tirfor maintenance

[bill]

i cant believe my luck, one of my neighbours has given me a t13 and a t35! the old model winches. they both work but need a good clean and grease. does anyone have a manual for these in pdf? also anyone ever took one apart and cleaned them out? what would i use to so this? im in tirfor heaven:001_cool:

[treequip]

They don’t usually need cleaning, Mine got quite muddy once so I pressure washed it out and oiled it.

Not a bit of bother before or since.

 

Andy

[Mick Stockbridge]

Had mine for well over ten years.Bought it second hand and have never done a bit of maintenance. If it does go wrong I,ll let a specialist deal with it.

[Andy Collins]

have 3 tirfors, one was seized when I was given it, so soaked it in diesel for a week, flushed it out and freed it off, just gave it a liberal greasing up and it works fine now.

[Log-ologist]

Make sure you have the proper shear pins fitted not just a bit of 6"nail or even welded up. If it has then its been overloaded and could fail on you.

[saxonman]

I have mine serviced/and tested once a year for around £30 get the experts to do it well worth it

[Stephen Blair]

I usually just give it a good wash out and store in a dry place, The only problem i have ever had was the wrong thickness of wire rope and it kinked. It cost me about 30 pounds to get repaired and a second hand wire was 50 pounds with shackle. worth there weight in gold. Mine is a 5 tonner. The guy from the company tried to buy it off me because he said the new ones a soft. I know 2 guys that bought new ones and both are broke and cant be repaired because they are cast. They werent actual turfers. You have one a watch my friend.

[nepia]

i cant believe my luck, one of my neighbours has given me a t13 and a t35! the old model winches. they both work but need a good clean and grease. does anyone have a manual for these in pdf? also anyone ever took one apart and cleaned them out? what would i use to so this? im in tirfor heaven:001_cool:

 

Made the mistake of taking my small one apart when I got it as per the instructins on the label; bad move. Needed three pairs of hands to get it back together and still left out a non-vital spring. Label also said 'can never have too much oil' so I regularly pour chain oils all over them and let them drain.

 

Anyone know of a Tirfor service engineer E/Surrey, W/Kent, S/S.E.London? The closest I know of at the mo are Honey Bros but they are 40 mins drive away.

[Treewolf]

Over the years I have stripped and rebuilt a number of Tirfors. It is not difficult - the engineering is straightforward - but some parts are VERY awkward to reassemble. There are several springs which can drop off when you dismantle the unit before you have had the chance to see where they go. Unless there is some pressing reason to do so (like it doesn't work) then I would recommend NOT taking it to bits.

 

The biggest problem if you do it yourself is that Tractel (who makes them) absolutely won't sell you any spare internal parts, they will only supply them to an accredited service agent. If you can persuade the local agent to get the parts for you, you're laughing. Parts are not cheap either, but they are of course very high quality. If you need a test certificate (which you will if you use it for lifting/lowering as opposed to dragging objects on the ground) it also is difficult to test the unit youself unless you happen to have a calibrated load cell or dynamometer.

 

Generally speaking there is little to go wrong unless the unit has been seriously abused, although if I bought a second-hand machine and didn't know its history, I would definitely either overhaul it myself of take it to a dealer for a service and retest to make sure it hasn't been damaged. (I have seen units bought on ebay that have been bodged together to make them work so they can be sold as "good working order").

 

Keep them as clean as possible and well lubricated, and always make sure the correct shear pin is fitted. The rope for a Tirfor (or any other 'griphoist' machine) is not standard wire rope, it is made to tighter tolerances, so it is not a good idea to use anything other than rope designed for the purpose and for the right size machine. If the rope gets kinked you will have a problem.

 

If it is looked after sensibly, a Tirfor will outlast most of us. Personally I would never bother with one of the cheaper look-alike copies, would always go for the genuine article.

 

Most of the operating instructions and manuals are now available on line but the sare parts lists are not - these also are only available to accredited service agents.

[nepia]

A comprehensive reply - thanks a lot. I take it you don't kow how I find an 'agent'...?

Cheers.