Fairlead placement

[Reid]

Im building a front winch bumper and i need some thouhts on fairlead placement.

I assume since my cable spools from the top that the fairlead would need to be placed someowhere between the top and middle.

my common sense tells me thats the way it needs to be, since there is the possibility of 15K Lbs moving through it. If it were too low that would be a lot of force on the upper roller, right?

here is a pic for reference. Im thinking two vertical bars over the top of the spool and bolting the fairlead between them. anyone have a better idea?

 

[BigJUGGY]

Normally for a Ramsey like that, the winch is mounted with the angle iron mounts in front and back of winch. Then the fairlead bolts on top of the angle in front of winch. You see that button on the right hand side of the drum case...thats the oil vent. Probably want to consider changing the mount or using a differnt winch on the front. That's why the Ramsey winch bumpers stick out so dern far. Hog up lots of approach angle on front...some people mount them in a reciever hitch mount and use only when necessary...OK, but a pain to lug around (heavy)...also seen them mounted between rear frame rails for a rear winch...
Good winch...see them on lots of wreckers (mostly hydraulic ones) and EMS/Fire/Rescue...those folks are not really offroading like we doin'...they got stuff hanging everywhere....hoses, ladders, pumps, etc...I'm glad they have it all on there too...

 

[Reid]

best i could tell, this is the way the winch was mounted on the rescue vehicle it came off of. see the sqaure cut out on the bottom angle iron, its for clearance of a receiver hitch.

ive looked at the ones mounted on flatbeds and such, totally different mount.

I can see what your saying though about being mounted at a different angle,

 

[rattlecanpaint]

Interesting, I bought a winch bumper from Trail Gear and the fairlead was at the bottom. Mine's a Warn M 8000 CE that I got from someone here on the board over a year ago. Had no cable on it so when I dropped the major coin on Superline I just spooled it on from the bottom. Actually got to use it that night too! Couldn't get past the corner on Dutch John so I winched up it. It was a good test of the electrical repair I had to do to the motor on the winch and I got to use that new Superlilne. After all that's said, I'd put your fairlead from about the middle up.

Got a question on that winch too. It goes faster one direction than the other, I'm guessing the slower direction is the one I want for winching? I.E. more torque? Not too sure though. Anyone have any ideas? (Sorry for the hijack)

 

[Rich]

typically reverse is the slower, since it's fighting the brake.

 

[RatLabGuy]

If you want it to spool on the bottom vs the top - couldn't you just flip it around?

 

[Reid]

If you want it to spool on the bottom vs the top - couldn't you just flip it around?

yeah, where it spools from isnt a concern. i can place the fairlead anywhere, i just need to know whats optimum.

i positioned it this way so that the remote would plug in on the drivers side and have enough length to get it to the cab. flipping it over would make the remote lead too short, to get to the drivers side anyway.


i could easily mount it to the top "rail" but i dont know if the force being put on the fairlead as the line is bein pulled back down over it would be too much.

I dont think ive ever seen any threads on what the fairleads are rated for.

synthetic rope is a good idea too, this winch is a beast! i would hate to use a hitch cradle!

 

[RatLabGuy]

My undersatanding is that you want it mounted so it goes straight out through the middle of the fairlead, so that in most (close to) head-on situations it isn't really using the fairlead anyway...?

 

[Reid]

My undersatanding is that you want it mounted so it goes straight out through the middle of the fairlead, so that in most (close to) head-on situations it isn't really using the fairlead anyway...?

that's what makes the most sense to me.