Homemade hydralic winch...

[LowKey]

This may get covered in class in February, but I have a narrow window between then and heading up to do some work on the property so I'm not quite so sanguine about waiting until the class to ask; Has anyone here made a hydraulic winch for working on their land and house?

Commercially made products seem to be very expensive, but I'm seeing different websites show what appear to be some very nice home made jobs for far, far, less.

One of the things I've seen and liked is the concept of building an engine/hydraulic pump setup with quick disconnect hydraulic lines, then attached to a winch. That would let someone use the hydraulic system to power other stuff as well, like a firewood splitter.

So anyone here had experience with making or using a homemade hydraulic winch?

I'd considered electric winches, but in my particular situation hauling in stuff to provide the power to the electric winch is just as much of a PITA as hauling in the stuff for a hydraulic winch, and the hydraulic system would give me a lot of options for running other stuff later one down the line so worth a bit more expense to me.

[Tracyblott]

I guess you could do it that way but seems to me it would be a huge pain in the hind end, you could use block and tackles, as for me I would rather put a 12k lb wench on the tow hitch of my pickup, but I'm all for searching out different ways to do things, I wish you luck on this one.

[loghousenut]

A little more about the setup at the worksite. Will you be shipping in a truck or tractor or is the winch something that has to be muscled around?


Hydraulic winches are great but you have to have a tank and a power source.




Bo... Don't bother looking up that word sanguine... It won't make any sense to you.

[LowKey]

A little more about the setup at the worksite. Will you be shipping in a truck or tractor or is the winch something that has to be muscled around?


I'll be coming in on a small-ish skiff. There is no road access to the land, just via water.

At the moment (as I shape my plans), I'll be bringing out a decent brush cutter, chainsaw, and possibly a "tow behind" backhoe (piecemeal, for assembly on site).

I know a hydraulic winch will need a power source for the hydraulic pump (in this case maybe a 8-12 hp gas engine). There won't be a tractor or Pickup on site (that "access via water only issue", but if it were in a framework I could use it to drag itself around if need be.

I'm not thinking of this just for assistance in raising logs, I figure I could do that with muscle power alone with the right block and tackle set up if I wanted to go that route.
What I'm thinking is that this would also help be drag logs trough my property (I have to thin as well). and later I could use the hydraulics to power a log splitter for firewood, ect. If I were just looking at raising logs for the building process I could go with an electric and a generator. I'm looking longer term and multi-use for the hydraulics.

[BoFuller]

Bo... Don't bother looking up that word sanguine... It won't make any sense to you.

I'm too phlegmatic to look it up.
I just know that you are.

[loghousenut]

You mean something like this...

http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t55/loghousenut/Wow/Steam_Donkey_1_zpstgo10fn4.jpg (http://s157.photobucket.com/user/loghousenut/media/Wow/Steam_Donkey_1_zpstgo10fn4.jpg.html)

On a smaller scale and no steam power. I like it.





Ain't often that I have to look up two words in one day. You guys is good!

[LowKey]

You mean something like this...

http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t55/loghousenut/Wow/Steam_Donkey_1_zpstgo10fn4.jpg (http://s157.photobucket.com/user/loghousenut/media/Wow/Steam_Donkey_1_zpstgo10fn4.jpg.html)

On a smaller scale and no steam power. I like it.





Ain't often that I have to look up two words in one day. You guys is good!


Yup, just with a much smaller prime mover. Replace the enormous steam engine with a smaller 8-12 hp gas engine.

What made me thing about this was a suggestion from a local logger that a hydraulic winch would have much better longevity and reliability than an electric winch when it came to handling logs and the realization when I was looking at tow behind backhoes (trenching work, moving some stone, ect on site) that it's also run on hydraulics.

If I had a small gas powered engine-hydraulic pump set up (opensourceecology. com calls this a "power cube") I'd be able to power most hydraulic tools, including a winch.

Later on I could pick up tools designed on hydraulic systems and power them with the set up already on hand. Log Splitters, ect.

[rreidnauer]

8-12 hp engine running a pump of capacity designed for that horsepower, will run a winch pretty darn slowly.

You'd probably be better off with one of those chainsaw winches.

[edkemper]

As for felling/thinning the trees and dragging them to the site, seems to me a good ATV and log arch would be more practical and would provide other uses and benefits at the same time. Both would be able to be put on a decent boat/larger skiff.

You could then use the ATV charging system or small solar charger to use on a decent battery that could also be used on a splitter.

Simple and smaller is easier when we're talking about hauling everything up river.

[allen84]

I agree, a good atv would be a tremendous helper for you and Rod is spot on that it would be a slow, very slow winch. If you had an atv and the portable backhoe then you have a good way to pull it around, skid logs AND the portable backhoe has it's own hydraulic power pack. You could use it to run a wood splitter or whatever.

[LowKey]

There are a couple of points to keep in mind...
My property is almost entirely slope. An ATV would be useless. It's enough slope that I wouldn't run a dozer or any other tracked vehicle on it, and I've driven tanks on some pretty nasty terrain.
The selection of a tow behind backhoe is because I could use a winch to walk it into place and it will actually be easier to anchor it in place.
BTW there's no river for me to go up. I'm on the shore of a fjord. The ferry terminal for the island is about 2 miles away, there just aren't any roads to my place (only about 6 parcels of land near me and extending the nearest road out to us would cost multiple millions as they'd have to build a half dozen bridges)

[LowKey]

Oh, all the tow behind backhoes seem to have engines in the 9 to 15 hp range. One of the reasons I'm leaning towards a hydraulic winch is I figured with some quick disconnect lines I could use the backhoes hydraulic to run the winch..

[edkemper]

What a pain in the butt to get everything you need. But I'll bet it's a beautiful place once onsite.

[LowKey]

Yes, and it is!


Once I have a structure up where I can store things between trips up it will get a bit easier.
The water out front is pretty calm, you'd think you were on a big lake most days if it wasn't for the tide. I'll end up building a raft with barrels and smaller trees for the deck to move materials from the ferry terminal (pushed by a skiff).

It's more of a PITA than building somewhere you have road access but the view, seafood, and lack taxes,codes,etc more than makes up for it as far as I'm concerned.

[loghousenut]

This job may end up like that bad pirate movie from the 80's.... "It's All About the Winches".





I dare you to google it....

[LowKey]

This job may end up like that bad pirate movie from the 80's.... "It's All About the Winches".







I dare you to google it....
I did. Couldn't find the movie.
I'm sure it was Punishing to watch though.

[loghousenut]

AAaaarrrrrrrrrrgh!