vehicle winching directional felling

[Charlieh]

just a quick question to those of you have done more of this than me, when using a vehicle winch for directional felling what should be your weakest link ie item with the lowest breaking strain

 

also what should be the weakest point when using the winch through a re-directional pulley, i know ideally all points should be matched, but tbh i think its better to have an item you know is weaker than the others so if it does go, it allows for planning the risk better, in most cases i would say the strap on the tree should be the weakest point, but most straps are rated significantly higher than items such as bow shackles etc.

 

all thoughts appreciated, as i want to be able to justify this on risk assessments

[Bolt]

I think.....

That the winch its self should be the 'weakest' link.

 

 

 

In other words, all componens should be rated higher than the winches max pull.

[3dogs]

The weak link should be the whinch, everything should be rated equal or idealy above the maximum pulling capacity of the whinch. so in theory the whinch should just stop or allow the cable to be released if the tree goes against the direction of fell:thumbup1:.

Edited November 16, 2010 by 3dogs

[ecolojim]

another thing to be conscious of is, dependant on the weight of the tree, the 'lowest rated' component may be the weight of the winch vehicle

 

Id want the winch to stall before anything broke. at least then the load can be let off in a controlled manner. any other component failure could result in a totally out of control tree

[madmatt]

This is a point i have discussed endlessly at work! there in my opinnion should be no weak link betweeen the winch and what its attached to. all shackles and straps should be rated above the pull of the winch. The overload protection should come in one of the following forms,

 

Electric winch - additional overload control box

Hydraulic - should have a relief valve blow before the line is over swl

PTO - there will be a slip clutch in the system set to a pre defined torque.

 

 

I understand you are talking about a felling operation here, but i find it quite concerning people talk about weak links, if theese do fail you'll have recoiling winch rope causing damage to a vehicle or god forbid a human! oh and contry to popular belief even fibre winch ropes recoil!

[chris cnc]

in a hand operated winch the handle is designed to break when it reaches its limit. perhaps there is a similar mechanism in a vehicle operated winch?

[Stephen Blair]

Charlie, you want to be able to strop a 150horse tractor to your landy if you get stuck mate, as the boys say, the winch should power out well before anything snaps. I have NEVER taken a week point into consideration when winching stuff over, big is best, going wrong isnt an option.

[Charlieh]

cool cheers guys, its never been an issue using smaller winches as everything was well exceeding the winchs limits, also my old smaller winches had thermal cut outs on them so if they drew to much current they just stopped until they cooled enough.

 

I will aim to find some bigger bow shackles and accessories. Also i know they winch could well shift the truck if not set up correctly, so was planning on using wheel chocks to help the situation

 

many thanks

 

C

[Stephen Blair]

chalks away mate, i think Big Andy made some last year, they were mint:thumbup1:

[Charlieh]

there are some ex mod steel ones on ebay that look much like the one Mr Monkey-D had in one of his pics recently, look nice and solid, with enough hight on them to be useful think some of the designs the winch would just pull the vehicle over them