centre mount winch

[itsracin]

As I have a front mount intercooler I was thinking of centre mounting my front winch.
I will be using plasma rope and wondering what tubing would be ideal for feeding to the front bar and can anyone help with info or and photos on this subject?

Kind regards Chad.

[Red Dog 4x4]

Your best bet would be to get some rated eye lets and place them along the chassie and if it has to run near the exhast I'd run it in some thing like 44 id pipe shaped to the chassie with a heat sheald on it. If you get a chance have a look at Sheaty's old truck or even the claton's towing hilux.
Hope this helps

Ryan

[bru21]

If you are using plasma, I would use tube. buy dom or 4130 from performance metals, it has next to no seam and is smooth inside.

cheers bru

[Gwagensteve]

Depends on how you want the winch setup.

I'm building a rear/centre mounted winch on a car at the moment but the owner's intention was to be able to winch single line pull rearwards and forwards, so a removable rear pulley has been fitted.

We'll be running a stainless leader permanently under the car from front to rear. When he wants to winch forwards, the plasma will be hooked to the leader and the whole lot pulled through and out the front.

In this application, we couldn't really use tube as we have to fit a caribener or shackle to feed through to the front. We're using a pulley set through the rear crossmember, a boat trailer keel roller on the transfer case crossmember and a hawse at the front. the cable can't fall out, but can sag, so there is a possibility that if you were trying to race the winch by driving whilst winching, the cable could loosen under the car and sag, getting caught up, but this isn't a competition setup though so we won't be trying to beat the winch.

Being able to winch single line to the rear is important as it's not always easy to reverse back to a stuck car behind you to snatch them. We find this a lot on Vic.

I agree that in a comp scenario where front winching is more common and speed is everything, tube might be the answer, but it's not the only answer.

Steve.

[fool_injected]

Center mount winches are a bitch to spool up correctly (especially in comp)
The tube feeding the cable forward makes the rope/cable bunch up in the middle instead of spooling across evenly

[monstr]

Center mount winches are a bitch to spool up correctly (especially in comp)
The tube feeding the cable forward makes the rope/cable bunch up in the middle instead of spooling across evenly

If the winch is set up right and you leave a space of at least 5oo to 1 metre from the last guide to the winch it spools on a lot more even..

[Gwagensteve]

We've got about 500mm from drum to the pulley on the rear crossmember. Fingers crossed it's going to be OK.

Steve.

[cj]

We've got about 500mm from drum to the pulley on the rear crossmember. Fingers crossed it's going to be OK.

Steve.

x2

[cj]

There will also be a belly pan so the rope won't sag to the ground in the middle.

[itsracin]

Well, there is alittle more involved or to think about when approaching this setup.
It will be in comp scene so has to spool evenly.

More thought to this is required on my part.
Thank you for the responses, as Im a first timer at this maybe I should just put on front and learn the winch first.

Chad.

[chunderlicious]

hey mate, i did winch challenge with a guy and we had a centre mount winch. the tube was made from exhaust pipe (as its straight it didnt need a high strength thing) just flanged each end and worked fine.

others use eyelets and you only need 2 or 3 from memory.

the problem with using tube is that when the rope snaps thats it. it takes a few minutes to put it back through. so if/when i mid mount mine ill be using small sections (200mm) of tube (thicker than exhaust pipe).

also, we finished it about 600mm away from the drum and it spooled excellent nearly everytime. BUT, i recommend freespool as for some reason it ALWAYS overspooled.

good luck, if you need a hand or some ideas just PM me, i know your car and live pretty close.

[Tooheys]

We've got about 500mm from drum to the pulley on the rear crossmember. Fingers crossed it's going to be OK.

Steve.

What you need to have for it to spool correctly is the correct fleet angle. This site explains fleet angle http://www.wintech-winches.com/net_file ... _angle.htm.

Pretty much all winch drums are smooth so the calculation will be :
(width of drum) x 19 = distance to diverter sheave.

[itsracin]

Thanks Toohey, that thread was educational. With have a look at Stauff clamps, didnt even think of them and would be a better finish too.

Have to admit there is some thinking invovled in a good working setup and somewhat competive too.

Pays to research, but can do your head in sometimes.......thats why they call it a hobby

Chad.

[Ashy]

From what I can gather from the fleet angle tables, is, if the drum is 300mm wide the first sheave is somewhere around 20 ft. away from the drum. Or I maybe missing something here.

Ashy

[Tooheys]

From what I can gather from the fleet angle tables, is, if the drum is 300mm wide the first sheave is somewhere around 20 ft. away from the drum. Or I maybe missing something here.

Ashy

Yeah i cocked up your right for every 1 foot of width for a smooth drum the first point of connection needs to be 19 foot away.

[uninformed]

what about one of those spring loaded rollers the tilt tray guys use on there winches.

not a level wind but a free rolling roller that is held onto the rope via a large spring. i know they are to stop birdsnesting but if the rope is layed on correctly to begin with and the first point of connection isnt right at the drum, i owuld think it would help.

Serg

[Tooheys]

something like this? http://www.truckntow.com/pc-10156-14706 ... h246r.aspx

[uninformed]

something like this? http://www.truckntow.com/pc-10156-14706 ... h246r.aspx

same sort of principle but different, its a roller insted of flat plate, the spring is horizontal and not vertical... that looks a little backyard to me

Serg

[fool_injected]

something like this? http://www.truckntow.com/pc-10156-14706 ... h246r.aspx

same sort of principle but different, its a roller insted of flat plate, the spring is horizontal and not vertical... that looks a little backyard to me

Serg

Seems like a neat and easy solution, anybody tried it?
In a comp scenario it would be good to have some mechanism to release spring pressure during feespool (less drag)

[THE 109]

The cable tensioner will stop your cable releasing off the drum when under no load,such as when free spooling.It will not help the cable feed across to the outer sections of the drum if you have excessive fleet angle.If the tensioner spring has alot of clamping force it will make pulling the cable off the drum a bit harder.If using plasma rope you wouldn't need much clamping force at all as it's got no memory.
Hope that helps.Eric.

[REVNGQ]

[hammey]

Hey REVNGQ,
It would be greatly appreciated if you could post up some more pictures of how its mounted to the chassis.
and also of the tube carrying the rope around the engine mounts.

cheers smitty

[REVNGQ]

Hey REVNGQ,
It would be greatly appreciated if you could post up some more pictures of how its mounted to the chassis.
and also of the tube carrying the rope around the engine mounts.

cheers smitty

sorry smitty..... This is a mates ute just had the picture laying around..

[hammey]

No problems mate, thanks anyway.

Anyone else have photos.........

cheers smitty

[nzdarin]

I've had a mid mounted hi mount for the past three years and there are 3 reasons for running it. Approach angle, weight distrubution and they always feeds on perfect as long as you mount them correctly and have the first guide far enough away.
With a standard hi mount you want th first guide about 1m away and centre to the drum. I ran with about 900 in my first setup and the first 2 layers were perfect and then it gathered to the middle for the last 3. I could still run 50m of 10mm and never had a bunching problem whether in a comp or just playing around.
I now have a wide drum (355) and the first guide is 1400 away and this enables me to now run just over 80m of 10mm. the same as before it lays the first 2 layers perfectly and them gaters to the middle. To stat witha I ran 90m but this was a little too much for comps and it would bind a little bit. I habe a piece of tube for the first guide that is an 'S' shape to get the rope to the side of the motor. It then is unsupported right through to the guide in the bar.

[XTREME MMM]

Yes centre mount winches are being used more.

But you will find they are not as efficient as a front mounted winch.

Now you are going to ask why?

Answer is when you are stuck you will also lift up the rear of vehicle creating more weight to be pushed downwards on the front.

Yes you may say that is incorrect, but it is correct.

We had a rear mounted winch in a very lite comp car a couple of years ago at one of my XWC events. Front was stuck so the team winched resulting in rear lifting up (due to pivot point at front) and putting more weight on front of vehicle making it harder for vehicle to get over obstacle. Where as if it were mounted directly at front it would have lifted the front more resulting in rear having more weight on and be able to get over obstacle.

My 2 bobs worth. better at front.

Cheers
David

[bazuky]

dave are you whinching over the top of the cab ?

[macca81]

the end that will lift up, is the end that has the fairlead... you can have the winch mounted at the rear but the cable comming out the front, and ill tell you right now you wont be getting the back to lift up without the front lifting first!

[vanbox]

the end that will lift up, is the end that has the fairlead... you can have the winch mounted at the rear but the cable comming out the front, and ill tell you right now you wont be getting the back to lift up without the front lifting first!

x2

Doesnt matter where you mount the winch, its the angle at which the cable/rope leaves the fairlead as to whether it pulls up, down or side to side

PAUL

[XTREME MMM]

dave are you whinching over the top of the cab ?

NO