bellingham.craigslist.org/hvo/5589984998.html

$1500 with cable blade. Really curious how that cable blade winch mechanism works.

That winch appears to be the pretty standard farmer modification of a cut down Model A axle attached as a cable control unit. To make this, you cut down the axles and housings and fabricate a mount and driveshaft for the input. You weld or bolt a cable drum to one brake drum and fabricate a lever connection to that brake with a spring to hold that brake engaged. Next, you fabricate a lever connection to the other brake drum with a spring to hold that brake disengaged. Options include a single lever alternative where the lever operates a teeter-totter releasing and applying either brake depending if the lever is pulled or pushed.

Mount the whole works on the tractor, wind some cable around the drum and through the sheaves you've welded to the tractor and to the blade that you probably fabricated and attached to the tractor. In operation, when you want to lower the blade, push the lever away, which releases the brake with the cable drum attached, allowing gravity to pull the cable out, lowering the blade. When you want to raise the blade, pull the lever toward you, which applies the brake on the far end of the axle, stopping that axle shaft from spinning. Since the driveshaft is always spinning, the spider gears will force the other axle shaft to spin, overcoming the brake resistance on the other end and winding in the cable, lifting your blade.

I just love these creative, field adaptations. Daron has a really neat Twenty Two with a similar setup. I think his doesn't have the axles cut down, though, so the rear end of the tractor is rather wide, with the axle halves hanging out each side.

Pete.

Very ingenuous setup!! I guess the model A was a very adaptable vehicle--my father was a mechanic and one of his specialty was adapting the model A engine to a marine engine by adding a belt driven water pump and water jacket exhaust manifold for the sea water to cool the engine
on some units he used the transmission and clutch from the model A and on others adapted a marine transmission to it. The propeller pitch and diameter varied depending on the transmission and also the size of boat.
to this day my brother and I still use the winch setup he made in the 40"s to haul boats on our marine railway--however we are on the 5th engine/transmission unit.

That is one fancy setup, dependzic! So you have a marine railway? What exactly does that entail. Sounds very interesting. You must have quite a spread there!

I wonder about the driver of your power unit. It seems his rear end might get sore being rubbed by the winch drum all the time.

Pete.

Seen one similar not to long back up north. The tractor had a logging setup on it the pto drove the winch as the cable ran up on the back of the cab with supports and out the back operated by a lever attached to the winch. The tractor was used for logging back in the day. The owner I believe also had a logging cruiser he could pull in tow and run the cable through it if needed for a job. It also had a pump mounted off the pto, to run the blade in front with a simple hand valve. Very well engineered for its time to run both setups off the same pto.

Ingenious!

"Garlic wrote:

That is one fancy setup, dependzic! So you have a marine railway? What exactly does that entail. Sounds very interesting. You must have quite a spread there!

I wonder about the driver of your power unit. It seems his rear end might get sore being rubbed by the winch drum all the time.

Pete.

really don't want to hijack this thread --here is just a couple of more pics of the railway
PS---where the cable hooks to the carriages there is a Molly Hogan!!

I saw a Thirty-Five that had the same cut down Model A rear end on it for a blade.
Apparently quite a popular rig!