5 Ton Winch question

Well as some of you may know my wife and i just bought a M925 and i have a few new be questions about using the winch in a safe manner.
(1) First how many feet of cable is on the winch drum?
(2) When using the winch how many feet of cable can you play out, and what are the minimum number of raps of cable you should leave on the drum?
(3) I would like to buy a snatch block for use with my winch, now i have seen some blocks for sale on S.S. and they are listed for use with a 5/8" cable with a 10 ton rating and 8" pulley, so is that the right block for use with my winch?
(4) Last question when done using the winch how do you get the cable spooled back onto the drum nice and even like it came from the factory. Do you guide it back onto the drum by hand while someone else runs the controls from the cab?

Please don't flame me for asking these questions, i am new to this equipment and want to use it in a safe manner, so that's why i am asking for help from my fellow S.S. members who i view as experts. One more point i have the operators manual for our truck coming and will read it cover to cover but until i have it any help would be welcome. Thanks

I don't know much about winches but I like how you include your wife. My wife "bought" me a 1942 WC51. She wrote the check while I was busy so I always thank her for buying it for me. She's not too amused by that but is a good sport about it, God bless her.

My best suggestion is, download and read the -10TM for your truck.

After that, ask what you do not understand.

Rifleman said:

.................. questions about using the winch in a safe manner.
(1) First how many feet of cable is on the winch drum?
(2) When using the winch how many feet of cable can you play out, and what are the minimum number of raps of cable you should leave on the drum?
(3) I would like to buy a snatch block for use with my winch, now i have seen some blocks for sale on S.S. and they are listed for use with a 5/8" cable with a 10 ton rating and 8" pulley, so is that the right block for use with my winch?
(4) Last question when done using the winch how do you get the cable spooled back onto the drum nice and even like it came from the factory. Do you guide it back onto the drum by hand while someone else runs the controls from the cab?
........................

Click to expand...

In addition to what Doghead said: The safest... would be, NOT use a winch until you have read and fully understood what the TM says! Although there are some basic rules that apply to all winching operations. So, not having the exact TM (yet), for your model truck is NO excuse, if something went wrong...!

For rigging techniques in general, we have a VERY good book in our library, which I would strongly recommend reading.

Even so, some answers here:

1) 150-200 ft (does it really matter?)
2) every ft, but NOT the last 4-5 turns of rope!
3) that one will work OK, although its heavy! (60 lbs)
4) better not by hand! (See TM 9-2320-209-10-1, p. 4-71/72)


G.

Something that is not in the TM to the best of my knowledge
is www.samsonrope.com makes a lightweight rope that would
be a WAY better choice then the metal OE rope for civilian usem
and argueably MV use as well me thinks. One man can
easily handle the Samson rope.

Once you pay out over 50'
of OE metal you will be begging for help. Additionally I have
2 single sheve and 1 double sheve snatch blocks. The singles
are probably 90 pounds, maybe better and the doubles weight
is redonkulous. Now you need heavy chains or slings or bridles
to attach to trees plus + + . Safe is probably 3-5 men and a whole lot of
forethought and experience.

I am not sure rolling up cable straight is in the TM. When your winching
sometimes you have no control over how the cable spools due to
varying conditions. When done I have spooled out then attached
something pretty heavy and straight out in front and dragged it
back wearing heavy leather gloves and guiding the cable back
as desired.

Look at the strength of the Samson 5/8" rope. They make it in
green too! A group buy would be nice!

READ MORE HERE

Let's just help him understand what he does have and how to safely use it, before we go off telling him to modify it.

He asked for facts, not opinions.

200ft of cable. Do not exceed 1800 RPM while winching. Leave at least 4 spools of cable on the drum, I would leave more. To spool it back in tight, I would wrap a chain around a tree, hook up the winch line to the chain, apply slight brakes as to create a little drag, spool in and use the steering to move the cable from side to side. You should have 2 people to operate winch. Let the system rest 10-15 seconds every 100ft of cable. Contgrats on the new pickup! Oh and don't forget the drum lock...

To everyone that has taken time to answer my question a BIG thank you! One more thing to put everyone's mind at ease, i will not use my new winch until i have the manual in hand, but I just had a few questions before the fact and you guys answered them.

GHall said:

200ft of cable. Do not exceed 1800 RPM while winching. Leave at least 4 spools of cable on the drum, I would leave more. To spool it back in tight, I would wrap a chain around a tree, hook up the winch line to the chain, apply slight brakes as to create a little drag, spool in and use the steering to move the cable from side to side. You should have 2 people to operate winch. Let the system rest 10-15 seconds every 100ft of cable. Contgrats on the new pickup! Oh and don't forget the drum lock...

Click to expand...

You dont need to steer to guide it back on neatly. If you have a small load it will move its self from side to side. When I wanted to spool the cable on my deuce nice and neat I just hooked it to my Jeep (straight out in front of the truck), pulled the parking brake on the Jeep and drug it in. (on a dirt/gravel driveway) You have to pay out enough line to get down to a spot on the drum where it is already nicely spooled and go from there.

Gringeltaube, i want to sent out a big thank you, to you for that link to the Army rigging book. I have spent to better part of the afternoon reading it and it has a wealth of information in it.

When I was in the Army part of our training when we went out on manuvers (in a trans unit) was winching operations. It is better to have some practice under you belt before you have to use one in an emergency. If you have MV buddies in your area (or other enablers) you can find a good place to do some winching operations. Snatch blocks are essential for getting out of deep doo doo or having to do an offset pull. When I was in we didn't have the option of the heavy straps. We used big chains to anchor to trees or other points.
Good luck and be safe.