ramsey winch

You need very heavy cable to the winch as they have a huge amp draw from the batt.!! I made mine out of welding cable.

Like others said, a winch is rated with only a few "wraps" on the drum, so as the "layers" go on, the winch has less and less power. You need a good batt., not one that has weak cells to begin with. "If" you don't have at least a 60 amp plus alternator, you may have to let the batt. catch up on longer pulls.

When i winch a heavy load, i throw a heavy blanket over the cable out near the end. If the cable lets go, the blanket really helps to slow the cable down from sling shotting back!!!

Robert

Check your cables, especially the ground and like was said earlier, don't just ground to the engine. On most vehicles, the little ground strap to the body is only designed for lighting and instrumentation and is just a tiny little thing, nowhere near big enough for the draw of a winch.

Good point about having more pulling power on the first wrap or two of cable. One more point is to use a snatch block on heavy pulls, it doubles the pulling capacity for the same load on the motor, or likewise, lessens the load for the same pull.

And of course, a couple of obligatory safety items. Don't ever winch using a trailer ball as a hookup point (they like to turn into projectiles), handle the winch cable with gloves, and if you've ever seen a winch cable break or a shackle let go, you'll likely do your winching with the hood up for long time after.

The line pull will increase with the more line you have out. When you just let out a little, (like 20 feet) the ratio of pull is not as great if you let it out to where the circumference of the reel on the winch is smaller. When you let a lot of line out on your winch, you will have more power.

Just my .2 cents Hope it helps.

Don’t give up, I bet it is something simple. Look up the manufacture of the winch Ramsey ompany on the internet, and call and visit with one of their technical support folks . I bet they can give you some pointers.

Please be careful with winches. You have all kinds of forces being used and a broken wire or hook can be a very lethal.

I have heard of folks pulling a truck out by attaching the winch hook to a trailer hitch ball and it breaking off and flying back and doing some real harm.

Congrates on getting a winch.

Cliff