Setting up a 30 ton mechanical winch

Marmon, I've had both types. You can drive it with a hydraulic motor as I did in the first pic. Or drive it off the PTO. You will have to do some calculations to get the winch speed you want or just take the info off someones setup you like. As you may know, mechanical drives will pull til the cable breaks. The hydraulic drive I had was ran by a simple woodsplitter valve and could be adjusted. It didn't have near the pulling power the mech did, but in a pinch, I could have any idiot off the street work the valve while I drove the dead tractor or whatever. And a snatch block was always available for when its too hard of a pull.

 

If your winch is equipped with a reversible transmission built in a mechanical drive is great as long as you are the only one to operate it. Running a shaft back from the pto to a steady bearing and a chain drive to the input of the winch with a shearpin in the lower shaft is almost unbeatable for true pulling power. If the winch does not have a reversing lever on it the only was to mechanically drive it is with a reversing pto.
if that winch is not equipped with a guide plate to control the "lay of the cable" then plan on re-spooling the cable every time it is used and replacing the cable because of flat spotting from overlays under load. For this reason winching from inside the cab without a direct view of the winch is not a great idea. This is why most winch trucks are daycabs and many have rolldown windows in the back.
this is a great reason to go hydraulic drive with outside controls even if the tank and oil will add extra weight. if you tune your pressure bypass you may not need a shearpin in the drive for protection.

 

A terrible disappointing memory from my early teenage years was how I let my dad down winching a dozer out of the mud. It was a pretty big dozer, and it was down bad. We pulled the old winch truck, which looked similar to truckdad’s photos except it was single axle, into the job site with a big tractor and spun the tractor tires down to make a deadman to hold the truck. Then snatch block the cable to the dozer and a distant tree. Started the pull, and the dozer finally started to come out, the operator being careful to help a little but not spin the tracks. I was running the winch truck. Sometime during the pull the cable slipped down into the fifth wheel jaws. I saw it, but didn’t stop because the dozer was finally coming up. I remember debating in my mind whether to stop and get the cable out of the fifth wheel. But I didn’t.
When it was all over, I had to show dad how the cable was splintered for a good distance from pulling through those jaws. He was mad, but didn’t whip me with his belt.
That cable is still on the old winch truck, which hasn’t moved from its resting spot at the back of the yard in over 30 years.

 

You should be able to contact the manufacturer with the model # and serial# and ask for the ideal input speed of the winch.
Plan to gear it to hit that speed at engine 2000rpm with the chain riser from the pto shaft (or hydraulic motor if you decide to go that route).
That will give you a smooth engagement with throttle response to vary your pulling line speed and torque.

 

So Marmon, tell us what you are going to be doing with a 30 ton winch on the back of a cabover?? Just wondering here...…………….

 

You’ve got to be careful running a winch off a side mounted or bottom mounted PTO. These are lighter duty PTOs and have a max torque rating, I’ve seen them ripped off the transmission because somebody tried to get too much torque out of them.

Most transmissions have a PTO option off the back (powered by the mainshaft) or on top of the transmission (power tower). Both of these setups usually are rated for max engine torque, and is how most big oilfield winches are driven.

Hydraulic drive is a good option, but it’s going to take a big motor and pump, or it will be painfully slow and/or not enough torque.