@Burnham was it the hitch on the truck that broke or the winch mounting part? I'm not doubting you I'm just trying to understand the failure mode because I've used a hitch mounting for both my chipper crane and log trailer crane, and if it's a crap design i need to fix that. The chipper crane is a slight side pull, and since it's a light pull (approximately 1k) I wasn't too worried, but the log trailer one is going to be 2k and will be at a substantial angle so i may need to rethink it. I was even toying with the idea of trussing the booms, and then adding a winch/ capstan made from a rear differential i have, which i was considering also mounting on a hitch setup if i could get it small enough so i could move it between the 2 setups as well (more to follow as well possibly).
I have an old hand crank worm gear derrick winch i found for $40, and have decided to use that to adjust the boom angle of the sheerlegs. That way i could adjust them under load if need be, and it would give me another wire rope winch which will be handy on occasion for running 2 hoist lines for different applications without needing to use a chain fall. It would be a hand crank winch, but for certain tasks like flipping parts around it would be handy. I welded a receiver tube on and currently have the sailboat winch from the chipper on there, and for the light loads that it can generate it seems to be doing fine, but for the bigger derrick winch i may need to rethink it. I was hoping to have the derrick winch on a hitch mounted setup too so i could use it elsewhere, so input would be greatly appreciated, thx guys. Some pics so my ramblings make sense, i think we can all agree my awesome drawing will be lacking here
The chipper crane, the load goes from the winch to the block...
And then the log trailer, dramatically more side pull. It's welded to the c channel frame of the trailer, but this is definitely a side pull. Once again from the sailboat winch the the block. I've got the parts all prepped, I'm picking away at fixing the winch up so it's ready to go, basically adding grease zerts and cleaning it up at this point. Holes drilled on a big chunk of c channel to mount it to, and the hitch part cut ready to torch holes for the pin and weld it up. Thx again sir.