WINCH TIPS

"Winching" means pulling, and "hoisting" means lifting. If you intend to use your winch for lifting and lowering a load rather than, or in addition to, pulling a load along the ground or up an incline, there ae a few important points you should know before making your selection.

First, there are a lot of standards set for machinery used for lifting. Such machines are "hoists" and Skidmore do not supply any. Electric hoists must have, at minimum, a 5 to 1 safety factor, switches to limit the travel, one or more independant braking systems, and large drum diameters. Overload protection is often provided. Machinery used to move people up and down are "elevators" and these have even higher engineering requirements.

The products shown on this site are neither hoists nor elevators and are not interpreted as such.

Secondly, there are hardly any standards for winches. Winch manufacturers can make any claims they wish and set the load ratings where ever they want. We set are rated loads at what the winch will lift vertically, single line. This is done because it is the most accurate measure of a product's pulling capacity, but it is a practice that can be dangerous. However, if you use a winch for lifting, we make the following suggestions;

1. If a choice is available, buy a winch with a brake.
   
2. Divide you winch's rated load by 5. Take this number and reduce it by 10% and each additional layer of wire rope to be pulled up on to the drum. The result of this is the maximum load you can lift.
   
3. You and all others stand wel clear of the lifting area.
   
4. Never lift people or lift loads over people.