Hrafn Posted June 25, 2014 When building trucks (pickups, trial trucks, etc.) that have motorized winches, do you use a dedicated motor for the winch, or use a distribution transmission from the main drive motors? A dedicated motor would be simpler, but then you'd need a separate channel for it and the motor would be dead weight when you weren't using the winch. Using the drive motors would allow re-use of the (presumably powerful) drive motors, and with a differential you could have the motors drive the vehicle forward as they also pulled the winch in - which seems useful when using the winch to self-extract the truck. On the other hand, a distribution transmission would add additional complexity. Specifically, I was thinking of (at some point) building a part-time 4x4 pickup with a winch on the front, which would have the following modes of operation: FWD high 4x4 low winch retraction (with the drive wheels in forward or neutral, for self-extraction; or the wheels locked by a brake, in order to use the winch to pull another vehicle) winch extension (by hand, using a ratchet or something similar to avoid having to back-drive the winch motor) I would probably use 2 XL motors and would lean towards using a distribution transmission for the winch. What do you think? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tommy Styrvoky Posted June 25, 2014 Having a transmission take off from the drive motor makes sense because then you could have a m motor to shift with instead of having a seperate XL to power the winch. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dhc6twinotter Posted June 25, 2014 I think either way is fine. The exclusive crawler released last year had a PF switch to engage the winch motor, but the Unimog used a gearbox to drive the winch. For your project, I vote for building a gearbox and running the winch from that. This way isn't completely unrealistic either, since some real vehicles used a winch driven off a small driveshaft from the transmission or transfer case (old Toyota 40 series Land Cruisers come to mind here). There are pros and cons to both. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TheItalianBrick Posted June 25, 2014 Having a transmission take off from the drive motor makes sense because then you could have a m motor to shift with instead of having a seperate XL to power the winch. Sounds a bit weird. I mean....you still need a channel (or anyway one of the two aveilable "slot" of the channel) to drive a motor for the shifting. So why not to use it for a dedicate L motor with a great reduction? this way the winch would have it's on motor, without increasing the number of gears (and friction too) from a distribution transmission. Personally I find it cool to have a distribution transmission cos it makes the model more complicated and sophisticated, but if performances is what you are looking for then I would say you better dedicate a motor to the winch! Overall it's a personal consideration....you'll be fine both ways!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zerobricks Posted June 25, 2014 I usually have a dedicated motor because this way I have more control and I dont have to use additional gears in driveline which would limit the truck's efficienecy. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
2LegoOrNot2Lego... Posted June 29, 2014 (edited) Both are used in real live trucks as well. You have electric powered winches, but also powered by the PTO. Both are sufficient I guess. Like TheItalianBrick wrote: "Overall it's a personal consideration....you'll be fine both ways!!!" Edited June 29, 2014 by 2LegoOrNot2Lego... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
