Night Train Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 Might be a bit OT but I have just acquired a Harvey Frost winch from one of these recovery cranes. Does anyone know of a source for any technical information on them? I think they were 1.5 ton lifting. I have searched and I can only find historic recovery applications and lots of images of old Land Rovers but nothing technical. From handle to cable drum it seems to be about 16:1 ratio and the drum seems to only have enough flange to hold two layers of 8mm cable. The one in the image above seems to have a bigger flange on the drum for more cable. Were they used in other applications requiring less cable? This is my one with the shallower drum. I was thinking of welding a couple of steel flat rings onto the drum to give me a few more layers of cable but wasn't sure if that was a good idea or not. Any advice? It has an intersting automatic ratchet. When winding in the ratchet clicks and the load on the cable cannot unwind the drum. When the handle is turned the other way, there is about 1/4 turn of slack and then the ratchet releases and the cable can be paid out. To lock the drum 1/2 a turn to wind in and the ratchet holds it. It will go on the back of my electric tractor and have a reduction drive from the traction motor for hauling logs. Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
western Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 I've got one of those but my trailer is a bit specialised for rally car recovery.the attached is all the info I have about the winch unit, hope it's of use. IIRC mine has 10mtrs of 10mm wirerope fitted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Night Train Posted October 5, 2012 Author Share Posted October 5, 2012 Thank you, that is great. I had a look under the inspection cover and figured out the brake workings. It all seems to be working well and the grease inside looks fine. I will grease all the nipples in any case. Can your cable drum hold more then two wrap layers of cable? Looking at close ups of some of the various cranes there does seem to be a wide variation of drum diameter and width depending on applicaton. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
western Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 my drum will easily stow more than 2 full wraps, the sidewalls of the drum are 40mm high, photo was taken around 14 years ago, after it had been changed to a speclift & the axle was widen by 20 inches IIRC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Night Train Posted October 5, 2012 Author Share Posted October 5, 2012 OK, I'll see if I can weld a taller flange on mine. I am hoping to get, maybe, 15-20m on there so I can have a reasonable reach with a snatch block before resorting to extending with chains. Cheers. Oh, I found this Flikr site that has some interesting specifications of the HF range. Linky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
western Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 Those flickr pages lok interesting, bookmarked it now, good find. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulMc Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 I found these on t'interweb a while ago, might be of interest - . . . . . . . Not Harvey Frost, but still interesting - . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Night Train Posted October 6, 2012 Author Share Posted October 6, 2012 Great stuff! Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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