ARB + PTO - cut or run?

[cruiserdan]

I have both PTO and electric winches in the fleet. If you are in a situation where it's a one-man show, I'd much rather have an electric winch.
If I had the disposable funds I'd pull the PTO off my BJ74 and put a 24 volt Comeup back in its place.

 

[JDM Journeys]

I have both PTO and electric winches in the fleet. If you are in a situation where it's a one-man show, I'd much rather have an electric winch.
If I had the disposable funds I'd pull the PTO off my BJ74 and put a 24 volt Comeup back in its place.

Agreed. This rig is not likely to be in a mudfest situation and is built for mild trails and big camping trips. My younger days of winch fests and miles of cable, snatch blocks and tree savers is hopefully not where this truck is destined.

And having a 5 speed winch is kinda cool.

 

[clintnz]

Some great comments above. There are definitely (dis)advantages with either setup.

One thing I'd add is if going electric you also need to think about the power supply - not an issue for many cruisers with 2 big batts & 24V - but the ability to pull with engine off that is often mentioned as a big advantage of an electric winch may only get you about 6' if you've got a really stuck truck with a big load & a small battery. Even with the engine going it is easy to go from just being stuck to being stuck with a dead battery if you haven't got the alternator & batteries to keep up with the nice big motors on many modern winches.

I really like my PTO but with the LJ7* (&KZJ) it is possible to do a very low profile custom install that isn't possible on other 7* due to the front crossmember location. The speed & power is really nice. I almost always have a co-driver who knows how to drive the truck & use the winch too.

On shear pins - I use a 4mm high tensile cap screw & nylok nut. I have never damaged anything in the PTO drivetrain with that setup. Mates have drilled theirs out & run bigger without issue but It'll pull pretty hard on 4mm. Carry spares & the tools to install them. With a bit of experience I can feel things loading up well before the shear pin breaks so I'll rarely pop one now. Run a higher gear/lower revs to get a better feel for the load on the winch.

For the love of god do not run wire rope on a Toyota PTO winch. It's mission in life is to loop off the side of the drum & cause a horrible snarl up at best or more likely destroy your freespool mechanism. I use 30m of 12mm UHMWPE rope - kinda overkill but the shear pin will ALWAYS break before the rope. The lower stretch helps with getting a feel for the load too I think. It's better to have a bit less length on the drum & carry a few extensions rather than fill it up. Another thing I did was move the outer fairlead rollers in a bit to make it less likely that the rope will feed off the side of the drum. Put big labels on the freespool lever positions, often when out in a group someone random will be helping out with a recovery who doesn't know how your PTO works.

Cheers
Clint

 

[JDM Journeys]

Some great comments above. There are definitely (dis)advantages with either setup.

One thing I'd add is if going electric you also need to think about the power supply - not an issue for many cruisers with 2 big batts & 24V - but the ability to pull with engine off that is often mentioned as a big advantage of an electric winch may only get you about 6' if you've got a really stuck truck with a big load & a small battery. Even with the engine going it is easy to go from just being stuck to being stuck with a dead battery if you haven't got the alternator & batteries to keep up with the nice big motors on many modern winches.

I really like my PTO but with the LJ7* (&KZJ) it is possible to do a very low profile custom install that isn't possible on other 7* due to the front crossmember location. The speed & power is really nice. I almost always have a co-driver who knows how to drive the truck & use the winch too.

On shear pins - I use a 4mm high tensile cap screw & nylok nut. I have never damaged anything in the PTO drivetrain with that setup. Mates have drilled theirs out & run bigger without issue but It'll pull pretty hard on 4mm. Carry spares & the tools to install them. With a bit of experience I can feel things loading up well before the shear pin breaks so I'll rarely pop one now. Run a higher gear/lower revs to get a better feel for the load on the winch.

For the love of god do not run wire rope on a Toyota PTO winch. It's mission in life is to loop off the side of the drum & cause a horrible snarl up at best or more likely destroy your freespool mechanism. I use 30m of 12mm UHMWPE rope - kinda overkill but the shear pin will ALWAYS break before the rope. The lower stretch helps with getting a feel for the load too I think. It's better to have a bit less length on the drum & carry a few extensions rather than fill it up. Another thing I did was move the outer fairlead rollers in a bit to make it less likely that the rope will feed off the side of the drum. Put big labels on the freespool lever positions, often when out in a group someone random will be helping out with a recovery who doesn't know how your PTO works.

Cheers
Clint

Good stuff there Clint and everyone else who's chimed in. Lots of experience with electrics from back when I used to get myself royally stuck, but these days I'm doing milder instead of wilder.

I have synthetic rope in the box ready to spool. Wire rope and I parted ways a long time ago. Lol. I'm sizing up using a hawse on the inside AND the outside since the PTO will be sitting back further than normal.

My buddy with the plasma cutter is away for a bit but we'll be back at it soon. If anyone has more pics of one installed to help me with fine tuning the placement, I'd sure appreciate it.

 

[clintnz]

Probably not much help given the different front end but...

Note the cutting board sides around the drum to reduce the chance of the cable falling off. One thing to watch with the PTO is that when freespooling there is very little resistance if everything is well lubed, & the big drum has lots of inertia. So if you pull the cable out quick then stop it will over-run & cause a tangle.

Hard to get a pic of the low profile adapter we made to pick up the bolt holes in the front cross member & set the angle right but here it is:

Took a few test fits to get it right so just tack it to start with. Countersunk cap screws in from the back of the adapter to the winch IIRC.

Cheers
Clint

 

[JDM Journeys]

It was a long day, but I officially have a working PTO in my ARB.

I'll post the details along with pics, but for now I'll just say it's a very fiddly thing to get to work, with very little wiggle room and many dimensions to get wrong.

I still have some details to finish. But they'll have to wait until after my big trip coming up. Pics soon...

 

[JDM Journeys]

Here are some pic details from my build thread so I don't have make duplicate posts:

Build thread - PTO + ARB