safe PTO winching (1 Viewer)

[Quincyrig]

After some minor persuasion, my dad and I got the frozen clutch lever loose and got the PTO winch to engage on my 73 FJ 40. Is this clutch really a clutch? Is it possible to safely disengage the power to the winch under load other than from inside the cab? I am looking for guidance on safe PTO winching.

It seems to me that this is at least a 2 person job at all times if you want to retreive the last 15 ft of cable.

Also, does anyone know how much cable should be on the spool?

 

[Living in the Past]

That is not a clutch is it the lever that locks the spool on to the shaft. When disengaged it let's the spool freewheel the cable out. the only reason for the pad that rides against the spool is put some pressure on the spool while free wheeling cable out so doesn't keep rolling once you stop pulling cable which would cause it to knot up on the spool. The only way to operate the winch is with the clutch pedal in the cab. I think the spool holds about 120' of 5/16 cable.

John

 

[Quincyrig]

Thanks for the clarification. That is kind of how we figured, but when we saw "clutch " on the haynes manual, we thought we were missing something. Good news is that it works!

 

[Mark W]

You can load about 225 feet of 5/16 cable on the Toyota PTO winch. But it fills it completely and you have to make sure that you wind the cable neatly a you respool it. Otherwise it can jam up on the rear mounting crossmember. Its good to wind it neatly anyway. And you can cut a little material out of the rear crossmember for extra clearance too.

The "clutch" is called that because it is a "dog clutch" Just a term for a collar that locks a shaft when it slides over it. But there is no slippage in the piece and it is not meant for disengagement whenit is under a load.

A PTO is always safer when operated with one person in the rig (at the accel pedal and the ignition key) and one out in front (with the winch).

Mark...

 

[BigRedFJ40]

Mark is dead on with the 2 person operation being safest. Also, you will never want to winch in anything but 1st or 2nd gear. Nice and slow, that way you don't overrun the cable on the spool. You can really F up your winch if you have the cable dump off the drum.

When you are respooling you cable feel free to use whatever gear you want but, have whoever is ding the splooing pay attention.

You mayfind down the raod that the stock shearpins snap too easily. That is not a big deal to fix. I have modified my yolk with 2 3/16" pins (mild steel) offset 90* from each other and have never snapped them yet. My rig gets used hard and weighs in close to 4500lbs.



Oh, props to you for keeping the PTO

 

[cruiser_guy]

The PTO will hold nicely when the engine is off. I used mine for a "Zip" line here at the school I work at in Guatemala. We had adults going down it (150' long) and the cable did not slack off the whole night.

 

[Mark W]

I seldom use first when winching. Only when I really want extremely precise comtrol. Second and third usually. And when it is an easy pull where line speed is important, I use 4th. No problems. Just keep an eye on your cable so it doesn't pile up. That's just basic proccedure no matter wht kind of winch you use.


Mark...