Winch carrier for Fiery (née Free Steel...........)

[Chris]

Steve, on a decent toggle isolator, you have a sort of half-cocked position that allows you to leave the key in (with the shroud to keep the crud out) but not so deep as to engage the contacts. Worth seeing if yours has that.

Chris

 

[Doodle]

Doesn't yours have an "idle up" button on the dash?

 

[Chris Green90]

Doesn't yours have an "idle up" button on the dash?

I think I am right in saying that its a uk shortie so therefore manual so therefore no idle up button. Might be wrong, wouldn't be the first time.

But if its a button I would think its electrically controlled. hmmmmm wonder if I have that particular button in the load I got from scrap yard and mor importantly I wonder if the wiring is behind the dash somewhere. Could anyone tell me which blanking plate I should be looking behind.

Thanks
Blakie

 

[karl webster]

Must say Steven nice bit of work.

Looks good.Nice and simple and it should do whats needed just fine. Dave also had a cut off switch that packed up and was new. At £4.99 they cant be up to much.At that price a spare could be kept in the truck if ever needed. I havnt read everything on here but are you going to build a complete bumper in the future as you have made a nice job of the tray im sure a full bumper would look good.
Karl

 

[sae70]

Steve, on a decent toggle isolator, you have a sort of half-cocked position that allows you to leave the key in (with the shroud to keep the crud out) but not so deep as to engage the contacts. Worth seeing if yours has that

I think we already established that at £6 this want be a descent isolator I'm pretty certain that it has no such function, but I shall double check for it in the morning

Out of interest I had a tot up of what I spent on the entire winch install and it came in at £473 The winch was the largest part of that at £255 and then the rope, hook and Hawse at £146

Only time will tell with regards the quality of the isolator I guess

 

[sae70]

Doesn't yours have an "idle up" button on the dash?

As Chris says, 'no idle up button'

 

[sae70]

Must say Steven nice bit of work

Thanks Karl

Robert asked me if you were going to bring ChuggaBug along to Lincomb this time

...................Nice and simple and it should do whats needed just fine ....................................... I havnt read everything on here but are you going to build a complete bumper in the future as you have made a nice job of the tray i'm sure a full bumper would look good

No, sorry, no full bumper planed. What you see is what you get I'm afraid Karl Nice and light though The winch tray is just 15Kg and the complete install deducting the weight of what was removed (bit of bumper and chassis, 3.5Kg) come in at only an additional 45Kg in total, wires and all In fact Karl I'm toying with the idea of getting another bog standard bumper to fit, but trimming it up in a different way, now I can see the tray in situ, but its no biggie. I wonder how much one would have to pay for another front bumper in Silver

Dave also had a cut off switch that packed up and was new. At £4.99 they cant be up to much.At that price a spare could be kept in the truck if ever needed

That's not a bad idea is that

 

[karl webster]

Tell robert im affraid chuggabug wont be coming this time.Im dragging my green lanner doown on my trailer.

I just thought you may have got the bug for this fabing lark with the tray turning out so well.

I havnt a bumper as they go quick.Ill keep my eye out for one if your looking for one. Prob 100-150 id charge for one.

karl

 

[Doodle]

As Chris says, 'no idle up button'

Ah, LWB only then. I shall remain grateful for mine.

 

[sae70]

Tell Robert I'm afraid chuggabug wont be coming this time

Ah, that's a shame. Chugga was alot of fun to watch

I just thought you may have got the bug for this fabing lark with the tray turning out so well

I did enjoy making it, but felt very guilty about the time I spent doing it. Maybe when the kids are a bit older and I have a workshop down the garden

I haven't a bumper as they go quick.Ill keep my eye out for one if your looking for one. Prob 100-150 id charge for one

Blimey One 'n a 'alf, make me laugh I was hoping you'd say something like £25 m8

It's like this you see

I cut the bumper about to give me a better approach angle before I designed and fitted the winch tray and thought that if I had the chance again I'd cut it more like the second photo, but know I've spent the time in paint putting the triangles back in I'm not so sure It's not offensive the way I have it in the first photo, but I wondered if it would have looked better like the second photo To be fair I'm not certain that the original bumper has enough depth of the correct shape to give the look of the second photo in any case. I'll bring a tape measure to Lincomb and measure someones that has not been molested with a slitting disc

Oh and let me know if one of those £25 bumpers turns up Karl and I'll break your arm off

 

[karl webster]

Lol regaring the 25quid Steven. Your as bad as ben Giving a fair amount of money for these trucks to begin with have to make the money back im affraid. No good buying a truck for a grand and selling everything and the total money back being 650.

As for chugga.Think a few people didnt like it being there. I will bring it next year if i still have it and just trailer it to the woods. Unless dave drags it down this time

Just a thought for you. You could always make the bits that you showed at the bottom in steel and have it all recoated after weilding on it would protect the bottom of the bumper as well. I feel a full bumper fabrication post coming on

 

[Ben]

Lol regaring the 25quid Steven. Your as bad as ben Giving a fair amount of money for these trucks to begin with have to make the money back im affraid. No good buying a truck for a grand and selling everything and the total money back being 650.

As for chugga.Think a few people didnt like it being there. I will bring it next year if i still have it and just trailer it to the woods. Unless dave drags it down this time

Just a thought for you. You could always make the bits that you showed at the bottom in steel and have it all recoated after weilding on it would protect the bottom of the bumper as well. I feel a full bumper fabrication post coming on

I liked it being there!

I thought it was hilarious when you came back and said the rad was still leaking after putting 20 eggs in it!

Its the sort of truck i could picture Cheech n Chong driving.

 

[silvercruiser]

http://i993.photobucket.com/albums/af51/sae70/Fierys front winch/IMG_1863as512x384.jpg

Im sure with a bit of plastic welding you could sort this

Joe

 

[sae70]

Got to use the new winch three, nearly four times at Lincomb

Its first outing was to assist in winching Ben out of that Bomb Hole

Following this I left in a rush to get to the 3rd stage before it closed, took a wrong turn to the right and went up a hill that I'd not intended on going up and found myself slipping and sliding all over the place. Back down was not an option I did give it a go, BUT!!! So out with the winch again and an easy pull to the top, luckily to find a gentle slop back down. It all got a bit sweaty and made me late for the 3rd stage The team running the 3rd stage very kindly allowed me entry at the tenth hour. Thanks Guys No photos of the winching operation I'm afraid as it was all done in a rush

Then I was in the woods late Sunday afternoon, driving the 3rd stage in reverse and about to get it on with my new winch again when I realized I should really be on my way home instead of spending the next hour winching up this little ol' hill

So I backed down to find Ben and Mike still in the woods having a play and then Mike got delayed in here.

Not able to winch forward and unable to tow/snatch him out backwards, both myself and Ben tried!! We had a good go at winching him out backwards with my new toy and a snatch block from off of the rear of Ben's truck. This just dragged Ben sideways and me up and over the little hump I'd positioned myself over

I then drove up the hill opposite and attached the rear of my truck to a tree and gave him a straight, single line pull out after a little digging and waffle placement, supervised by Jon

Sorry no photos as the battery went flat in my camera/iPhone

Now I definitely wasn't going to make that family roast back home for certain

Overall, very pleased with how the winch performed Still a lot to learn and need to be a bit braver with holding that 'WINCH IN' button down I think. I guess that this will come with experience over time I also need to upgrade my snatch block that the chap I bought the winch from off of gave me as it raised a few eyebrows on the day, even though it's rated at 6Ton

I cleaned the truck today and made a couple of observations on the winch with regards the rope and the thimble.

Firstly the thimble has deformed a little

I don't think it's a big issue as it doesn't seem to be compromising the rope in any way. During a conversation with my m8 Giles it turns out he has a spare tubed thimble that he's happy to let me have, so we are going to get together later this week and splice it on

When I bought the rope it came with the first couple of meters covered in heat shrink I decided to leave it on although I did nearly remove it all This has clearly given the first couple of meters of rope a bit of protection, but I shall be loosing this to splice in the new thimble.

There's also a little fraying/fluffing of the rope Not as hairy as some I've seen and nowt to be to concerned about I hope

Overall though very pleased, but must get a larger snatch block

 

[Ben]

Awesome weekend Steven.

Your winch worked very well, particularly when it came to getting me out of that hole.

If you get another snatch block, carry your other one aswell.

That way, providing theres enough trees around you can winch forwards and side ways at the same time. Something which is particularly useful for side slopes.

I think your winch will be getting a fair bit of use on our next trip with the lanes im planning on driving!

 

[Chris]

Steve, glad it worked well for you the next time you used it in anger. If you remember, I snapped my front rope pulling Ben out, but the good news is that splicing is really easy! I followed some You Tube guides with a new thimble and it all went well. Now, I did turn the rope around to give me a fresh end to work with, which helped. Old rope is much harder to splice. I made the spare piece into a short strop with a thimble in each end. It seems to be in OK condition. I wouldn't worry about the distorted thimble. You'll only bend the next one. The ones that came with the Dyneema Bowrope actually have an enclosed thimble on them which is much stronger. And the rope will get fluffy. That is perfectly fine. It look horrid, but that's absolutely normal. It is tough to cut though.

Chris

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

I wondered if you damaged your rope pulling that rock to you on the rock crawl section Chris.

 

[Chris]

Jon I think it was just general fatigue and it actually snapped further in than that. It has had a great deal of use and was also in a fire if you recall. As I said, swapping it end to end isn't a bad idea. The rough end is then all capstened on the drum. It was virtually impossible to work with that bit in terms of splicing anyway.

 

[sae70]

I like what your saying about turning your rope around Chris, makes sense to me

Another thought in the same vain, during my chat with Giles the other day I mentioned to him that I had not had a chance to put my new synthetic rope onto the drum under tension before my first epic winching operation on Ben. He said that following a conversation that he'd had with a Dyneema supplier that he uses in Kent the chap had suggested everyone has different ways of connecting and setting up their winches with synthetic rope. All using different methods of connection to the drum and even wrapping the drum in anti slip sticky pads as used on boats or even roughing up the drum with a flappy disc!!! The one thing he did say that I thought very interesting was when loading the drum with rope was to not in fact have a tight neat wrap on the drum running symmetrically from one side to the other and back again, but to infant load it in a messy way from side to side thus not allowing the rope to slip through between wraps of the rope when under tension. I like this idea a lot, what do we think about it?

 

[TonyP]

Hmm interesting Steve. Not a expert so can't offer an opinion, but the one thing I will say is that it goes very much against my OCD