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talk to me about PTO winches...

colbystephens

colbystephens

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i'd like to run a PTO winch on my blazer - is it possible to run a winch that is mounted to the front of my truck with a PTO? i understand that the pto runs another driveshaft, but what type of winch would i procure? does the PTO then determine the pulling capacity of the winch?
 
The pulling capacity would be determined by the torque of the PTO, sure, but is more affected by the gearing of the winch. Consider it like your axles, right -- torque delivered is a function of the torque at the transfer case multiplied by the gear ratio.

Except your winch should have a ratio in the hundreds-to-one :D so you end up with crazy numbers.

And yeah, I've NO idea how you'd get a PTO shaft to a front winch on our trucks. You generally see them on tow truck for the mid-mount winch, or on the big military trucks (i.e. 2 1/2 ton aka "deuce and a half" or larger.)

What's wrong with your basic normal electric winch?

-- A
 
run the PTO from your trans (sm465) and the shaft goes forward to the winch. That means you need a PTO for your trans and a shaft you would need to build or have built. It would only turn when the PTO was engaged, cab controlled by you.

The PTO bolts to the side of the tranny case where the cover is, thats what the big flat plate with 6 bolts in it is for. Since you want the shaft going forward you want a reverse mounted one, usually they are mounted with the shaft going to the rear. That probably won't be cheap or easy to get, well maybe easy but not cheap. For the headache involved I think unless you found a used takeoff setup complete I would go electric or hydraulic. If you go hydraulic you want one that is not run from your PS pump, rather a real dedicated pump.

Last but not least if you run anything but an electric you HAVE to have the engine running or you have no winch
 
I have a PTO for the front, came off a pickup. I have seen two in my lifetime so they cannt be that hard to find, hehe. The PTO you want mounted on your transfercase instead of the tranny, better setup in my opinion. This way you can winch and/or winch and drive where as a PTO on the tranny only turns when driving, i believe.

The shaft runs to the front with a steady bearing on the driverside frame. The main downfall of a PTO is the low spot on the winch where the shaft attaches.

PTO winches are rated per the winch, they have shear pins which are supposed to shear at a certain force to prevent over torqueing. Many people report that PTO winches never shear at the correct force and will pull much more than they are rated for.

PTO's can be run hard and all day long, since they have a ~300HP motor driving them, not much stalls them unless the motor stops. They can be dangerous because they do not stall, this is why many do not like them. It is harder to gauge the amount of torque on the line because of the lack of stalling.

There is a connect/disconnect on the PTO under the truck (cable or shaft shifted) and a connect/disconnect at the winch.

They are bigger than an electric, thus they are heavy and usually require a hefty bumper to hold them.

http://www.putfile.com/pic/7044585

1 ton with pto winch in front, see the guard on the low spot in front?
 
Probably, most refer to is as a cow catcher haha. I have removed all grill guard (vertical) peices and have just the regular bumper now, sill waiting to put it on.
 
i found two of them here in oregon for $200 or less in good shape... military issue. that low point does worry me tho. thoughts??
 
Consider that $200 will buy you an 8274 or the like ... admittedly maybe one that needs a bit of love, but that's gonna be cheaper than a driveshaft, PTO setup, etc.

-- A
 
dremu said:
Consider that $200 will buy you an 8274 or the like ... admittedly maybe one that needs a bit of love, but that's gonna be cheaper than a driveshaft, PTO setup, etc.

-- A
Click to expand...
true, but these are 30K lb winches.
 
dremu said:
Oh god. Have you SEEN those? I don't think they'd FIT on our trucks :haha:
Click to expand...

hmmmm... well, that would be a bummer. :haha: no, i haven't seen it's size in person... just a pic with no reference on it.
 
colbystephens said:
hmmmm... well, that would be a bummer. :haha: no, i haven't seen it's size in person... just a pic with no reference on it.
Click to expand...

Never mind the weight -- not just the winch, but the cable. A 30K would be on a deuce-and-a-half, say, so I'm gonna WAG we're talking about 1/2" or bigger cable .. and ~100 feet of that stuff ain't light.

I know people talk about hydraulic winches and how electrics suck and blah de blah ... but ya know, there's a reason why there's so dang many electric ~10Kish winches out there. They're relatively cheap and easy to install, simple, easy to fix, did I mention simple? =))

-- A
 
BILTIT said:
The PTO you want mounted on your transfercase instead of the tranny, better setup in my opinion. This way you can winch and/or winch and drive where as a PTO on the tranny only turns when driving, i believe.
Click to expand...

The PTO on the trans of my 1 ton dump truck works in neutral and first gear. I haven't tried it in any other gear.

Mike
 
So i found abit, I was wrong. The PTO style will determine which drive (tranny or tcase) you use.

''tranny mounted pto speed is determined by engine rpm, direction (fwd/rev) is determined by a 2 direction pto box.

transfer mounted pto speed is determined by the transmission gear. i.e. 1,2,3,4,R. ''
 
I've got a 10,000 pound ramsey PTO winch mounted on my blazer, its probably about half the speed of my warn M10000 on my pickup, but I never have to worry about burning solinoids or overheating it. Running the shafts wasn't too difficult, I've got a 2 piece shaft with a slip, and a pillow block mounted to the engine crossmember. the only mod is grinding out the existing hole in the forward frame crossmember for more clearance around the shaft. Also I've got a chelsea PTO mounted on my NP205 with a SM465, allows for 4 forward speeds, and the manditory ability to power out cable with reverse, since you cannot disengage the winch drum with any tension on it at all. Although I only use 4th gear for actual winching, and 1st for spinning the winch slowly so I can get out and engage the drum. One other bonus, I always remove my warn from my truck when I'm not using it, for fear of it getting stolen, but the PTO winch is permanently installed, and so difficult to remove, that I always have it, come in very handy when you don't expect it.
 
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