Senile Texas Aggie - comic relief for the rest of you

[greybeard]

Now, regarding the winch on your gator........

Do your research on adding a winch or aftermarket lights and light bars to that machine. Many people enthusiastically do it with any of 100s of aftermarket kits available, only to find the stock electric system, alternator, and the oem glorified lawnmower battery aren't anywhere close to 'up to par' for the job.
I just went thru this with my neighbor's 860i Gator, (he had added fancy forward and aft facing light bars and winch) and that battery on his is a royal pita to get out.
The best and most common way to do it is to add a second battery and higher capacity "alternator'. (most Gators don't have an actual belt driven alternator........they use a wound stator that is located under the flywheel).
Those hi-cap charging systems cost way more than the winch does..

 

[Bruce]

Could one use the stock system as long as the engine was running when running the winch? Especially if the winch is just for "emergency recovery" use.

I did consider that, except after my experience in ripping off the canopy I was reluctant to enter the forest with all of those limbs sticking out, hungry for another canopy to eat!

You could take the canopy off and ASSUMING you are on fairly level ground lower the ROPS.

 

[greybeard]

Could one use the stock system as long as the engine was running when running the winch? Especially if the winch is just for "emergency recovery" use.

Depends. It will work for awhile, but keep in mind, running that winch motor is equivalent to cranking the starter motor over continuously or worse for however many minutes it takes to winch the vehicle out of the mud. How many CCAs you're using is going to be the determining factor. Batteries generally fail because of excessive discharge rates, and most stock charging systems cannot keep up with a hard winch pull for very long and, the longer it takes, the higher the voltage drop in line volts becomes. Plates inside the battery warp and you suddenly have a bad cell. There's thread after thread on the subject over on the Gator boards. A slow geared, low amp winch is a good option, but they cost a little more.

 

[Bruce]

Seems like low geared is what STA would want for "rescue" anyway. Not sure what all people use winches on vehicles for other than "rescue" but I'm sure there are many.

 

[greybeard]

1. Seems like low geared is what STA would want for "rescue" anyway. 2. Not sure what all people use winches on vehicles for other than "rescue" but I'm sure there are many.

1.
"low geared" is a relative term. None of them are pulling at warp speed by any means. There are ways to turn a regular speed winch into a low speed/low amp winch by using a double set of pulleys (snatch blocks*) on the winch line.

(for the 3:1, you can run the deadman line to a lower position on the same tree the 1st line went to if your pulley has a swivel on it)
2. That's one of the problems with having a winch, or any other piece of equipment. At first you use it sparingly and for it's original intended purpose, but before you know it, you're using it for all kinds of other things, some of which the thing was never intended to do.

*I don't wanna hear it!

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

I foresee trouble abrewing..
Beautiful Gal may have something to say about that.

It took me a minute or so just what you were talking about, Mr. @greybeard, sir. Once it finally hit me I burst out laughing! Thanks for pointing out my stupidity!

Well, folks,

As I mentioned earlier, I said I would get pictures or a video. I decided to do the video, since I had never done one before. So my Beautiful Gal and I started recording a video starting at the shop and going all the way to the end of the trail we made. When we got back, I offloaded the video and played it back. The video was really shaky -- I forgot to enable the anti-shake feature -- but decided that I would upload to YouTube and publish it. After it taking 15-20 minutes to upload, I finally watched it. The video was being shown in portrait mode when it was shot in landscape mode! On Windows Media it looked fine, but on YouTube it was sideways! I never could figure out how to rotate the video. Do you folks know?

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[Bruce]

Post the link, I can turn my laptop 90°

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

All,

OK, here is my first video ever, showing the path we made from the shop to the deer stand area. Please take your motion sickness medicine beforehand, as I forgot to enable the video stabilization on my phone:

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[Rammy]

Pretty cool, @Senile_Texas_Aggie ! You really took off in that 4 wheeler pretty quick. I lost my brrakfadt, thank you!
Are the arrows on the tree there to keep you from getting lost? Guess bread crumbs didnt work too well, huh?
Nice wooded area. Is that deer stand yours or left there by somebody? If its not yours, looks like you got a free stand.
I know someone who found a stand on his property and took it down. The guy came looking for it. He asked the property owner if he found it and he said he didnt find his stand but he took down HIS on HIS property. The guy took the hint and left.
What are you going to do with that area?

 

[Bruce]

Good thing you were driving, I needed a few more arrows on the trees!