Winch Design

[bluesman0007]

First experience using a winch. I am moving a 40,000 lbs load horizontally on rollers onto a table. The load will be about nine feet away from the winch on inital pull. I have a pulley that is located about a 6-8 inches from the end of the table. The winch is located under the table out of the way. Between the pulley and the winch is a wide roller to let the cable transition from the pulley to the spool on the winch. Is this a typical set-up? I was concerned that the pulley to winch directly might ball the cable up in the middle of the drum and not allow it to wind properly. Am I close....

Thanks in advance.

 

[zeusfaber]

Drum winches will pay on fairly neatly without laying-on gear provided that:

a. You keep a bit of tension on the cable

and

b. There's enough distance between the drum and anything (pulley, fairlead, load) which will constrain the ability of the cable to travel across the drum. I think (deepest recesses of memory here) the usual rule rule is that you don't want the drum width to subtend more than about three degrees angle measured at the fairlead.

A.

 

[bluesman0007]

Thanks, zeusfaber.

I have about ten degrees from the pulley, and from the roller even more so maybe I would be better off getting more distance away from the drum and forget the roller. One suggestion I got here was to go with a wider pulley to allow for winding on the drum but I want to get a straight pull on the load and I think that using a roller would increase the chance that the load may not register on the table like it should. Any thoughts on that senario.

Thanks,

 

[unclesyd]

Put a “fairlead” on the winch to insure the cable is played in and out without stacking.

Is this going to be an ongoing operation or a single event?

 

[bluesman0007]

unclesyd,

This is an operation to unload onto table from work position. A winch will be located on the work side to pull it back but that will have to have a different set-up but will require a winch also. I'm thinking this will happen in about 30 sec. but won't know till I get it hooked up. I will do a search on the fairlead to find one suitable.


Thanks.