Lets put our heads together, back yard winch ideas

[JeepXJ93]

My Dad is getting up there in age, and he has a small hill to walk down during winter months to get firewood from the wood shed. I would like to make some sort of cart and winch up at the house (roughly 75' away), so all he has to do is walk down, load the cart, and return to the house empty handed.

The obvious problem, most winches small and cheap for backyard type stuff dont have long enough cable. Can I add cable somehow? Second problem, for only winching a couple hundred pounds of firewood in one load (max weight maybe 250lbs) is there any way to rewire a typical winch to pull faster?

Any other ideas welcome! We are a handy family so mods and fabricating isn't a problem. I have just never owned a winch so I wouldn't know where to start.

Thanks!

 

[Joemel]

On my 4 wheeler I bought a promark atv winch for about 250 and it was one of the bigger ones they had. I know I have at least 50 foot of cable and could add more if it was set up different .

 

[souske]

atv winch and put an extended drum on it

 

[Lowrange2]

Or use an ATV winch and add an 85' length of smaller diameter synthetic rope. You'll be able to easily fit more length on the winch in a smaller diameter and since you're only pulling a set amount it wouldn't matter.

 

[JeepXJ93]

Good ideas! Swapping out the cable for a smaller diameter would work perfectly for this like you said because of the light load of firewood. Thanks for the ideas!

Do ATV winches pull faster than the typical 4x4 winches?

 

[Lowrange2]

Not really. Depends on how much money you want to spend. Higher end winches typically have faster line speed. My Warn M8000 pulls much faster than my old Smitybilt XRC8.

I'd put the winch on a ON/Off toggle switch so he didn't have to stand there hold a button down the whole time.

 

[iwannadie]

Put a mini fridge outside with beer so your dad can watch the wood climb up the hill and have a beer while he waits.