Simpson Capstan Winch - 1st use

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
  • Super Cedar firestarters 30% discount Use code Hearth2024 Click here

peakbagger

Minister of Fire
Hearth Supporter
Jul 11, 2008
8,978
Northern NH
I had a chance to use my new capstan winch this weekend to lug a long out of the woods. It was decidedly a short trail but looks like it will do what I need it to. For those not familiar a capstan winch is geared revolving drum connected to an small engine. A pulling rope is wrapped around the drum a few wraps and when the rope is pulled on the drum grabs the rope and pulls the main line attached to a tree. They sell them as a chainsaw attachment or with dedicated Honda Engine. The Honda engine is four stroke so it was my preference. here is link http://www.capstanropewinch.com/. The Honda engine model is rated for 2000 tension. These is another brand that appears to be Chinese engine.

My woodlot is steep, too steep for an atv in spots. I have a couple of haul roads that slab the slope at a reasonable depth so the goal is to drop the trees in the woods and haul them down or up slope to the haul road and then cut them up to be hauled home to split or split before I haul them.

I started out with small maple I had dropped and limbed a month ago. It wasn't anything big probably 8" at the base and about 40 feet long tapering to a 2" diameter. I was pulling it down slope through the woods without a skidder cone. The run through the woods was about 100 feet. Since it was going downhill I definitely was fighting the tendency for the log to plow into the ground. I was set up with snatchblock at an intermediate point to lift it up but just wanted to get a feel for the setup. The lot is remote from my house and the haul road is currently blocked with several piles of fire wood so I had to lug everything from car about 300 feet up the haul road.

Once I got rigged up, it went quick. Its pretty intuitive, you do have to stand offset to the rear of the winch slightly offset to the side. Just wrap the rope around the drum about 3 wraps and then start the engine. Just slowly apply tension to the rope and the rope starts to grab on the drum. If you need more tension just tug a little harder and grabs on harder. Its not particularly fast but when lugging things through the woods it a lot faster than walking. The end of the log did try to plow once or twice and dig grab some limbs on the way but came right out to the road. I was going to do some large logs but discovered I had dropped my car keys somewhere in the wood so that was the end of the experiment for the day.

Some general observations. The winch is light, not much more than large chainsaw. The fuel tank isn't huge so I expect a refueling can is going to be needed. In addition to the winch a low stretch haul rope is needed. Its the same rope used for electrical wire pulls so easy to find. A piece of chain or log choker cable is recommended as the end of the log does get dragged through the woods and expect the rope wouldn't hold up well. The winch comes with wire cable to run around an anchor tree. This would damage the barks so I picked up some nylon lifting straps. I didn't use a snatch block on the first run but expect one with a nylon strap would be helpful to hand off an intermediate tree to lift he end of the log off the ground and pull is around obstacles. Of course this means the pull needs to be made in multiple pulls. I usually am solo so that would require another walk into the woods to reset the snatch block but someone with an assistant could have the assistant reset the block. I expect a skidder cone is my next acquisition. One PITA is dealing with the haul rope. There is no limit to the length of a haul. I got a 600 foot length which came on drum. Getting it back on the drum took awhile and dealing with any length of rope to keep it from tangling eats up some time.
Over all I am impressed for my intended use. Sure it would be nice to drive an ATV with a cart or hauling frame right up to the trees but that is not going to happen on much of my lot. where I am cutting trees. The soil is glacial till with a good layer of leaves on top without a lot of understory so I do have good lines to pull the logs down through the woods. It does require some time to setup and several accessories to have a complete setup.

As for my car key, a three mile walk home to get my spare and ride back with my metal detector strapped on my mountain bike kind of killed the rest of the afternoon. As expected, despite lots of searching before I initially gave up to go get my spare, I found the keys in about a minute. I normally keep them zipped up in a secure location in my pocket. I must have unzipped it and the keys fell out. They are the $200 Ford keys so I really don't want to buy a spare.
 
I had a chance to use my new capstan winch this weekend to lug a long out of the woods. It was decidedly a short trail but looks like it will do what I need it to. For those not familiar a capstan winch is geared revolving drum connected to an small engine. A pulling rope is wrapped around the drum a few wraps and when the rope is pulled on the drum grabs the rope and pulls the main line attached to a tree. They sell them as a chainsaw attachment or with dedicated Honda Engine. The Honda engine is four stroke so it was my preference. here is link http://www.capstanropewinch.com/. The Honda engine model is rated for 2000 tension. These is another brand that appears to be Chinese engine.

My woodlot is steep, too steep for an atv in spots. I have a couple of haul roads that slab the slope at a reasonable depth so the goal is to drop the trees in the woods and haul them down or up slope to the haul road and then cut them up to be hauled home to split or split before I haul them.

I started out with small maple I had dropped and limbed a month ago. It wasn't anything big probably 8" at the base and about 40 feet long tapering to a 2" diameter. I was pulling it down slope through the woods without a skidder cone. The run through the woods was about 100 feet. Since it was going downhill I definitely was fighting the tendency for the log to plow into the ground. I was set up with snatchblock at an intermediate point to lift it up but just wanted to get a feel for the setup. The lot is remote from my house and the haul road is currently blocked with several piles of fire wood so I had to lug everything from car about 300 feet up the haul road.

Once I got rigged up, it went quick. Its pretty intuitive, you do have to stand offset to the rear of the winch slightly offset to the side. Just wrap the rope around the drum about 3 wraps and then start the engine. Just slowly apply tension to the rope and the rope starts to grab on the drum. If you need more tension just tug a little harder and grabs on harder. Its not particularly fast but when lugging things through the woods it a lot faster than walking. The end of the log did try to plow once or twice and dig grab some limbs on the way but came right out to the road. I was going to do some large logs but discovered I had dropped my car keys somewhere in the wood so that was the end of the experiment for the day.

Some general observations. The winch is light, not much more than large chainsaw. The fuel tank isn't huge so I expect a refueling can is going to be needed. In addition to the winch a low stretch haul rope is needed. Its the same rope used for electrical wire pulls so easy to find. A piece of chain or log choker cable is recommended as the end of the log does get dragged through the woods and expect the rope wouldn't hold up well. The winch comes with wire cable to run around an anchor tree. This would damage the barks so I picked up some nylon lifting straps. I didn't use a snatch block on the first run but expect one with a nylon strap would be helpful to hand off an intermediate tree to lift he end of the log off the ground and pull is around obstacles. Of course this means the pull needs to be made in multiple pulls. I usually am solo so that would require another walk into the woods to reset the snatch block but someone with an assistant could have the assistant reset the block. I expect a skidder cone is my next acquisition. One PITA is dealing with the haul rope. There is no limit to the length of a haul. I got a 600 foot length which came on drum. Getting it back on the drum took awhile and dealing with any length of rope to keep it from tangling eats up some time.
Over all I am impressed for my intended use. Sure it would be nice to drive an ATV with a cart or hauling frame right up to the trees but that is not going to happen on much of my lot. where I am cutting trees. The soil is glacial till with a good layer of leaves on top without a lot of understory so I do have good lines to pull the logs down through the woods. It does require some time to setup and several accessories to have a complete setup.

As for my car key, a three mile walk home to get my spare and ride back with my metal detector strapped on my mountain bike kind of killed the rest of the afternoon. As expected, despite lots of searching before I initially gave up to go get my spare, I found the keys in about a minute. I normally keep them zipped up in a secure location in my pocket. I must have unzipped it and the keys fell out. They are the $200 Ford keys so I really don't want to buy a spare.

Sounds great, thanks for the post on this, I've been contemplating a similar setup for my similar terrain.

Would you share a little more about the cord, please? Diameter, brand, price (for the 600'), source? Thank you!
 
I looked up my receipt and realized I only bought 300 feet on Ebay. Here is the exact item number 152570800764. Seventy four bucks. The same seller has multiple lengths. including 600 feet.

3/8" x 300' Double Braided polyester cable pulling rope
  • Highly resistant to abrasion, chemicals and sunlight
  • Low Stretch
  • 4060 lb breaking strength
  • heavy duty wood spool
  • 6" Spliced eye on each end
  • For use with cable pullers like Greenlee, Ensley, GB, Tugger ect
  • 15 lbs
 
  • Like
Reactions: Easy Livin’ 3000
I looked up my receipt and realized I only bought 300 feet on Ebay. Here is the exact item number 152570800764. Seventy four bucks. The same seller has multiple lengths. including 600 feet.

3/8" x 300' Double Braided polyester cable pulling rope
  • Highly resistant to abrasion, chemicals and sunlight
  • Low Stretch
  • 4060 lb breaking strength
  • heavy duty wood spool
  • 6" Spliced eye on each end
  • For use with cable pullers like Greenlee, Ensley, GB, Tugger ect
  • 15 lbs
Thanks, good stuff.
 
I did some serious rigging yesterday. Its a tough spot. I have a road cut in the side of a slope. I had dropped a beech from the upslope side and grabbed the main trunk of the tree but the crown went over the edge of the road and was on the downside slope which is quite steep. Therefore even rigging to an upslope stump, the logs are not being pulled straight so some of the capacity of the winch is being wasted trying to dig the log down into the ground. Its all crown wood so every log catches in other parts of the crown that I am not pulling. Nevertheless it worked and was heck of lot less work than cutting it in place and lugging the rounds up. The fuel tank is small so after three or four hauls I need to feed it gas. Other than that its a Honda and just runs.

While I was at it I noticed a white birch tree that has snapped off at its base a year before. I normally assume white birches that haven't fallen over are rotten but its looks like this one is rare exception, its completely propped off the ground and looks solid. Its about 12" at the base and is about 40' long. Due to the steep slope uphill I expect it will get cut into pieces but if I can get it up to the road It may be nice pile of relatively dry wood. Its one straight trunk with no branches so no worries about branches catching. I expect it will be true test of the winch as I would normally not drop a tree in spot like this.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Lone_Gun
birch can look good out side -all rotten inside . bark is pretty much water proof so moisture stays in wood it can be total punk in a season.
 
Yes I am quite familiar with rotten birch. I have plenty of them as examples. Sometimes in rare occasions they dont punk out. Not sure why. I guess I will know pretty quick when I hit it with a saw.
 
Thanks for the write up, I may have to look into one of these. I use the truck-mounted winch for a lot of timber that is down embankments on forest service roads however there are many more that I can't get to either because of the distance from the truck (limit of cable length) or there isn't anywhere to stage the truck due to the narrowness of the road and blocking potential traffic. Right now I'm looking at the capstan from the standpoint of pulling logs up an embankment to the road however if I got one, I could foresee it getting just as much, if not more use, doing straight-line pulls to get logs that are just too far from the road to make them worthwhile right now.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Lone_Gun
Part of the gear up are several snatch blocks. One of the issues with the capstan winch is its straight line pull so sometimes the winch is not readily accessible Using snatchblocks lets me put the winch in an accessible area for the uphill pull. The goal is drag it up the slope at an angle so the tip does not catch by rigging the block off a strap around a stout tree up off the ground. Once its at the top of the slope I would re-rig. I expect you may be able to use your truck winch the same way with some straps and snatch blocks.

The trade off is the rating is only 2000 lbs which is less than truck mounted winches and there is no brake.

Finally have a use for vector algebra or pool bank shots ;)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Lone_Gun
I started with PTO winches about 35 years ago and moved to electric winches so I'm used to using snatch blocks. They definitely increase your pulling capability and allow you to pull from different angles. The truck winch works great however as mentioned before, I'm limited to being able to pull from the road so I lose out on good logs outside the reach of my cable. 2000# capability of the capstan should be ok for most of what I get. If it isn't, I would just cut the log down to size and make a couple trips.

I almost picked up a skidder cone last year because I'm tired of having logs nose dive into the dirt when winching them out. I'll probably end up getting one this year although it just adds to the amount of gear to carry.

https://www.westechrigging.com/port...MIhumCwrCs4gIVDb7ACh3q3gZSEAQYAyABEgLU0fD_BwE
 
I expect a skidder cone will get added to my collection. One thing for sure, its not worth setting up for just one pull as getting everything up in the woods takes a few trips. I do need to rig up a stand and a crank for my rope as winding it back on the drum takes awhile.

If I have clear run I can always set up my snatch blocks and tie the rope to my Pintle hitch on my Unimog. Of course I expect the rope then becomes the weakest link.
 
Some final observations after going after some larger birch logs on a fairly steep slope.

A skidder cone definitely would speed things up. The log ends do get caught on rocks on occasion, which requires a walk down the hill to get the log cleared of the obstruction..

The number of wraps on the drum varies with the rope. I was following the instructions and was doing a lot more pulling than I needed to. I added another wrap and it made a big difference.

The actual line speed of the winch is slow, its real easy to get impatient and try to pull the rope faster than the drum which is defeating the purpose of the winch. It takes a while to match the effort to the drum speed.The rope needs to be tight but too tight and its just extra work. The instructions claim that the engine will stall if its overloaded, I didnt see that, the rope normally starts slipping but it just may be the rope I am using. It obvious when the log end gets caught as the engine does start to slow down a bit.

The potential weak link of the Simpson design is the winch ends up being supported on rough ground by the plastic fuel tank of the Honda engine. It looks rugged but I am considering making a shield for it. Since its a straight line pull, its rare that the winch stays on the ground. I start the winch on the ground but if I am using a snatch block hanging off a tree, the winch ends up hanging in the air in line with the rope as the rope tightens up. It runs fine that way but on occasion when the log jumps forward, the winch drops towards the ground quickly. On occasion it lands on the engine or fuel tank. Its usually slow motion and its built quite well so there is tradeoff for making it heavier and bulkier with a shield. Using another snatch block would reduce this issue but its just one more thing to rig.

The downed birch I was going after was fine. It still had branches growing leaves despite being down since last November. If a birch is borderline punky there is distinct watermark that forms on the ends of the rounds. I didnt see any watermarks when I cut the top branches off. I ran the saw along the length of the trunk down through the bark and now that the logs are sitting in pile on my woods road they will get bucked and split quickly. While I was at it, there was a standing white birch that only had a couple of branches with leaves with most of its branches gone and definitely a rotten top. I figured I would give it a try and dropped it. I got lucky, it was definitely on the edge but only the top 10 feet was bad with the telltale watermark. It was about a 12" at the base and straight. I used the winch to pull it up the slope. It was definitely a bonus, I normally would not go after a tree like that due to the hassle factor on steep slope. I did buck a few rounds and split them and the wood looks good,

Now its time to buck the pile up and get the Fiskars out. Another good tool for the collection.
 
good job, while looking at amazon this morning ( washer parts) figured what the heck see what pops on winches- came across a different Lewis winch called the powerhouse at under $500 use your saw had not seen that one before only the $1000+ ones. Pros -cons any one?
 
I was out yesterday pulling some logs from the woods above my access road with my capstan winch, as opposed to last years experiment which was a lot of pulling logs up the slope from below. In general I was lot more efficient this time. I got my stuff arranged, optimized and planned together so less trips from my car to the woods. Its two trips plus one for the chainsaw gear which if I do my job right I can avoid by prepping the logs in advance. Still no skidder cone but it did not seem to be as much of an issue this time.

One thing I do plan in on pulling logs downslope is I put a snatchblock on my anchor tree along the lower edge of the road. I then set a second anchor for the capstan out of line of where the log is going to come downhill. This is important as with gravity assist the log will tend to jump and then slide downhill somewhat out of control so yanking on a rope at the base of the slope is not good idea. This jumping has a secondary issue which is ideally I want a high anchor point for the snatchblock to try to keep the pull on the log up off the ground. This means that the line from the capstan to the snatchblock anchor is somewhere above the ground when things get tight. This means as I tug on capstan rope the capstan is elevated up in the air. When the log sticks and releases downslope the capstan can drop back onto the ground landing on its gas tank. I just keep a good short leash on the rope so i can avoid it hitting the ground. If I was setting up for several logs another snatchblock and third anchor would help with this issue but as long as I aware of it, I managed to keep the winch up in the air from hitting the ground.

The woods are currently bare but the ground is frozen underneath which means no significant mud on the logs. This definitely a potential downside on skidding logs before bucking if someone has muddy soils but since my slopes are very rocky it doesn't seem to be an issue. As usual it would be great for a helper to reduce walking the back and fourth but even without a skidder cone the logs just were not digging in.

I have some big beech logs (around 16" at the base) to pull down slope about 200'. I decided to do them later when I was "fresh". The biggest PITA is the crown and branches of the beech. They just are not designed to lay flat and inevitably get underfoot. When sawing I hit the chain brake before I make a step as the consequences of a trip are potentially fatal even with chaps. If I need to do more than a step, I just shut off the saw. Unfortunately the trees are on a steep south slope so dropping them upslope is usually tough as the crowns are heavier downslope. This means pulling from the top of the stem instead of on the bottom so the crown is in the way.

The biggest thing I am learning is the winch has its own pace and its real easy to try to help it. That is a lot of effort for no gain. With the right number of wraps around the drum, it doesnt require that much tension to keep things moving. The rated line pull is not a lot but at one point I had the top of tree get buried behind a rock and I kept pulling. It bent and then snapped a 4" beech trunk so there is lot of power that I dont plan to get to close to.

So at the end of the day I have several logs pulled across my road waiting to be bucked and loaded into the Unimog as soon as the spring road bans are off. If I had help, I expect I could move a lot of logs in an 8 hour day. Beats bucking and hand splitting them in place and throwing them downslope.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Easy Livin’ 3000