Mini skid winch

southsoundtree · Feb 25, 2019

A different balance on a different machine.

colb · Feb 25, 2019

I tip my dump bed trailer to load my sk650 using 6' straight ramps. Once it is in, I tip it back down with my right hand on the dump control while holding the track toggles with my left hand. My footplate barely clears while transitioning from ground to ramp. I'd rather have 10' aluminum ramps that are curved at the top, from 5 Star, but I had to start somewhere...

Jehinten · Feb 25, 2019

I tried tipping the bed one time, my controls are no where near the back of the truck and the parking brake does not hold on this machine (I have read that is quite common on minis). Long story short, one of my ramps also slid out from under me, the only thing that saved me from wrecking my machine and possibly getting injured was my sena that allowed me to call my wife who was inside to run out and hit the dump bed controls to lower the bed while I feathered the mini skid to keep it from rolling out of the box. Since then I have welded brackets so that my ramps cannot slide and I keep a wheel chock at the back of the bed each time I load. I haven't tried tipping the bed since then, since I am always loading/unloading by myself and I cannot easily access my chip box controller. The controls are located on the boom turret right behind the cab of the truck.

This was not my most fun moment on my mini skid.

Jehinten · Feb 25, 2019

As for a winch, I have just found a Rhino winch online 8,000# hydraulic winch. Uses a steel cable and has a secondary capstan on the side of it. I may go this route and convert the hydraulic lines to attach to the auxiliary connections.

climbhightree · Feb 25, 2019

Jehinten said:
So having had my mini for a few months now I am reconsidering my position on this. My mini being a wheeled skid steer has a downfall of poor traction and I really notice this while trying to pull over spars. Having a remote controlled winch with the mini butted up against another tree trunk would really simplify things. Not to mention loading the mini into the back of my chip bed I have to drive it in forward which causes it to want to wheelie even with a heavy log in the grapple. I think if I were to use the winch and take the slack out if the wich cable as I go up it would offer some extra security while loading and unloading.

@climbhightree how did you do your battery connections, straight to the battery or with a quick disconnect? I would be mounting mine to an attachment plate like you have shown above.

I have warn quick connections that I use.

climbhightree · Feb 25, 2019

I should say, it is rare that I use the winch mounted to the bmg. I mostly use my warn winch (on a receiver mount) attached to the mini with a hitch plate. On bigger trees I'll strap the rear of the mini to another tree, and sometimes the hitch plate to the front of the mini.

tnttree · Feb 26, 2019

Some dated pictures of capstan winches, rare pics of a Hydraulic GRCS

Jehinten · Mar 4, 2019

Here is the winch I am going to look at this afternoon, I just got off the phone with the guy that is selling it for his dad who is the one that used it. 8,000 lb. hydraulic, already set up to connect to a skid steer with flat faced couplers. It has 150-200 feet of 1/2" steel cable and the capstan that can take a rope. Unfortunately the capstan cannot run independently of the cable, but that is not a deal breaker. $500 and I'll be meeting with the Dad to look at it and ask any other questions that I may come up with.

Any thoughts on this? I like the hydraulic as it will have a 100% duty cycle, where as I have used a harbor freight atv winch in the past that had a duty cycle of 15 sec. of use and 14 mins and 45 sec. of cool down. Also its more cable than I see myself using as I would stretch out a rope for pulling over trees instead of taking the cable to the top, but it wont hurt to have a little more cable available should I ever need it for vehicle recovery.

not sure on winch speed with a 13gpm pump, but winching seldom needs to be fast.

Jehinten · Mar 5, 2019

Jehinten said:
Here is the winch I am going to look at this afternoon, I just got off the phone with the guy that is selling it for his dad who is the one that used it. 8,000 lb. hydraulic, already set up to connect to a skid steer with flat faced couplers. It has 150-200 feet of 1/2" steel cable and the capstan that can take a rope. Unfortunately the capstan cannot run independently of the cable, but that is not a deal breaker. $500 and I'll be meeting with the Dad to look at it and ask any other questions that I may come up with.

Any thoughts on this? I like the hydraulic as it will have a 100% duty cycle, where as I have used a harbor freight atv winch in the past that had a duty cycle of 15 sec. of use and 14 mins and 45 sec. of cool down. Also its more cable than I see myself using as I would stretch out a rope for pulling over trees instead of taking the cable to the top, but it wont hurt to have a little more cable available should I ever need it for vehicle recovery.

not sure on winch speed with a 13gpm pump, but winching seldom needs to be fast.
View attachment 57854

View attachment 57855

I went and looked at this today, yesterday didn't work out, it is quite a bit larger than I thought from the pics. From capstan to controller is about 3 feet and the seller said the weight was over 200lbs. Its definitely bigger than necessary, but I think I'm going to go for it.

tnttree · Mar 6, 2019

you will love the capstan on that winch
500 bucks is a good deal maybe hvy but thats a good thing (offer him 4 its almost chinese)

a warn 9K hyd winch will cost you ~ 1400 no cable, no capstan (~~80lbs)

Jehinten · Mar 6, 2019

tnttree said:
you will love the capstan on that winch
500 bucks is a good deal maybe hvy but thats a good thing (offer him 4 its almost chinese)

a warn 9K hyd winch will cost you ~ 1400 no cable, no capstan (~~80lbs)

Yea, the weight does not concern me, the vermeer will be the one picking it up and carrying it.

Mowerr · Mar 7, 2019

I never seen anyone around here using those wheeled mini skid units. I always thought they would be insufficient. Are they much better on lawns than tracks?

Jehinten · Mar 7, 2019

Mowerr said:
I never seen anyone around here using those wheeled mini skid units. I always thought they would be insufficient. Are they much better on lawns than tracks?

I've only used two mini skids. A rental, a Toro 427tx (I think) and my vermeer s600. The Toro was a walk behind track mini, it was harder on the grass and had a lower tipping point. Not exactly an even comparison, but I've been very happy with my vermeer.

One thing that I have noticed is most mini skids on wheels have large tires, mine has fairly low profile tires that are foam filled. I suspect a tall air filled tire would bounce much more.

Here is a picture of a test 180° turn that I did at the dealer when I bought it. However if you do get it in mud, it will certainly leave ruts.

Jehinten · Mar 21, 2019

I did end up getting this winch, it will require a bracket welded to an attachment plate before it can be put into use. I will eventually alter it to run off of a wireless remote, but for now it is hanging out in the shed until I have time to work on it.

This pic is of it sitting in a 42" bucket

tnttree · Mar 24, 2019

Jehinten said:
I did end up getting this winch, it will require a bracket welded to an attachment plate before it can be put into use. I will eventually alter it to run off of a wireless remote, but for now it is hanging out in the shed until I have time to work on it.

This pic is of it sitting in a 42" bucketView attachment 58325

Looks good, chain your machine down though, that will drag the mini to the log

. I have the weld on plates $99

Jehinten · Mar 25, 2019

tnttree said:
Looks good, chain your machine down though, that will drag the mini to the log . I have the weld on plates $99

I plan on creating an anchor point on the attachment plate for a chain or amsteel rope, that will run under the machine and to an anchor point. I believe its simpler to just tie the back of the machine to that anchor point, but I prefer to anchor the plate itself instead of having the hydraulic fight to hold back the winch.

I will take a look at your attachment plates, I plan on buying your rake soon to compliment the BMG that I purchased this past summer, so maybe I can get them both on the same order.

tnttree · Apr 6, 2019

thanks

southsoundtree · Apr 7, 2019

Jehinten said:
Here is the winch I am going to look at this afternoon, I just got off the phone with the guy that is selling it for his dad who is the one that used it. 8,000 lb. hydraulic, already set up to connect to a skid steer with flat faced couplers. It has 150-200 feet of 1/2" steel cable and the capstan that can take a rope. Unfortunately the capstan cannot run independently of the cable, but that is not a deal breaker. $500 and I'll be meeting with the Dad to look at it and ask any other questions that I may come up with.

Any thoughts on this? I like the hydraulic as it will have a 100% duty cycle, where as I have used a harbor freight atv winch in the past that had a duty cycle of 15 sec. of use and 14 mins and 45 sec. of cool down. Also its more cable than I see myself using as I would stretch out a rope for pulling over trees instead of taking the cable to the top, but it wont hurt to have a little more cable available should I ever need it for vehicle recovery.

not sure on winch speed with a 13gpm pump, but winching seldom needs to be fast.
View attachment 57854

View attachment 57855

Your max power is with minimum wraps. Max line speed with max wraps...fwiw.

Jehinten · May 25, 2019

Almost there on this project. My winch has sat in a shed since I bought it about 2 months ago. Today I got the brackets welded to an attachment plate as well as an anchor to tie the mini back to an anchor tree. I still need to replace the couplers to match the mini, and splice up a sling to run from the attachment plate back to the anchor tree. I'll be using 1/2" amsteel for that and 4" webbing for around the tree. Once it's all completed I'll be switching out the steel cable for 3/8" notch medusa winch line.

CanaryBoss · May 25, 2019

I have winches mounted on all three of my minis. I’ll send pics soon. Cost me about $75 each to buy the winch and install. They are permanently mounted 3500# I believe