Posted by Keith in Washington on Thursday, October 30, 2003 at 11:23AM :
In Reply to: Re: Braden winch safety thought posted by Fred Coldwell on Wednesday, October 29, 2003 at 10:54PM :
Agree with Fred. Use the shear pin as your weak link. That is what it is designed for. I keep a spare pin in each truck. Most of the time it takes only a few minutes to change the pin although you might get dirty laying on your back changing it.
Also Fred is correct on keeping control of your load. The combination of the gearing and the brake will hold your load in position.
Never put a grade 5 or grade 8 bolts in as a shear pin. The winch I have was off another truck. The frame extensions were badly bent down. The bronze gear teeth were ripped out of the gear body and tilted to one direction the front, rear supports and passenger bearing holder were all badly bent. Obviously the shear pin was bypassed with a grade 8 bolt that was still there when I got it. The winch had been totally over stressed and failed. All this can be avoided with a shear pin and doubling or tripling the winch cable with pulleys.