Posted by Sherman in Idaho [24.32.202.166] on Friday, August 02, 2013 at 19:21:01 :
In Reply to: MUs use reversible components. posted by Chris Case [75.36.41.237] on Friday, August 02, 2013 at 14:57:40 :
I don't think the worm shaft bearings are designed to take the kind of load a capstan would put on them, and even the shaft itself would likely bend. It might be okay for bringing a deer in out of the brush, but not for logging or vehicle recovery. It seems to me I've seen pictures of winches with capstans on the non-driven end of the winch drum shaft. That makes a lot more sense because you have a good heavy shaft with bearings far apart to support it. Of course the capstan turns whenever the winch drum turns, but that doesn't hurt anything, and when you want to use the capstan, you'd just disengage the drum clutch. With an MU type winch, there isn't even any housing at the non-driven end, just an open bearing, so it would be a relatively simple matter to make a longer shaft and add whatever capstan you could find to the end of it.
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