How to Lift With a Winch

Industrial winch systems carry loads as large as truck containers or heavier.

Using a winch to lift a heavy weight or object may seem like a simple operation, but you need to follow specific steps to ensure your own safety and to prevent damage to the winch and the load. Because of the strain put on a winch and the related rope, chain or cable, the load can create a significant risk if it pops loose. A flying cable or chain may result in serious injury to anyone close by or with their hands on the mechanism. As a result, especially with vehicle-attached winches, prevention saves both dollars and your body from serious harm.

Instructions

1. Become familiar with the winch operation, particularly if it is an automatic motor winch, before attaching the load. Learn where all the hooks connect when attaching a load before performing the action for real. Unspool the winch when you are ready to begin, leaving at least five loops of cable on the winch at all times.

2. Wrap the loose cable around the load or connect it to a pre-wrapped load net already covering the object. Loop the cable around a secure high pulley as the raising cantilever point or position your vehicle so that it is higher than the load to be hoisted. Examine the situation to make sure you didn’t forget a connection or a hook that needs to be put in place.

3. Put on leather gloves and safety goggles. Turn the winch on if operated by a motor or crank the winch if operated manually. Keep operating until the cable is tight. Continue cranking until the load increases to 500 pounds per the measurement on the winch dial, or it begins to lift the attached weight. Stop the winch for a moment.

4. Check your cantilever point to make sure nothing is coming loose or the cable is beginning to slip. Check your load to make sure the hooks and connection points are operating correctly. Confirm nobody is near the operation at the time as an assistant or spectator.

5. Begin to operate the winch again, slowly raising the weight. Keep your hands away from the cable at all times. Stop the operation and lower the weight if you begin to hear strain noises coming from the winch engine or cable, indicating that the weight is too heavy for the engine.

6. Watch the cable spool into the winch drum evenly. Stop the process if it starts to bind up. Finish winching when the weight or object has been lifted as desired. Place the object at its intended destination. Slowly loosen the winch until the cable has slack and the object is firmly resting where it needed to be hoisted.

7. Disengage the cable and hooks and wrap the cable up into the winch drum again for storage.

Tips & Warnings

• You don’t need to run your vehicle when operating a vehicle-mounted winch, as the engine uses very little power from the car battery. Most of the strain of the lifting will be on the gears of the winch engine instead. However, running the engine does help recharge the vehicle battery.

• The most dangerous time to operate a winch is when the system is fully under load. If a hook slips, the cable can come flying back toward the winch, possibly injuring anybody nearby. Take extreme care to protect yourself from this when hoisting heavy weights.

References

• Warn Industries: The Basic Guide to Winching Techniques
• Summit Racing: How to Choose and Use a Winch
• Offshore Sailing: Winch Use and Safety -- The Proper Way to Ease a Line on a Winch