Deuce tail roller and bed winch, skid loading setup

If the winch mount moves you can easily add a strip of angle iron on the outside edge of the bed for more strength.

Ty,

I acknowledge you are fitting the hydraulic principally for skidding the shelter onto the bed. However, in post #39 you mentioned the idea of fitting gin poles for lifting.

Does this winch have the proper design and braking mechanisms for lifting? I'd like to know your thoughts on this since I'm "Imagineering" my own rear mounted winch and am seeking a proper winch for both pulling and lifting. If you know of a better hydraulic winch for the purpose, please let us know!

Rick

Well technically speaking, the winch isn't designed for lifting. Winches for lifting (better known as hoist) cost a fortune compared to regular winches.

The fact is though, hyd winches have fairly good holding properties. When you stop the hyd winch, fluid can't go in or out of the motor so it's locked. There will be a little fluid bypass but for the most part it will be locked. With all that being said, I'd still be very careful with lifting stuff.

If you could find a hoist assembly off a wrecker, it would make a great hoist for lifting.

The boom winch on a M936 is made just like the front winch except for the drum, mounts, and dog for free spool, most all of the other parts are the same.

I'm going off of memory here but doesn't the boom winch have a worm gear for the first gear reduction? If so, that is key to it not moving under load.

I believe hoists have brakes in the drum that unload the gear-train when not driven (power up, power down). Without that, your capacity might only be 1/10th the rating of a similar hoist, so a 15,000lb winch might only be able to safely handle a 1,500lb dead-lift (3/4 ton).

Well I finally got everything plumbed up and working. I haven't tried to load the shelter yet but I did hook it to the bumper of my cj5 and lifted the front of it off the ground. I also put the winch in high range, hooked the line to the bumperett, stalled the winch, and set the relief to the correct 1,500psi. found a few small bugs I need to work out but everything works as I planned.

Today I had some spare time so I made a vid of the setup.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKsDnjeKUqo

Video isn't working, am I the only one?

Worked for me. Nice job Ty.

m16ty said:

Well I finally got everything plumbed up and working.

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gimpyrobb said:

Worked for me. Nice job Ty.

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No kidding that's a nice job. I mean that set-up is completely excellent; outstanding.

I can't even imagine all the mental gymnastics it must have taken to figure the placement of all the components so that nothing gets tangled up in something else.

Wow. That is a real fine piece of engineering. Did you map it out at all, or did you do all that in your head alone?

(Oh, and my favorite part of the video was the one second shot of your ol' hound laid out on the slab behind the rig, catching a full-press snooze; classic.)

It looks more complicated than it really is. I just kind of had it all in my head.

I always knew you were a head case!

m16ty said:

It looks more complicated than it really is. I just kind of had it all in my head.

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You're a natural born genius. I men to horseback that whole set-up - and have it all work perfectly- is nothing short of pure genius.

That is one great project you put together there; nice work.

Good work Ty, thanks for posting up!

I look forward to seeing your video of the shelter loading! Should be awesome!

Rick

Nice engineering! Looks like it'll pickup that shelter just fine

Well I winched the shelter onto the truck today. I haven't took a vid of it yet though.

One of the reasons I didn't take a vid is everything didn't go as smooth as I had hoped. I found out quickly that with the tight clearances between the shelter and the bed sides, you have to make sure you are as square as you can get to the shelter and on level ground before you start winching. If you get good and square before you start, it will go in pretty well and you can slide it around with a long bar a little if needed if it starts going crooked.

Another problem I had was with the remote. As seen in the vid, I mounted the remote plug in the bed between the two tandems. I was letting the truck roll back as the shelter loaded, wasn't paying attention, and let the tire roll over the cord, pulling the wire out of the plug. My thinking of mounting the plug there was it would be mid way between the front and back so I could be at either end if need be but I'm starting to think having the cord routed that close to the tandems was a bad idea. I either need to move the plug or just pay more attention.

Another screw up I had was just bad thinking on my part. When I got the shelter it was full of shelves, a bench, and a very heavy steel cabinet. I had already stripped out the shelves and bench but had unbolted the cabinet from the floor and left it in there until I could get some help moving it out due to the weight. Well in my rush to see the winch setup work, I forgot about the loose cabinet. The shelter gets at probably a 45deg angle before it breaks over into the bed and you can guess what happened. I remembered the cabinet was in there when I heard a big thud from inside the shelter. The cabinet had fell into the side wall (punching a small hole into the interior skin) and firmly wedged itself against the shelter door. I had to crawl over it to get inside and inspect damage and other than the small hole, there was no other damage. I'll have to put a small patch in the otherwise great interior but what else can you do? It's just a reminder to have anything in the shelter very secure before loading/unloading.

I think I have all the bugs worked out now and will get a vid when I get a chance.

Running a winch truck is a skill that takes time to master

How did the winch do pulling the shelter up? Any audible complaints?

Pulled it up fine but you can tell everything is in a pretty good strain getting the front started over the roller. I'm glad I added the center support rollers, I think they are needed for even this relatively light shelter.

I tried to pull it up in high range on the winch but that was a no-go. It goes good and fast in high range but I think it has less than 2,000lb pull in high range with a nearly full drum.

Unloading the shelter, I did notice some bad noises if I tired to stop after the shelter had broken over center. This is the greatest load of the process and I guess it was just due to the strain. It would stop and hold it but it made some noise when stopping and starting. If you keep going and don't stop during this time, everything goes smooth.

Sounds similar to my experience unloading the MUST shelter. Past the breakover point was when stopped lowering to back the truck up and thats when the stock tie down point on the shelter decided to break free. Your upgraded skid shouldn't have to worry about that concern.

Hopefully I can get my hands on a S280 this spring!