Posted by Clint Dixon [172.68.38.105] on Sunday, April 19, 2020 at 20:04:40 :
In Reply to: Braden Winches posted by Steve in FH [108.162.245.15] on Sunday, April 19, 2020 at 04:30:39 :
I agree with Steve, Dean, and Jerry below on why the MU and MU winches mount "canted" with the leading side higher than the trailing side. Another opinion that has not been mentioned so far in this thread, and one that I share, is that for most winches for most applications the winch cable is drawn onto the drum at more or less of a constant angle. This is not true of course for a self-recovery winch mounted on the front of a vehicle.
In a front-mounted self-recovery scenario, the cable can be drawn in at an extreme angle from either the left or right side. Some manufactures used a fairlead, either a roller or Hawse style, to allow for misalignment and straighten the cable before entering the drum. Dodge approached the problem by designing their front bumperettes, and cable guides, to help guide the cable onto the drum in sideways misalignment situations.
Then there is the problem of times when the vehicle can be in a nose down or nose high situation while drawing the cable onto the drum. Again, the roller and Hawse type fairleads help guide the cable during this vertical misalignment. The Dodge split bumperettes do not help any here. However, by positioning the winches front mounting angle higher than the center axis of the winch drum. The cable can be drawn onto an empty drum even when the vehicle is positioned in a slight nose down stance without the cable interfering drastically with that front mounting angle. This was accomplished on the MU2 by the angled, but parallel, mounting faces on the worm housing and the drum leg. On the MU, the same thing was accomplished with angled, but non-parallel mounting faces due to the angled rise in the truck's front frame side members, whereas the WWII 3/4-ton, 1-1/2-ton, and Civilian Power-Wagons had frame rails, or extensions, that remained strait with no angled rise.
Just another opinion to consider.
Junior