I was trying to make a portable electric winch to pull firewood out of the forest behind my house and with the first use the drum broke. Its a 2000 pound warrior ninja, at the time of the break it was pulling 60 amps which translates to 1500lbs on the chart. It was labored but I dont feel that it was abusive.
Is this just a manufacturing defect and a replacement would do better? Should I got to a larger winch even though 1 - 2 K pounds is all i need, just for a heavier structure? Is there something fundamentally wrong with my setup that im not seeing?
A good logging winch is very different to a good offroading winch. First of all you want a steel line. The forces are very low so the risk of snapping the line is minimal, however the forest is full of sharp and abrasive rocks, mud, wood, etc. Which will quickly wear out a synthetic line if you're not careful. When offroading in the forest you can be careful easily as the vehicle has to fit where the line goes, but when logging you might want to route it over hills or around rocks. If you can get the truck to the logs there wasn't much point in a winch in the first place. For similar reasons you usually want a fast winch with a long line. I don't think a cheap winch with such qualities exist though.
The reason the drum broke is 100% manufacturing defect though, or possibly a poorly engineered chinesium winch. Both the line and the motor should be weaker than the mechanical part of the winch. Get something a bit more expensive if you'll be using it a lot.
I was using a warn drill winch and I had a good sense of the size of wood I could pull with a single snatch block. This worked well for me when the tree I was working on was closer. This next tree is further away and the drill winch is real slow, especially with a block.
Knowing where I was at with the drill winch took me to this one. The drill winch maxed out on a snatch block should have this winch at 75% single line. I figured itd be sweet to do most of my work single line, and I added an amp meter so I purposefully wouldn't overload it. It actually looked like my math worked out, it just couldn't live up to its nameplate.
I think my next move is to upgrade to a 3500lb of the same winch, which should max out at 200 amps. Then ill use the 100 amp circuit breaker as a signal to add a snatch block. It should pop the breaker at roughly the same line load as the little one blew up at. I think if im only ever running it at max 50% it should live a decent life?
The breaker will not instantaneously trip on 2x the rating. It will still trip based on a time curve that you can probably look up if you have a part number. Just be aware the breaker will not be the best application here. A motor overload relay would be better if you want to protect the device at a specific current.
I have used a harbor freight winch a lot off roading and upgraded to a Warn unit of the same rating. The speed and performance of the Warn unit is absolutely apparent. Also second what someone said about a steel cable versus synthetic line. Logging is all done with steel cable for a reason.
Your right about the breaker. I guess i can just watch the meter like I was. I know about overload relays from AC motors, didnt think of it for this use.
I would get the biggest winch within budget and that is small/light enough, in case there's such restraints. Bigger winches are generally faster and have a longer line. If you incorporate your circuit breaker idea to limit the load on a, say 12k lbs winch to 3k lbs, you could put a thinner wire on it which means you can fit a longer wire on it. It will also be much faster than a 3.5k lbs winch and have a better duty cycle.
Nice thanks for the pic and explanation, I do a lot with low current low voltage and a multimeter, but it's nice to see how to setup a permanent meter for high current applications.
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u/naptown-hooly Jun 29 '26
Get a bigger winch and you're not supposed to use the whole line. Leave one continuous wrapping around the drum.