Winch Shear Pins

Mike your experiance sounds like what I am after. (Except the metallic grinding and popping!) Maybe I don't recall where i got them from correctly. I'll talk to jay today and see what he knows.

Kenny brought up a valid point. If the holes are wallowed out in the winch input shaft or the driveshaft yoke, you will shear pins much easier than if the holes are in good shape. If the hole is oversized, a standard pin will be cut, rather than holding against shear pressure. You can run a drill through the yoke and shaft (at the same time) and clean up any damage. Press in some brass bushings, or turn slightly larger aluminum pins. Use a little anti-sieze on the winch shaft to help reduce galling when the yoke spins (pin sheared). If the winch shaft has been worn down from too many pin shears, you may want to pull it out and have it welded up and turned back down to the correct diameter. If the driveshaft yoke is worn loose, replace it or have it bored and bushed.
Wreckerman's method works if you are highly experienced with winches and vehicle recovery. I would not recommend that to someone who has never used a winch very much. Many people don't realize just how hard it is to pull a stump out of the ground! You can grab a tree 10' from the ground and pull it right over. If you grab the same tree at ground level, it won't budge. Leverage can do wonderful or terrible things, depends how you use it.

When recovering anything over 8,000 lbs be sure to always at least use one snatch block, and you'll never have to worry about pins. Be sure the snatch block is loaded "straight" and not "side-pulling", and it will be an effortless pull. The good thing about everyone's response is.......we all have a good idea on what to do and not do!! I feel bad for "Mr. sucker" who buys one of the "candy cane" wreckers, and was told he can pull down a building with his front 45,000 lb. winch!! I guess no one bought that big red thing, heh?!

I just spoke with Jay at Saturn. He said he has had no input from customers about shear pins. (that is good) Their pins are mil spec/ issue. I ordered more from them. I will inspect the yoke and shaft carefully for any problems. I also will order a suitable snatch block to use with the truck winch.
BTW, I do have experience with winches , cables and loads.( not new to winches, just deuces) Thank you for all input and safety concerns from everyone. Eric

Keep your eyes out at community yard sales, I bought two snatch blocks both of which far exceed the 10 K rating of the winch and got them for a steal from women at huge tables of junk they were trying to unload. I will post pictures of them as soon as I can locate my camera cable but I never winch anything other than an SUV in snow without one or more in the operation. They are also excellent if you need to change directions of the pull although then they do not give you an mechanical advantage. When tree pulling in my pre-duece days I often had three or more blocks on my Cherokee with a REP8000 Ramsey that has never let me down and pulled out some big oaks to build my shed.

Kenny's right. The pins with the head is the wrong pin. The ones that use a kotter pin on both sides are much stronger! I have broken them too but it takes a much bigger load to break them.
Mine orignally had the stamped steel mounts from the winch to the frame. I broke the pass side one tring to get out of wet sand at the beach. I got the newer ones with the welded steel gussets from memphis. Much stronger. They must have went to these pins because they where breaking the pass side mount. If your shearing pins, I'd get a snach block with at least a 8' wheel. That will cure a lot of worries.
I aslo use the trucks wheels when stuck to help the winch. Low range and 1st gear.

im curious, once the shear pin snaps, does the winch make any sounds, will it still reel in cable with no load?

I am pretty sure Saturn Surplus shear pins are GI issue parts, they will be of the hardness required to use the winch successfully. I have to do a lot of heavy pulling with my trucks when we move barns, I do use 2 and even 3 part lines. I have broken one shear pin once, it was GI issue for sure. JT

i use snatch blocks and alot of extra cable and i dont break pins. the amount of cable on the drum has alot to do with the strenght of the pull before the pin breaks. a winch with 200ft of cable on it wont pull much when the line is only 10 feet out. it will pull its capacity or more when there is one layer of cable on the drum. for those of you that dont beleive me there is a door placard that is supposed to be on the pipeline trucks that says this. you can see it in tm 9-2320-361-20 on page 1-24, load numbers for it go from 8,000 with a almost full spool to 14,000 with what appears to be one wrap on the drum. on page 1-17 there is also a data plate for front 2.5 ton winches that reads winch cable and snatch block ratings and it says 6100# for 1/2" single line. i would imagine that the pin is designed to break somewhere close to that number. with the meyer factor figured in you can see why you cant even pull out a stock pickup truck when its stuck with out blowing pins. using 2 snatch blocks with almost all of my cable out i was able to pull root balls from 10"+ oak trees out of the ground with out breaking pins. i was also chained to another tree to prevent my truck from being drug. i have also ran out almost my whole drum and pulled my truck out single line in mud where it was basically the bumper on the ground in more muck than water.

rattlecan6104 said:

im curious, once the shear pin snaps, does the winch make any sounds, will it still reel in cable with no load?

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Won't do nothing..... except blow out the universal joint on the winch driveshaft

Once the pins shears..... stop the winch.


I have winch many loads and my experience is that the pins shear mainly at the start or stop. If I am gentle on the clutch, I can drag my deuce with all wheels locked. However, I have broken the pins on light weight puls by engaging or dis-engaging the winch too adruptly.

If someone will send me a pin they know to be mil-spec I can find out the alloy. I've got a friend that works at the local scrap yard and they have a gun they can "shoot" a piece of metal with and it will tell you the alloy. I'll have to destroy the pin though so don't expect it back. I'll have to flatten it out with a hammer to get enough surface area for the gun.

AL comes in a bunch of alloys with a wide range of hardness. 1100 being almost pure AL and the softest to some of the aircraft alloys that will give steel a run for it's money.

JohnnyReb said:

I have broken the pins on light weight puls by engaging or dis-engaging the winch too adruptly.

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I believe the term is "shock load" which can be many times the static load on the machinery. I would say that the winch pin breaking under shock load explains 90% of the breakages referenced above. Taking up slack in the line, shifting load, quick engage/disengage. All of these will break parts if not relieved with some kind of a stress regulation mechanism.

There's a great book by Carrol Smith called "Engineer to win" mainly about the engineering of race cars, but he gets into the science and mechanics of parts failures (engine, chassis, etc), even down to the metallurgy level. A fascinating read for those interested...

JohnnyReb said:

Won't do nothing..... except blow out the universal joint on the winch driveshaft

Once the pins shears..... stop the winch.


.

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the pin blowing out wont damage the universal. thats why the pin is there to begin with. the shaft will spin all day long under no load once the pin blows .

I might pull off the band brake cover and check that there is no rusting going on and that the band is well released.

if anyone knows the material they are supposed to be made from i could spin a bunch out on the lathe

so were is the best place to get shear pins then ???????

MUDLORD said:

the pin blowing out wont damage the universal. thats why the pin is there to begin with. the shaft will spin all day long under no load once the pin blows .

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That is not always correct. The purpose of the shear pin is to protect the drive; however, if you continue to try and run the winch then the sleeve can bind up and blow the universal. This is from personal experience.

What will happen is that the UJ connection can work back and when it is about to fall loose it can bind at an angle.

avengeusa said:

if anyone knows the material they are supposed to be made from i could spin a bunch out on the lathe

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I'm thinking you could probably find some rod the proper dia. and not have to turn it down. Like I said before all I need is a pin and I can find the alloy.

I bought some NOS pins from Gene Pantano in CO 5 years ago and have not sheared one yet. I pull trees, dead corvairs and other things.

Bill

M16ty, I can send you one if you want.

Bill