Hand winch info

[redneck]

Any one know anything about these hand winches, I've seen a few for sale but very little info regarding load capacity, what their use was etc. I have an idea for one but would like a little more info first.

http://www.whitworthspanners.com/product5161

[Tony B]

Nice looking piece of kit. I've seen the British Army use Tirfor type winches before. Though I'm always a bit wary when the prices aren't clear.

Edited August 27, 2013 by Tony B

[utt61]

Never seen one of those before.

 

I know that in addition to Tirfors the army uses (or used to use) the Trewhella Wallaby (5 ton) and the Trewhella Monkey (12 ton) winches.

[Nick Johns]

They are hand operated Pontoon winches, operated by a direct drive pull on the cable drum by a steel bar similar operation to a Tirfor winch, no reduction gearing, they have a basic winch-in ratchet arrangement that allowed about 1/2 a turn of the cable drum on each pull of the lever, a very slow operation, you can't operate the cable in reverse to relieve the load like a Tirfor it has to be let out a bit at a time, they were mounted on pontoons/ bridging units for mooring or tensioning other pontoons together, its not really a winch, the load capability was dictated by the strength of the operator! they were probably fine for their purpose at the time but in practise they were not much use for anything else, it was replaced by the far superior Tirfor winch

Edited August 28, 2013 by Nick Johns

[Tony B]

I'd say if you want it for practical use, go Tirfor! :-D By the By, isn't there a picture somewhere of a Series 1 beign pulled across two wires with something similar?

[redneck]

They are hand operated Pontoon winches, operated by a direct drive pull on the cable drum by a steel bar similar operation to a Tirfor winch, no reduction gearing, they have a basic winch-in ratchet arrangement that allowed about 1/2 a turn of the cable drum on each pull of the lever, a very slow operation, you can't operate the cable in reverse to relieve the load like a Tirfor it has to be let out a bit at a time, they were mounted on pontoons/ bridging units for mooring or tensioning other pontoons together, its not really a winch, the load capability was dictated by the strength of the operator! they were probably fine for their purpose at the time but in practise they were not much use for anything else, it was replaced by the far superior Tirfor winch

 

Thanks, that's answered a few questions, probably not ideal for what I want.

However the Trewhella wallaby might be just the ticket, just got to find one now:???

[Tony B]

I've a 2 1/2 ton and 4 ton Tirfor in the collection. Great bits of kit as they maintain the pull all through. Ive seen and used them for everything from pulling gate posts out to righting a semi submerged river cruiser http://www.tractel.com/en/series.php?id_serie=47.

[redneck]

Agree the tirfors are great tools, but having used them moving boats around, I fancy something different, also those wallabys would work with synthetic line so would be a little easier to manage.