Winch on chipper

[eggsarascal]

How do these electric winches fair on chippers? I've used quite a few 12v, bumper mounted winches and they are great for 5 minutes use for self recovery but for continuous/repetitive use I found they kept burning out the components.

 

I'd of thought a hydraulic winch would be more suited.

 

It'd be easy enough to fit a thermal overload trip to save the stator windings.

[richy_B]

Many a year ago in a previous role we have superwinch ep9 (or similar name) on hiluxs and burnt out two in no time. Pulling debris/trolleys/similar up a river bank. Of course it does say in the manual for intermittent use only but I don't think anyone read that bit...

 

I may have misunderstood the purpose of mounting a winch on a chipper, I assumed it was to pull heavy loads to the mouth for chipping, hence the concerns about burning them out and the idea of hydraulic being better. If it's for recovery of a stuck chipper then electric sounds like it would be fine.

Edited July 17, 2016 by richy_B

[richy_B]

Are there any big tracked chippers that have them as a factor fit option? Would be nice to have a 'track/chip/winch' all in one nice tidy unit.

[Johny Walker]

Do you not just leave the chipper on fast tickover to keep the battery charging ??

[richy_B]

In my scenario I believe it was the winch motors that burnt out, not the vehicle batteries.

[Mick Dempsey]

I would have thought, amongst other uses, pulling over back leaners/ensuring trees do as they're told whilst falling would be a major attraction. Electric is fine for that.

[monkeybusiness]

Do you not just leave the chipper on fast tickover to keep the battery charging ??

 

Yes, but constant use will still kill a poor battery, engine running or not. Using them without the engine running is only for emergency use as they will flatten even a good battery in no time.

 

Greenmech offer electric winches as a factory fit option - they are sometimes a requirement on railway jobs where a dead chipper has to be quickly self-recoverable off a railway track. They now also offer a 12v hydraulic power pack to allow the tracking function to continue to operate for short periods of time without the need for the engine to be operating (I believe Forst also offer something similar) for the same reason.

 

As mentioned, chipper winches are great for pulling over back-leaners etc, particularly with a radio remote control as the cutter can also control the winch.

[simonm]

For me its mainly for use in tight areas, where the machine cant be tracked back and used to pull something. I have a row of about 80 conifers to fell and chip up, they all have to be brought to the front down a long straight passage, the idea was to fell them, winch them to the chipper in 1 and process them. If they are designed to be used an couple of times on site then they seem an expensive addition.

[Mick Dempsey]

I had an electric super-winch on my Navarra, multiple use would heat it up and you had to let it cool down.

Was still very handy, especially when you get a decent pulley.

[Johny Walker]

do they run better with les cable on ,sure i read that somwere