I thought some of you would like to see what the Superwinch Husky is all about. This is a cut and paste of a posting I wrote nearly 5 years ago on www.ih8mud.com. Not all of it holds true today, many advancements have been made on the planetary winches, water proofing and such.... Slow it may be, but if you have the patience for the speed, it has the endurance....
Well, here I go again blabbing about another project for the 80.... This time, as the subject reads, is the winch. I will start by saying this - Without ever having run this winch, the Superwinch Husky series is probably the MOST durable electric winch built, end of story, kick your Warn to the weeds (unless it is an 8274).
Don't let the plastic cover fool you, the internals are that nice. Everything is very beefy. Case hardened nickel alloy steel spur gears in the first box with the same material worm gear driving a 5.5" diameter phosphor bronze wheel (very strong/low friction) in the main box. The only gear that does not run on a ball or needle bearing is the second gear in the first box. The rest run on German INA ball and needle bearings. The first box is packed with grease. The main box runs in .6 of a quart 90/140 gear lube, which can be changed easily.
All cases are cast from aluminum, are heat treated, and waterproof. We are talking real seals, the rubber type with spring. All bolts are metric cap screws of 12.9 grade.
So if I think this winch is soooooooo good, why am I modding it? A little more speed, a little more pull, and to add a little more ease of maintaining it. The short answer, increase the speed of the motor 30 - 40%, increase the power (Bowmotor), throw in some grease fittings for the first box and poly drum bearings.
The Husky 8 was chosen over the 10 because it has a little more speed - the gear ratio is 229:1 vs. 294:1. Also, the drum will hold 150 of 5/16 or 125' of 3/8 cable vs. 90' of 3/8 on the 10. The drum has a diameter of 2.76 on the 8 vs 3" on the 10. Most 9k pound winches use a 2.5" drum, so I am not worried about strength. The drum and gear ratio are the only differences between the two, if I need more power I can swap in the 294 gears, or use a snatch block. Esimates will place this winch at roughly a 12k lb pull and no load line speed should be in 40 ft/min range.
How about some pictures?
Check out the motor armatures. Left to right Husky, X9, Bowmotor
Bearings...
Mods...
Painted texture black. 3 grease fittings were installed. The first is one on the side cover for the left drum bearing, next is on top of the worm gearbox which feeds down to the right drum bearing. The last can not be seen in the picture, it supplies fresh Redline moly grease to the spur gear box, which sits behind the worm box and motor. The worm gearbox is filled with Redline Synthetic 75W140NS gear oil. A gear oil that is safe for alloys with copper in them is important, the Redline lube is.
Motor was disassembled, painted with a rattle can high temp silver ceramic paint, then baked for an hour to harden the paint. I figure black motors soak up the sun and get hot before you even use em'.
Winch mock up on front of 80... needs to move up about 4".
Well, here I go again blabbing about another project for the 80.... This time, as the subject reads, is the winch. I will start by saying this - Without ever having run this winch, the Superwinch Husky series is probably the MOST durable electric winch built, end of story, kick your Warn to the weeds (unless it is an 8274).
Don't let the plastic cover fool you, the internals are that nice. Everything is very beefy. Case hardened nickel alloy steel spur gears in the first box with the same material worm gear driving a 5.5" diameter phosphor bronze wheel (very strong/low friction) in the main box. The only gear that does not run on a ball or needle bearing is the second gear in the first box. The rest run on German INA ball and needle bearings. The first box is packed with grease. The main box runs in .6 of a quart 90/140 gear lube, which can be changed easily.
All cases are cast from aluminum, are heat treated, and waterproof. We are talking real seals, the rubber type with spring. All bolts are metric cap screws of 12.9 grade.
So if I think this winch is soooooooo good, why am I modding it? A little more speed, a little more pull, and to add a little more ease of maintaining it. The short answer, increase the speed of the motor 30 - 40%, increase the power (Bowmotor), throw in some grease fittings for the first box and poly drum bearings.
The Husky 8 was chosen over the 10 because it has a little more speed - the gear ratio is 229:1 vs. 294:1. Also, the drum will hold 150 of 5/16 or 125' of 3/8 cable vs. 90' of 3/8 on the 10. The drum has a diameter of 2.76 on the 8 vs 3" on the 10. Most 9k pound winches use a 2.5" drum, so I am not worried about strength. The drum and gear ratio are the only differences between the two, if I need more power I can swap in the 294 gears, or use a snatch block. Esimates will place this winch at roughly a 12k lb pull and no load line speed should be in 40 ft/min range.
How about some pictures?
Check out the motor armatures. Left to right Husky, X9, Bowmotor
Bearings...
Mods...
Painted texture black. 3 grease fittings were installed. The first is one on the side cover for the left drum bearing, next is on top of the worm gearbox which feeds down to the right drum bearing. The last can not be seen in the picture, it supplies fresh Redline moly grease to the spur gear box, which sits behind the worm box and motor. The worm gearbox is filled with Redline Synthetic 75W140NS gear oil. A gear oil that is safe for alloys with copper in them is important, the Redline lube is.
Motor was disassembled, painted with a rattle can high temp silver ceramic paint, then baked for an hour to harden the paint. I figure black motors soak up the sun and get hot before you even use em'.
Winch mock up on front of 80... needs to move up about 4".
