sudden loads on winches?

[e9999]

so what happens if a winch experiences a sudden high load, running or not?
as in a tree fall the wrong way or a winched truck falls off a ledge, etc. Likely to bust something serious in the winch or would just unwind under protest or...?

 

[Tapage]

it broke .. broke the brake or base ...

 

[Warn Industries]

We refer to this as "shock load." That suddend introduction of load, vs. the gradual build up. You want to try and avoid shock loading a winch. As Tapage said, you can definitely damage a winch this way.

- Andy

 

[80t0ylc]

so what happens if a winch experiences a sudden high load, running or not?
as in a tree fall the wrong way or a winched truck falls off a ledge, etc. Likely to bust something serious in the winch or would just unwind under protest or...?

We refer to this as "shock load." That suddend introduction of load, vs. the gradual build up. You want to try and avoid shock loading a winch. As Tapage said, you can definitely damage a winch this way.

- Andy

Excellent reply. I might add that the (winching) environment makes it necessary to build winches and accessories as stout as possible. When things go wrong, as they sometimes do, it's then that you find the weak link(s) in your system. We would hope that our winch is not the culprit when you consider the co$t. One thing to remember: A well designed winch rope has zero or minimum stretch, so that shock load is transferred to the rope and both ends of it. The winch spool is one end and will absorb whatever load is on the rope at the spool. One good reason why you don't "get a run" to give you more "oomph" on an extraction when your using a winch. Same reasoning for your "sudden load" question.