Gertrude - centre mounted PTO winch (1 Viewer)

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Jul 17, 2005
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Location
Wellington, NZ
Mid mounted PTO winch...

When I went to fit my winch, I looked carefully at what other people had done.
In particular, at the time I had a fire truck with a rear exit winch that could be fed out of the front if required.

So I decided to mid mount mine, and set it up so I could winch either forwards or backwards.

The winch is pto, a local NZ copy of a Garwood winch - very heavy, but almost indestructible.
I don't run a shear pin, if it's too overloaded the cable will break before anything else (BTDT)

Cable runs off the drum to the rear x member, around a pulley, then forward, over the chassis rail (though a small two roller fairlead) , then along the outside of the chassis rail to the front.
If I need to winch backwards (or recover someone behind me), I pull out a handful of cable from the back and put in a snatch block and winch doubled.

Freespool clutch is air operated - but is the only flaw - with all the mud it gets the clutch seizes up, so I just spool out in reverse now.
Looked at putting in a OEM pto (bi-directional) but the output speed was too slow compared to what I currently have, and I already have enough problems overdriving when winching.

Have a LARGE warning light rigged to go on when PTO engaged to prevent any unpleasant accidents - has worked OK so far...

I discovered on a big pull that the rear chassis rail was not strong enough - so I put in some bracing between it and the winch (once I'd straightened it out)
This pic also shows the first attempt at getting the pto shaft to the rear (the big bit of tube in the x member)
Worked, but very hard to get out PTO shaft.

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And here's a shot showing the final solution, standard x member, cut and turned around to give clearance.
PTO shaft has CV joints (birfs) in it from a Mini (smallest I could find) UJs didn't give the angle and bound up the fitst time I winched hard (and sheared off the pto output shaft)
You get a good idea of the angle forward the winch cable takes. There is only one fairlead between the rear and the front.
Drum holds 70m of 8mm wire.
With the approx 1m distance from the rear pulley to the drum, the cable lays up nicely on its own (this is after a 50m hard pull - you can see there are basically no high spots or binding).

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This shows the path around the rear pulley. The cable goes though a small 'eye' to prevent it falling of the pulley while feeding. If I want to winch out of the back I let out some slack, pull cable off the outside of the pulley and put in a snatch block and winch doubled.

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This is the two roller fairlead that manages the slight bend between front and rear. You can see the bellhousing mount immediately to the left of it.

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And this is where it comes out of the front. It's sometimes a nuisance not pulling from direct centre, but most of the times it's fine...

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And a pic showing exaclty where everything is - you can get a good idea of the cable path from this.
Only problem with a PTO winch - not practical to run when on one's side :(

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thats just cool. always wanted to do that, just never had the guts to try it. killer rig, BTW.
 
Whered you get the winch from? Looks killer.
 
hmm. Do they still make winches? Can't find a reference anywhere.
 
Andrew, do those tubular side attachments, sliders give sufficient protection to the rockers or are they untested so far? I take it that they're relatively new from their cleanliness and they look sort of scrawny...

(hmm, from the picture maybe it's only the right hand one that's untested?)
 
If this was to be done with a OEM PTO winch, what would be the best way to work the clutch?

Mine's missing the driveshaft and a few bits of the fairlead, so this seems like a good way to set it up. Though, if I did it, I'd set the pully a bit farther forward, and run cable through a reciever hitch hole in the rear bumper when I needed to pull that direction. It also seems like it would be better to run it down the right hand side of the rig, between the frame and tranny, with a nice low output in the front bumper.
 
Not familier with the OEM winch, but with mine, I mounted an air piston to the lever that operates the freespool. Worked well originally, but the freespool has since had too much mud through it and will not disengage.

Next mod it to install a sealed dog clutch that will keep the mid out.

You need to check your winch - if you only have a 'single direction' pto you need to swap the winch input to the other side (if you can on OEM) or the winch will run the wrong way (in relation to the wheels)
 
My PTO is the old style dual direction. But I can run the input on the front, and that's what I plan to do. If mounted the way yours is, the factory winch would be right side up.

I remembered after I posted last time, isn't the clutch on the factory PTO also a brake? If it isn't, I wouldn't really have a problem with having to power out every time.
 
the germans used mid mounted winches on most of there vehicles since ww2 lots of photos on web sites have rear mounted factory pto on my 70 and love it can also load car hauler with it also have 2 wheel boom hooks to tow hitch works good for moving things around using winch to lift them last have 3pt hitch with tires so i can use back blade or scoop like your install good luck
 
I was watching a purpose built 'winch challenge' truck at the weekend.

They'd taken a different approach and mounted two pto winches - one front and one rear, both running off the same pto unit with driveshafts going both ways.

Worked well and with factory toyota winches not too heavy either with plasma rope.

Two of my winches and I'd need new springs :(
 

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