From: muratlanne@gmail.com   
      
   "Bob La Londe"  wrote in message news:vogqb3$20scn$1@dont-email.me...   
      
   On 2/11/2025 4:41 PM, Jim Wilkins wrote:   
   > I use [boat winches] for lack of a better inexpensive alternative.   
      
   A come-a-long, while slower, is marginally safer when operated correctly   
   and it is actually rated for lifting.  Yes, they tend to be a little   
   more expensive, but not prohibitively so.  I have used a come-a-long for   
   things like lifting a burnt-out compressor out the center of a   
   condensing unit with a straight bar and a ladder.  No fear of failure.   
   I've got a couple of them for such tasks.  I also have a couple chain falls.   
      
   Heat and UV eats up synthetic winch cable.  All the cool kids in the off   
   road community use the stuff, but all three of my electric   
   loading/recovery winches have steel cable.  I run steel on my electric   
   recovery/loading winches because I tend to run solo so the only one who   
   could stupidly stand right next to it is me, and I don't use them all   
   that often so I would rather they didn't sun rot before the next time I   
   need it.   
      
   Its a choice.  Much greater longevity VS some protection against   
   stupidity.  If I did the weekend group trail rides I would switch to   
   synthetic on my primary off road vehicle.   
      
   ---------------------------------------   
   Thanks for the info. I bought the synthetic cable for an ATV winch but never   
   installed it. The boat winch I put it on mostly stays in a shed, and last   
   summer was under the rain shelter for the gantry and sawmill. It happened   
   that the track hoisting (not supporting) winch on the sunny end tripod had   
   steel cable and I did all the gantry track leveling with the shaded   
   synthetic cable winch. There was a lot of readjustment because after sawing   
   the lighter logs I upgraded the gantry hardware for two 4000+ lb logs. What   
   I post about hoisting is from personal experience studying for, designing,   
   building and using the equipment.   
      
   I began logging with generic lever cable pullers, to pull down trees lodged   
   against others or guide ones likely to be. The cheap ones wore out very   
   quickly and greasing them made little difference. Replacing the axles with   
   harder steel bolts and shimming for better alignment partly helped, the   
   ratchets were next to fail. When I figured out how to join fence posts into   
   folding tripods to lift firewood logs off the rocky ground and spare my back   
   from bending over with a heavy chainsaw they were useless because of their   
   length, so I switched to shorter lever chain hoists. With one exception   
   these were so much more satisfactory and durable that I parked all the   
   come-alongs. The 1000 and 1500 Lb hoists get the most use. I need one at   
   each end to center the wider logs on the sawmill track.   
      
   The lever chain hoists are about as good as come-alongs for horizontal pulls   
   on dry ground, and better than chainfalls whose hand chain doesn't feed well   
   horizontally.  If I expected I might get stuck without a mounted winch I'd   
   bring my 2000 Lb x 12' lever chain hoist from Northern Tool. It has pulled a   
   trailer load up a hill too steep for my tractor. I've had four chain hoists   
   in use at once lifting a shed on and off a construction trailer.   
      
   A 2" ratchet cargo strap can pull 1000 Lbs (measured) in short steps and may   
   be useful for unintentional recovery and towing in addition to tie-down.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)