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<blockquote data-quote="SlugSlinger" data-source="post: 4002539" data-attributes="member: 7248">I have broken a winch in the past, but that was on purpose, sorta.&nbsp; I did some R&amp;D testing at Ramsey.One thing the engineers always preached was do not shock-load the winch.&nbsp; As an example, when a vehicle is trailered, do not use the winch cable to tie down the vehicle.&nbsp; Similar to wrecker drives using their recover winch to attach the car to a roll back.&nbsp; When the winch preloads the suspension and the vehicle bounces, that shock load on the winch will break something, either the gears or the case.I installed a winch we were testing on my 6,500 lbs K5 and went to Disney.&nbsp; It worked well and I thought I returned it in good working order.&nbsp; That was not the case.&nbsp; The planetary gears wear cracked, but not completely broken.&nbsp; How did I do this?&nbsp; I climbed the steepest hill I could, attached the winch cable to the base of a tree and tried to continue up the hill with both lockers engaged.&nbsp; I was bouncing around as the winch was helping pull me.&nbsp; At one point, I was able to get slack in the rope and thought I would shock load the winch by letting the K5 roll back several feet and letting the winch take the load of stopping the vehicle.&nbsp; Moral of the comment, don&#039;t shock load your winch.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="SlugSlinger, post: 4002539, member: 7248"] I have broken a winch in the past, but that was on purpose, sorta. I did some R&D testing at Ramsey. One thing the engineers always preached was do not shock-load the winch. As an example, when a vehicle is trailered, do not use the winch cable to tie down the vehicle. Similar to wrecker drives using their recover winch to attach the car to a roll back. When the winch preloads the suspension and the vehicle bounces, that shock load on the winch will break something, either the gears or the case. I installed a winch we were testing on my 6,500 lbs K5 and went to Disney. It worked well and I thought I returned it in good working order. That was not the case. The planetary gears wear cracked, but not completely broken. How did I do this? I climbed the steepest hill I could, attached the winch cable to the base of a tree and tried to continue up the hill with both lockers engaged. I was bouncing around as the winch was helping pull me. At one point, I was able to get slack in the rope and thought I would shock load the winch by letting the K5 roll back several feet and letting the winch take the load of stopping the vehicle. Moral of the comment, don't shock load your winch. [/QUOTE]

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