Winch test
Ok, so I wanted to test out my winch locally before I head out for some more seroious play in the next couple of weeks. I had narrowed the drum to 1.5 inch solid stock, and lengthened it 3 inches, I did this to increase the pull power and fit more masterpull rope on.
So I went to a local spot not far from where I grew up and used to wheel my FJ40's and bogged it down pretty well, deep clay, lockers engaged and all that. I had just enough cable to get to a tree and left only about 8 wraps on the 1.5 inch bar. The guys on the australian board said that there would be too much load on the rope with a 1.5 inch wrap and it would break from the sharp angle - I had to see for my self. I use a double clove hitch to attach the rope to the drum - it holds like a vice and you can easily get it off when you want to.
I didn't use a snatch block, I only used one battery and kept the other isolated, and am still using the 2AWG pos and neg cable to the winch - haven't put the 4/0 on yet. Winch motor got warm and never stalled.
You can check the video, seems to work fine under a big load - 36 X13.5 TSL's and a 5600 pound truck over the bumper in clay, clay over the top of the driver side tire. You might notice in the video that front locker disengaged - the winch remote cable hit the locker switch off - this will be fixed shortly with a dash mounted winch switch as I hate the warn remotes.
The 8274 kicks some butt, other mods to come - new 4.5volt winch motor just arrived, drain and fill plugs - that's good for now. Hardened brake shaft and freespool lockout next year.
Oh, and I brought my 2 boys - they had a blast!
Here's the vid, you can watch in high res on my site or on youtube in high res or low res:
www.japaneseswordcollector.com/videos/renfrewpowerline.wmv
http://www.youtube.com/v/kfvEV0V6kvI