We have a featured guest blogger. He has experience with bucket truck winches and has created the Internet’s first manual for using/ maintaining a winch on a bucket truck.

Introduction

I’ve pulled three trucks back onto the road with our backhoe or tractor in the last five years. A bucket truck van driver told me he can go almost anywhere because of the weight of his truck, but a wet grassy slope and worn tires can leave you stuck. We bought an F-450 flatbed bucket truck for outside building maintenance, minor tree work, Christmas light displays and hauling pallets of sod and stone. Since we intend to use it off-road the light 9,000 lbs. weight was a real plus, while the three ton flatbed capacity lets us carry two pallets of sod or a pallet of stone without difficulty. But I’d hate to pay to have our bucket truck winched back onto the road; the closest towing company said that they can’t do it, and they charge $128 per hour.

Choosing a Winch

The rule of thumb for choosing a self-recovery winch is 1.5 times the weight of your truck. At that rate the cost of a 20,000 to 30,000 lb. winch, a huge tree strap, snatch block and shackle might be enough to stop you from considering a self-recovery winch. (The shackle alone would cost $200.00.) Plus a big winch will suck the life out of a 650 CCA class 65 battery and your alternator. Tow trucks get around the electrical problem by using hydraulic winches, but for the occasional user they are dangerous. An electric winch will stall, burn up or trip a breaker before the capacity of the winch is exceeded. A hydraulic winch will just run slower and slower until something breaks with disastrous results! There is a better way to look at it though.

The 1.5 rule of thumb is a good one for off-roader with fat tires buried up to the transfer case in mud halfway down a hillside. A competent bucket truck operator is going to avoid driving onto a steep slope and if you have a winch hanging from the front of your truck you probably won’t “dig yourself in”. The rolling resistance of our truck is small on smooth asphalt but don’t skimp based on that; soft ground makes a world of difference. Get a winch about the same rating as your truck’s curb weight. Make sure it can use a wireless remote to keep you out of harm’s way and a roller fair lead to guide the rope if you have to begin a recovery operation at a sharp angle.

. You might have read not to choose a permanent magnet motor winch but I haven’t found one in the capacity needed for bucket truck recovery. Likewise, line speed will not vary much in huge series wound motor winches with planetary gears; 4.5 to 6 ft. per minute at full load on the first layer to 9 to 10 fpm on the outside layer. But you’ll have almost half the rated pulling power on the outside layer. Brakes all seem to be inside the drum and sliding ring gear clutches are usual.

You’ll need a snatch block and shackle with twice the capacity of the winch. A snatch block doubles the power of your winch (minus some losses), so a 20,000 winch would give you about of 36,000 lbs. of pulling power. Keep that in mind when you start rigging recovery lines.

You’ll need a tow (or load) strap made of polyester. Yup, that soft fabric that leisure suits were made of is ideal for a winch. A nylon strap is NOT! Nylon is strong but too stretchy. Forty feet of nylon under 40,000 lbs. of force would whip your winch and bumper (assuming you didn’t reinforce it) right into your neighbor’s yard. A tow strap will protect whatever you wrap it around from being damaged. They are light in weight, abrasive and UV resistant and much less expensive than grade 72 or 80 chain. Tow straps can be bought up to twelve inches wide.

You’ll need a heavy dampener, such as a heavy throw rug or commercial. foam-backed carpet remnant, to hang over the center of your rigging to dampen the rope in case of a failure. The dampener provides drag on a flying winch rope, reducing its movement.

Maintenance

We’ll start with maintenance first because a winch is not ready to use right out of the box. Before a recovery attempt is made the winch rope must be free-spooled all the way out (to the safety mark) then wound in with as much resistance on the wire rope as you can provide. (I pulled our F-450 up a grade in a soft meadow.) Wear leather gloves whenever handling wire rope.

While re-tensioning your winch rope you must keep the wraps tight, forcing them against one another with a wooden (not metal) lever. Re-tensioning will give you the opportunity to become familiar with your winch and verify that the components and your installation work properly. There is an exception to the necessity of re-tensioning a winch rope: all winches only provide the maximum force from the first wrap around the drum. If you haven’t re-tensioned your winch and need to do a serious recovery operation – spool the cable out to the end (to the safety mark on the  rope), using a snatch block if necessary to use up the excess wire rope, and begin recovery. It is not necessary to keep the wraps perfect during recovery, and it is dangerous being in line with the winch rope with it under a large load, so use your wireless remote and stand beyond the full reach of your rigging. Clean and re-tension the winch after recovery.

Our winch manual says to periodically lubricate steel ropes with penetrating oil; wrong! What they mean is lubricate it with a light oil that penetrates the wire rope. You will read many opinions recommending: motorcycle chain oil, chainsaw bar oil, used oil, etc. My guess is the authors used what they had on hand, it worked, so they stayed with it. You might also have noticed dry rusty wire rope and greasy, dirty wire rope on commercial equipment; there is considerable leeway regarding what works. If you want to keep your expensive investment safe and looking and working like new, 5 to 20 weight motor oil will do the trick; multi-viscosity engine oil is fine.

You will have to refer to you winch operators manual for periodic maintenance of the motor, clutch, drum, etc. Check electrical connections regularly for tightness and corrosion.

…to continue to part two of our manual about self-recovery winches for bucket trucks

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