Winch Shear Pins - Page 2 - Steel Soldiers::Military Vehicles Supersite

Towman2277 · 11-21-2006, 01:05

This is what I discovered.....the aluminum pins work great, and shear as they were designed....to keep a complete fool from tearing the truck apart. BUT, i'm constantly winching HEAVY pulls, so the aluminum shear pin will not work for me, as I bury my truck DEEP in the mud pits, and i'm always pulling stuck back-hoes, various machinery, etc. What I have come to grasps with is, I use a grade 8 bolt that WILL NOT shear, and i'm very careful. I only do straight pulls from the truck forward (no side pulls), and I ALWAYS have a spotter at the front watching and letting me know whats going on- ( in a safe place though). I would recommend staying with the aluminum if your new to winches and the theory of recovery is mind-boggling, to keep from hurting yourself and your truck. If you have a watchful eye and understand resistance and recovery weakness and strenghths, then you can drop in a quality bolt and go pulling. And yes....I can drag my truck with wheels locked....until I run out of cable!!

JohnnyGTO · 11-21-2006, 01:23

What about using snatch blocks to offset the weakness of the aluminum pin? It takes more time to setup but there is an advantage just ask Mike on Dirty Jobs!

Recovry4x4 · 11-21-2006, 01:57

Perhaps you guys are using the wrong grade shear pins. I bought a stash of genuine GI pins from Gene Patano in CO. I can drag my truck with locked brakes easily with the correct aluminum shear pin. If the holes in the shaft or yoke are wallowed out, it will shear the pin as well. I have loaded it to the point of beaking them too so they are the fusible link. The ones Memphis sells I don't think are right. The GI ones don't have a head and require a cotter pin at each end. I once again refer everyone to FM 20-22 (in the tm section) for a good read on everything recovery. With the proper calculations and use of snatch blocks, you will never break that shear pin.

Stretch44875 · 11-21-2006, 07:06

My pins came from saturn surplus, they have the cotter pin holes. Just remembered I did try to winch a big chunk of concrete out of the ground once. Squatted the truck pretty good, and broke the small chain I was using. Pin was okay.

Dennis

Recovry4x4 · 11-21-2006, 08:08

Another thought for those breaking pins, are you guys using low gear of the PTO?

mcinfantry · 11-21-2006, 08:38

i pulled a 36000lb cherry picker mired PAST the outriggers and over the lower edge of the rims (up to the axles) with 3 snatch blocks and a grade 5

i TRIED to pull a k3500 lineman truck out after katrina with an aluminum pin, broke in 1 sec

i TRIED to pull me out of a hole with an aluminum pin and it sheared in one sec (i had to use 3 grade 5's!!!!!!)

i pulled me, and that office trailer out single line pull with a grade 5.

all pulls in low

doghead · 11-21-2006, 08:48

Kenny, yes pto in low speed, the Saturn pins do have 2 cotter pins. I am guessing they are not made of mil spec alloy. I will give Jay a call today and ask what he knows. Kenny, your response " I can drag my truck with locked brakes easily with the correct aluminum shear pin. " confirms that it can with an aluminum pin. I am now in search of the correct mil spec pin. Thanks to all for your input! Eric

ARMYMAN30YearsPlus · 11-21-2006, 08:51

I have not broken the pin but while I was in Iraq my son used the duece to try and pull out a 20 foot evergreen tree. He broke the pin and it stayed that way till I got home, ( my dad would have expected me to fix this) I found out he was straight line pulling it thinking that the winch was a super duper capacity since his TJ had a 9K that would pull him out of skid plate deep mud. He wound up pulling the tree out by hooking to the rear and driving in low 1st gear. I have two very heavy duty snatch blocks that would have saved the pin but his over estimation of the 10K rating brought this about. I watched in horror when a stuck M816 tried against my advise to winch themselves out of the swamps along Virginia Rt 17. They had pulled over to recover a duece with a leaking return line. Since the duece was right on the edge of the swampy ground I told them to start the duece up and get a better hooking angle. They said we can get it and promptly backed the wrecker up to the duece and sunk rear end into the swamp. I told them let me start the duece and pull you out they said we have this under control and then ran the rear winch line to a tree across the road with a fleet angle of about 85 degrees. I was fuming but since back then I was a second lieutenant they told me to shut up.

When they started winching the line tightend and with a pop the tree across the road was pulled up from the roots and headed for the power lines parallel to the road. As the power lines arced a sprayed sparks all I could think of was the lines coming down on the winch line and having two dead Soldiers, I told them WATCH OUT and they jumped off the wrecker. Shaking I told them I would take care of things.

I started the duece with the disticnt oder of diesel fuel and drove around to the front of the wrecker hooked it up and dragged it out. By then the situation had calmed and the power lines did not come down. They cleaned up the tree and the wrecker came around and hooked up and towed it to AP Hill.

From that point on in my Army life I vowed never to let stupid things happen if I could stop them.

That long story was just to show that if you use the winch correctly the pin should only break when the 10K capacity is exceeded by improper fleet angle or failure to use snatch blocks to do the winching.

doghead · 11-21-2006, 08:56

From that point on in my Army life I vowed never to let stupid things happen if I could stop them. You must be a very busy man!

mangus580 · 11-21-2006, 09:04

I have winched several hundred apple trees over with my deuce (plus many other kinds of trees, and of course I winched the deuce out of my back yard

)

I use the pins from Memphis, and they work great. I can drag my truck anywhere with all 10 tires sliding with my winch. No issue at all.

When I first got the truck, I have no clue what it had for a shear pin. I just know, it broke the first time we used the winch. I had a buddy make a few pins out of 6061 Aluminum, and the sheared almost with no load at all on the winch!

I can also tell you, that even with the Memphis shear pins, I was able to trash the upper and rear plate on the winch. I have even mangled one of my front clevis's (winch kicked in gear unexpectedly) before the pin sheared. Talk about a sickening sound, when you are too far away to do anything about it! I thought the engine was coming apart. Was bogging way down, and all sorts of metallic grinding and popping.... right up until that pin popped...

I think my heaviest winching, was pulling an Allis Chalmers HD11 out of the mud. It took 3 snatch blocks, and a big huge tree to do it.

I dont think I have ever heard the turbo scream that much since.