Winch Advice Please

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charliemeyer007 said:
I have seen shattered windshields from snapped cables and other damage. Talked to someone who was injured by a cable, and a lady who suffered a shark bite. Things happen, somethings not at the best time and folks get their ticket home.

I think the OEM bumper width is just right, though it could be a little thicker IMHO
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I have seen a lot of bad results from snapped dynamic recovery straps. Those things can and do kill people. I've seen vids of various damage, injuries and fatalities and I have friends who have witnessed fatalities first hand. I've seen and heard of winching related injuries too. I have never seen any injuries from the "stored energy" of a broken cable of any type or heard any credible first hand reports of such either.

Mark...
 
Throwing an old heavy sleeping bag or real tarp over the cable helps contain the energy if a cable does snap.

Bought my first LC in 1974. It wasn't until 1983 that I could afford a winch. What I did have was a shovel, axe, come-a-long, long length of chain, foot concrete form stake, Highlift Jack and the most important tool common sense.
 
Even a big bath towel or two, old field jackets, draped over the cable provides a lot of dampening force in the event of a snapped cable.

Most of the time when winching my deuce and half hard in low range low I was laid over in the seat in case the cable snapped. Would never be an issue with the 3 worthless supplied aluminum shear pins. You could cut those off just by letting out the clutch quickly with the PTO engaged with nothing on the hook. 5/16 allen wrench and some electrical tape solved that problem nicely.

A friend went threw the BLM of road driving school. He laughed when they told him never push your truck off the hi-lift; that's the most useful feature.
 
Trollhole said:
Do you have all the control cables for the Belleview? There are 3 total as well as the contactor that would be mounted in the engine compartment. Usually on passenger side. Some dealers cut a hole in the apron to allow for manual engagement. One cable for F,N,R. One for the clutch, and one for the contactor. If you don't have all that and you want something classic then go for an 8274 or any newer variant of that. Also you don't have to stick with Warn. There are other winches out there for someone who is really never going to use it and will work perfectly fine for occasional use.
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Like this, The blue cables engage the clutch and direction from inside the cab. This set will be sold once I get it all pulled.

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charliemeyer007 said:
A friend went threw the BLM of road driving school. He laughed when they told him never push your truck off the hi-lift; that's the most useful feature.
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Other than lifting the vehicle to throw rocks under a wheels this is the most common use. Body up against a rock this is the easiest way to get clearance.done numerous times in my RV parking just get room between vehicles when need to get turned to load on my car hauler.
 
I only run steel. The few time I’ve used the winch. I cover it in several places with tool rolls and blankets. I think if you use you winch allot and can gage the synthetic rope often - then synthetic is a way to go.

I’m not convinced the synthetic will hold up to the elements.
 
Pighead said:
Protect the tires from what? Big nasty rocks? I like a narrow bumper that doesn't get hung up on whatever I'm trying to drive over.
Anyway, I needed a low profile winch because I still use my hand crank and didn't want to cover the hole it goes into. The harbor freight winch was cheap, on sale and fit. It works pretty well too.

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I didn't even know there was a hand crank option available for these! My 1934 coupe & 1934 4-door had them, but I would have never thought of an FJ40 having it, but that makes a lot of sense.

I took off the gigantic cattle guard bumper and thought a lot about whether to get an OEM, or a shorter one. When I watched this video I thought "Ah, that's the one I want to get." Looks good, and in the event of doing some off roading it gives more clearance:

As for the Harbor Freight winch, we have one of their stores about 4 miles away. I'll have to check it out. Does it have the synthetic rope, or cable? What is the rating on it? I love the fact that it is low profile too. That's my only issue with the Warn that many people have recommended is that I don't want something that sticks up so high it blocks some of the "TOYOTA" in the grille from showing.
 
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Mark W said:
Putting a wider bumper on to "protect" your tires is kinda like disconnecting your driveshafts to protect your diffs. ;)


People have been repeating the mantra of "Wire rope can cause lots of damage or injuries from the stored energy as it whips about." For years and years. But every incident I have been involved with/witnessed supports every controlled testing of this that I have come across... It just ain't so.

As a very basic rule of thumb, winch cable will stretch about an inch for every 100 feet of length, at breaking load. That is not "storing" all that much energy, nor will it create significant "backlash and whipping". The most common reaction of cable I have seen when it snaps is that it starts with a single strand or three and the casdacing failure that follows results in an unraveling. I have never seen a steel cable "whip" just from breaking. I have has one fail as I was standing over it. It was kind like the opposite of a snake straightening out from a semi-coiled position. But it did not actually move that much and other than the surprise, it was no big deal.

Compressed vehicle suspension systems can store energy. Loaded booms and such can store energy. But cables really don't add much to those situations.

Synthetic rope does have some advantages over steel cable. It is lighter, it is more flexible, it floats, it does not kink and bend and damage itself when wound sloppily under heavy load, it does not have little broken wires sticking out to cut and snag as it ages.

Steel cable has some advantages over synthetic too. It is much more resistant to abrasion, it does not deteriorate under sunlight and it will accept abuse much better. Handled properly (and even improperly) it will long outlive synthetic.

All in all, for most of us, Synthetic is a better choice for our off road usage. But steel is still a viable second option and in more limited situations can still be better.

Mark...
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I did see a steel cable snap one time. Sounded like a gunshot and the cable recoiled back at us and just barely missed our heads and faces as it zoomed past us. It was a smaller diameter cable than a winch cable. It was about the size of a #2 pencil and we were fishing with it on the great barrier reef. Hung a great white shark, 4 of us all pulling together couldn't stop it from taking out cable so the owner of the boat spun the cable spool to get enough cable to wrap around the boat's tie down. When it hit that is sounded like you were tightening a guitar string and it started pulling the boat sideways and then BANG! Had a blast though. Wearing big thick rubberized gloves and when you would get a fish on it was like a tug of war, you pulling hand over hand against the fish. After landing 3, I was exhausted! And I was in great shape back then. LOL
 
FloridaLife said:
I did see a steel cable snap one time. Sounded like a gunshot and the cable recoiled back at us and just barely missed our heads and faces as it zoomed past us. It was a smaller diameter cable than a winch cable. It was about the size of a #2 pencil and we were fishing with it on the great barrier reef. Hung a great white shark, 4 of us all pulling together couldn't stop it from taking out cable so the owner of the boat spun the cable spool to get enough cable to wrap around the boat's tie down. When it hit that is sounded like you were tightening a guitar string and it started pulling the boat sideways and then BANG! Had a blast though. Wearing big thick rubberized gloves and when you would get a fish on it was like a tug of war, you pulling hand over hand against the fish. After landing 3, I was exhausted! And I was in great shape back then. LOL
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Cable will snap (any cable). in the case that you are describing seems to have been a sudden shock loading which greatly exceeded the cables capacity.in this case, importantly, the energy involved was not "stored" in the cable but in the mass of the boat , the action of the waves and the lunging of the large fish. The recoil of the cable was powered by the mass of the boat and movement of the waves, suddenly no longer countered by the pulling of the fish.

If the line that broke had been a non-elastic synthetic line, that biggest (only?) advantage would have been the lower mass involved in the reaction of the line as it parted.

The commercial fishing industry was one of the biggest fields to heartily embrace synthetic lines as they came onto the scene. Much easier to handle and much lighter. Big pluses in that world.


Mark...
 
White Stripe said:
The weight of steel cable on the front is actually a good thing. For a 4x4 you usually want as much front weight bias as possible unless it's a baja truck or ice racer.
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I hear you, but the weight of this engine and drivetrain alone is MASSIVE, I was shocked that this straight six weighs as much as my 1958 BIG BLOCK HEMI for my 1934 Coupe.
 
FloridaLife said:
I hear you, but the weight of this engine and drivetrain alone is MASSIVE, I was shocked that this straight six weighs as much as my 1958 BIG BLOCK HEMI for my 1934 Coupe.
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Back January 1996 I traveled to California to buy an FJ45 on a lead from John @pardion. As I remember in his yard he had FJ40 used as a yard truck. Had no top and back was filled with concrete as a counter balance for the hoist mounted to the front.
 
White Stripe said:
The weight of steel cable on the front is actually a good thing. For a 4x4 you usually want as much front weight bias as possible unless it's a baja truck or ice racer.
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Sorry, but . . . no. Any Land Cruiser with an F-series engine has more than enough weight up front. I've hauled enough steel winch cable up hills to fully appreciate the weight savings of synthetic line.
 
Pro and cons to both. Steel is clearly heavier. Synthetic is clearly safer, if in good condition- which goes for steel too.

A Hi-Lift is also dangerous, if incorrectly used. That said, when you le on an uneven road or are in a rock garden - the Hi-lift many times is the only reasonable tool to carry to use.

Steel - I keep mine covered. I very likely will never have to replace my cable. It’s been used twice that put zero wear on the steel cable. When used - I layer more safety over that line to dampen it’s energy release if over stressed and I never stand in it energy line.
 
Winch Available
I have decided to let go of the Bellevue winch that was on my rig when I bought it. Several people said it was the predecessor to the Warn 8247. If interested, let me know and make me an offer. If not, then it and any parts that I don't want to keep as spares that are in the way in my garage will go away this week for junk removal.
 
FloridaLife said:
I have decided to let go of the Bellevue winch that was on my rig when I bought it. Several people said it was the predecessor to the Warn 8247. If interested, let me know and make me an offer. If not, then it and any parts that I don't want to keep as spares that are in the way in my garage will go away this week for junk removal.
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@charliemeyer007 - YEP... as much as I hate it, ANYTHING previously listed for sale that has not been spoken for by the end of the day Wednesday (tomorrow) will go away on Thursday. No room for it.
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FloridaLife said:
I have decided to let go of the Bellevue winch that was on my rig when I bought it. Several people said it was the predecessor to the Warn 8247. If interested, let me know and make me an offer. If not, then it and any parts that I don't want to keep as spares that are in the way in my garage will go away this week for junk removal.
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cruiserkev said:
This is what I was referring to earlier, Warn discontinued these cable parts decades ago. I needed them as well and gave up on the Bellevue winch after finding out how hard it was to find them. Better off with an all electric winch. I have one similar to this planetary style one on my 40, it doesn't stick up as much as the 8274.

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I like that it does NOT stick up as high!
 
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