What winch wire rope cable for semitrailer winch?

[ichudov]

Since you guys know wire rope...

I have a hydraulic beavertail trailer with a hydraulic winch. I think that it is a Braden winch. Anyway, I want to buy cable that is easy to handle and that nicely wraps around the drum.

Would anyone have a suggestion as to the type of cable to buy?

PS I also do not get something. They sell electric winches "rated for 18,000 lbs pull" with only 3/8" wire rope. How is that possible???

 

[old-iron-habit]

That 18,000 lb winch is rated for a rolling load and is based on a however many part line they specify in the fine print.

Any cable you buy will only nicely lay if you keep tension on it. Be sure to keep the lay the same direction that it was on the spool. Size your cable to your winch pull as the bigger the cable the harder to spool clean without load.

 

[crane operator]

Old iron habit has it right- how the cold up there today hasn't frozen his brain- I have no idea. Maybe he's been using alcohol as anti freeze .

Any ways, I usually have plenty of rotation resistant cable around off crane drums so I'll use it on my trailer and truck winches. Usually they get a bad spot 80' in, so I've got 250' of cable that's not too bad left over from replacing a crane winch- so I then use it on the dragging winches. I use 5/8" on my landoll type roll back trailer hydraulic winch, and 3/4" on my mechanical oilfield winch on my tandem ford, its a lot bigger winch than my trailer winch. I like using at least 5/8" on my trailer for pulling dead dump trucks and such up on the deck. Those are a 20,000lb rolling load and you can hear the cable kind of walking around on the drum as it comes on. A snatch block would be handy on the roll back trailer if I was pulling something on the deck over 20,000.

The 9000 ford with the mechanical winch will drag the truck before the winch stops. So its kind of nice on it to have the bigger 3/4". The only way I could multipart it would be if I was using a dozer or something as a dead man, I'll never strain the cable with just the truck- it will drag me first.

A regular lay, non rotation resistant cable is actually much easier to handle, and less prone to damage from cross wrap winding than the rotation resistant. As far as winding straight and damage- I see wrecker guys all the time and their cable is a cross wrapped spooled up mess, and they don't seem to worry about it. I try to rewind my mechanical winch straight when I've had it all laid out, and I've flat spotted it in some places from mis winding.

 

[Natman]

Speaking of winch line, anyone swap it end for end (while keeping the rotation lay the same), if it's in good shape overall? I think of this when pounding down the road, that same section of line always on the boom tip sheave in the same spot.... while that last few feet on the opposite end sees no "work." Kind of like rotating a cars tires.

 

[crane operator]

To remove the sheave spot, you could just cut off 10'. If you do jib a lot, or block reeving/ multipart, usually once every couple years you end up with a bent portion 10-15' in anyways and cut some off. If you wanted to do what you're talking about, you would have to drag the whole works out on the ground in a long line, and then start from the other end. If you tied the becket to a pickup and had someone to pull it out as you let out line, you could stretch it out down the runway, and then drive the crane to the other end to spool it back up. I don't have a flat place that long in my yard to lay 500' out.

The thing that I've heard that made the most sense- was to unspool the cable onto a drum and cut the first 2' off before reseating it in the drum. Then you would have a totally different spot, taking the pop over wear when the winch makes a wrap on the drum, and goes to the next layer. That's actually the spot of cable that takes the most wear and shear- on the drum, where it makes it's pile and falls back over and starts across the next row. Wouldn't fix your worry on the sheave, but I think more damage happens on the drum, of course that wear is worse the larger the cable is, it has to walk over a larger section before it drops.

 

[old-iron-habit]

We also would cut a few feet of the drum end. Only the drum end on the crawler cranes unless we seen damage at the becket end. We often cut a couple feet off the becket end also on the truck cranes to insure new cable over the sheave to avoid a worn spot when the ball was in the stowed tied back position for travel.

 

[Tugger2]

If your using something like 5/8 on your recovery winch 6 x36 is a bit softer and spools nice on a small drum. It does crush easier which is not so good for that application. I use it on my pullmaster third drum which has a small drum dia,it always spools up nice.

 

[Natman]

Well, I'm going to a birthday party for my occasional helper (Gulf war vet, the first one. His Bradley got hit by friendly fire, then the Republican Guard, who were much more deadly then the run of the mill troops, moved in, thinking easy pickings. He rescued his crew mates, the ones still alive, and held off the Guard (killed a bunch) until the good guys arrived. He met GW, in the White House, had Colin Powell's personal cell number, was/is quite the local hero. THAT's my helper!

I 'll do what I did before with my 17 ton Terex's: go down to the new high school 1 mile from my yard, on a weekend, and spool out the line on their nice smooth and clean asphalt, while he drives off with it hooked to the trailer hitch. Once its all laid out, I'll cut 3-5' off the sheave end, and then put that end in the (grooved, I really like the National's grooved winch drum) winch drum and have helper Frank keep light pressure on the brakes while I reel him in. Then I'll cut 1 ' off the old winch end and re-install the becket. While I'm doing all this, I'll inspect every inch of line, using the soft rag trick to check for any broken strands. Then, even though I have the jib off and rarely need it or a multipart line, I'll keep all this in mind, making sure I don't run out of line, ever. 3 Wraps on the drum is min I believe, but I wouldn't cut it that close.