet or even a big jacket over it. This was in case part of the system failed the flying rope energy would be arrested, no idea if this idea is out of date or superseded.

I worked in a concrete slab factory when I was younger. We used 6mm high tensile steel wires 124m long. Normally 130 wires at a time.
On a 2.5m x 125m bed.
The wires were plugged into a giant ram,
(300+tons)
Which stretched the wires the extra meter.
The slabs of concrete were usually 50-60mm thick.
You could stand in the middle of one wire, 15-20mm off the bed, and it wouldn’t touch the bed.
The dangerous part was once the wires had been tightened and before the steel segments were put down.
And they did pop.
When they do, the most dangerous place to be is at either end.
I only saw one snap.
I watched as my mate stood in horror at one end, as a tornado of spinning wire flew at him with incredible speed.
It span round him and dropped to the floor like a giant slinky.
Not a mark on him.
The following week we had to weld buckles every 5m or so to pull heavy cargo straps across.

[woody paul]

Have heard and seen more accidents and near deaths with poly and nylon rope with shackle on the end then any steel cable. 

Joined 2 ropes years ago with shackle and gave it a pull with small loader first rope broke sending shackle attached to rope along the ground at speed it hit a men at work sign we had put out punching a hole right through it.

[Marc Lewis]

I used tube off of an old trampoline