Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Capstan rope winches experience?

I've had a Simpson capstan on on 034 stihl for 20 years. It has pulled a ton of elk and moose out. Last year my pard slid a 1500 chevy off the road and I rigged up the hill to a block and we were able to pull the truck sideways.

Rigging correctly is the key to success.

used them for years, same pull through out as the diameter of the pull does not change, never used one on a vehicle recovery

If you want your truck pulled out of a tough spot, you need to have a snatch block, two is better. Even a 8,000 lb electric winch will suck hole if its too much for it.

Simpson winches are supposed to be rated for a direct line pull, not for a rolling load. Their 2000lb winch is supposed to be a true 2000lb. With a snatch block, that's 4000 of pull.

Has anyone tried Amsteel rope (winch rope) on a capstan? It's much lighter and smaller than other ropes of the same strength. A 3/16 rope is rated at 5400lb and is used on ATV winches. The question is whether it's too slick for a capstan. I wonder if it would slip. Possibly it would need a couple more wraps around the pulley.

The trick to any capstan winch is how many wraps it takes to keep the rope from slipping from the load and how much power is behind the capstan. Dragging an elk out of a hell hole of a canyon I broke the drive sprocket on my Simpson winch. Lucky it was just after we got to the top of the hill and we drug it the rest of the way with the guys from camp. Simpson was great about replacing the sprocket for no charge .

We use capstan winches for electrical wire pulls all the time and sometimes the pull strain gauge will hit the 12,000 lb max redline during a pull but keep on pulling- as long as you have enough wraps on the capstan and the rope is strong enough. Broken a few 10K rated pulling ropes at really bad times...