If you use wire rope each time you setup to winch you find the cable has become loose in the drum, so then you waste more time spooling the loose cable out and relaying it back onto the drum before you starting load the line....
Know the feeling... well if you have a bit of time to waste here is a cable tensioner that I made up for the Warn 8274 on my old troopy.
The pictures explain most of it accept the spring I went to the hardware with a tape measure and a fishing gauge to selct a spring that would give approx 18kgs of pressure when extended and about 10kg when initially loaded.
The bars are all 1/2 inch stainless steel ( I had some laying around ) the extensions on the mounting brackets were also made from scrap bar.
The stainless nuts I silversolder some 6mm dome nuts onto after drilling a 1/8" hole through one face and drilling the thread out of the nuts so they slide onto the shaft. The tops were cut off the dome nuts and 6mm grease nipples screwed in.
It seem like a good idea to be able to grease the brackets, inside the nuts I filed a slot from the 1/8" hole to the face of the nut near the bracket, as you pump grease most of it heads to the bracket pivot point.
To hold the greasers in place on the outside of the brackets I drilled a 1/8" hole through the bar and inserted a split pin at each end.
The extra thick SS washers on the left end and the tensioner arm on the right end are fitted so the tensioner bar inside the drum has 1/16" clearance either side.
Know the feeling... well if you have a bit of time to waste here is a cable tensioner that I made up for the Warn 8274 on my old troopy.
The pictures explain most of it accept the spring I went to the hardware with a tape measure and a fishing gauge to selct a spring that would give approx 18kgs of pressure when extended and about 10kg when initially loaded.
The bars are all 1/2 inch stainless steel ( I had some laying around ) the extensions on the mounting brackets were also made from scrap bar.
The stainless nuts I silversolder some 6mm dome nuts onto after drilling a 1/8" hole through one face and drilling the thread out of the nuts so they slide onto the shaft. The tops were cut off the dome nuts and 6mm grease nipples screwed in.
It seem like a good idea to be able to grease the brackets, inside the nuts I filed a slot from the 1/8" hole to the face of the nut near the bracket, as you pump grease most of it heads to the bracket pivot point.
To hold the greasers in place on the outside of the brackets I drilled a 1/8" hole through the bar and inserted a split pin at each end.
The extra thick SS washers on the left end and the tensioner arm on the right end are fitted so the tensioner bar inside the drum has 1/16" clearance either side.
