Posted by MoparNorm on Sunday, August 19, 2007 at 15:20:30 :
In Reply to: Are you sure? posted by Clint Dixon on Sunday, August 19, 2007 at 11:52:35 :
Clint,
Some good answers down below from Dan, Steve, Chris and others. Generally what your saying is yes, electrics have a different rating than PTO winches which in theory can pull much more than electrics and comparisons are indeed apples to oranges. However all winches have limiting factors such as gearing, shear pin strength and cable strength.
How much of each limiter has a fudge factor and just what is the real design strength is probably only know by the product liability lawyers. But just by physics the fulcrum changes the more wraps you have and the more wraps, the less rigid the "support" for the cable.
My guess is that it's more a function of an industry standard for rating the entire strength of winches, whether electric or PTO, weak or strong cable, big or little shear pins, so that all manufacturers have a common "baseline".
It's not a head to head, electric vs. PTO issue, if you have two identical winches, one with one wrap and one with 4 wraps, the winch with one wrap will pull more.
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