Norse winch cable stuck

[wisconsitom]

Hey all, never knew bring retired was gonna be so intense-I spend essentially no time online forums these days, but I've made sure to keep my registration up on this one.

Been using my Norse winch a great deal last two winters, thinning plantation stands.  Today I was using to pull logs from pile to where I was using them to make a road into the swamp.  After just a couple drags, I went to pull cable out and it's tangled, near the end, under subsequent wraps...and I can't budge it.  There's maybe 3 ft.at most out, just to and beyond fairlead.  Very tight indeed.  Any suggestions?  Thanks

[Hilltop366]

After making sure all the cable is on the drum and has not jumped over the edge of it the first thing I try is to hook it on to something solid and try to drive forward with the tractor also make sure the drum is in free spool.

Be careful not to let the front of the tractor jump up on you, the lower pull position is best if you have enough cable out to reach it, either way keep the winch as low as you can too.

[Southside]

Same thing happens on skidder winches.  When you can't get it to budge the way Hilltop explains I will take a crow bar and pry the stuck section free, then pull it by hooking to a solid object.  

[wisconsitom]

Yeah, everything is still wound up on the drum.  I got so little tail, but I have cable chokers I can reach a tree trunk or something with, although I could see the ends coming off... what ya gonna do?  

And yeah on that tractor rearing up potential...yikes.

Appreciate the tips 👍. 

[thecfarm]

I had to take my mast off a few times in the past 25 years that I have owned mine.
Can't get at the cable good enough through the access panels on the sides. 
As soon as I get the mast out of the way, I can get right at it and get the tangle out.
Take a pry bar and work it out.
It all comes down to checking the cable for any slack each time when I winch in.
When the cable is released from a load, the cable can get loose.
There has been a few times when I could get at it through the access panels.
Sometimes I can hook onto something too. But when that don't work the mast comes off.
I just kinda set it off to the side or tip it back. I do not remove the cable to do it.

[wisconsitom]

Thanks c.  I gotta take a few days off on my project up there but will have at it soon.

These are larch logs from my plantation, none larger than 12" butt, yet they are very heavy.

[mudfarmer]

^^ what these guys said

You also might want to see if there is a free spool drag adjustment on your winch. On my old farmi it is a simple bolt that turns in to create drag, more complicated on the skidder. If the free spool is "too easy" it can lead to slack cable situations like this that then get pinched up and cause a ruckus

[wisconsitom]

Thanks mud, and yes mine has the tensioner knob....seems to be in a good place.  I probably stopped/started on a pull and allowed a little loop of slack to form.

[AndyVT]

Worse case scenario is when an inner loop flips over the outer loop and then gets buried in the spool. Don'r ask how I know 😎

[wisconsitom]

Hey Andy... probably pretty close to what I got 🤬

[John Mc]

As others have mentioned, hooking on to something and driving away with the winch in free spool is what I usually do.

Prevention is the best way to deal with this.

I assume you are always keeping some tension on when winding in the cable? If I have slack in the cable, I'll step on it when winching in to create a bit of drag.

The other thing I'll do:  Every once in a while I'll tie the end to a good anchor and drive down a slight grade until the cable is almost all the way out. Then I'll put the tractor in neutral and winch it back up the hill, so I know the full cable has been wound up under load.

[thecfarm]

That's a great idea too.

[wisconsitom]

Hey John, thanks for chiming in.  So, yeah I've been pretty good with the cable since getting this unit a couple years ago, many a twitch-I'm usually bunching 5 or 6 logs in a small cable choker to mainline, oh gosh, maybe a few hundred times each winter-but I think there may have been just one instance here where something caused me to stop, something seemed hung up, but was not I think...but caused a loop to form.  I sure do like the idea of re-winding the cable as you describe 👍.  Gonna put that on my maint list for this summer, along with its time for tractor hydro, oil etc.

I've not ever lubed my cable or anything, and I know views on that vary here as well.  Mine does primarily get dragged thru snow in usage, though not the case the other day.  Muggy and buggy!  

[Peter Drouin]

The other thing I'll do:  Every once in a while I'll tie the end to a good anchor and drive down a slight grade until the cable is almost all the way out. Then I'll put the tractor in neutral and winch it back up the hill, so I know the full cable has been wound up under load.

I do that at the end of the day.

[John Mc]

The other thing I'll do:  Every once in a while I'll tie the end to a good anchor and drive down a slight grade until the cable is almost all the way out. Then I'll put the tractor in neutral and winch it back up the hill, so I know the full cable has been wound up under load.

I do that at the end of the day.

That's probably a good idea.

I've been doing mine at the beginning of my logging season (really anytime it has sat for a good while, and I'm not positive what condition I left it in).

I'll do it again anytime I'm aware that I may have had some "questionable" pulls: A redirect with a self-releasing snatch block that leaves slack when the block lets go, or freeing a hung tree where a bit of slack is generated after the main work is done. I do try to put tension on the cable in those instances (putting my foot on the cable as it pulls in or if I'm working with someone, having them pull on it as I winch in). However, while that helps, I always wonder how good a job that actually did.

Two other things I've found that can help avoid the rats nest on the drum:

• When installing a new cable, try to wind it up in the same direction that it was coiled when it shipped. (Over time, It will probably take a bit of a set in whatever direction you wind it, but a new cable can have an extra tendency to want to unwind itself.)
• When I'm done with the winch, I winch it in until the cable end just barely snugs up against the inlet of the winch. This one probably doesn't make all that much difference, since when it's just sitting, only the outer wraps should loosen up if there is no tension, but for some reason, it's a habit I got in to.

I have just learned my lesson on #2: Next time, I'll put it in the lower pulley and snug it up against that. That way, I can put a bit of slack in the system if I need to at some point by releasing it from the lower pulley. Normally I've been snugging it up against the tower. When I went to do my beginning of season cable rewind, I found my brake release lever was frozen up. I'll have to disassemble it to see what's up. That process would be much easier if the cable had some slack in it.