First off... Merry Christmas Everyone! I have been flirting with the idea of trying to find a winch to mount on the back of my "Bare a@$ tractor". Now please be warned I have absolutely no experience in selecting a winch for this type of cat or any other for that matter... That being said is there a certain model or style that would bolt up to my 977L? (11k7981) There is a wrecking yard near me that recently put up for sale a bunch of D7G parts for sale, they also just so happen to have a good selection of winches. Any guidance here would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance guys
You might try talking to the people at the wrecking yard about which winches will work on your tractor. They may have one that would be of use to you. The fact that they are local could save you $$$ on shipping. You could get a price on a winch installed, since those guys disassemble machines. Regards, Clark
If your looking at Hyster winches it needs to be a D7K (PC) power controlled model to fit the 11Kxxxx 977. A Direct Drive unit will not work. Controls are also unique to the loader and not the same as the dozer version. The D7K winch is also used on the 53A, 46H and 48J 977 models.
Have you considered a hydraulic winch? I have one on the back of one of my 977Hs, and I love it! It has a fairly simple sub-frame it's mounted on and a pair of braces that run forward to the loader tower. There's an extra hydraulic valve mounted under the fuel tank on top of the bevel gear / steering clutch housing to power it. As far as I can tell It pulls as fast as a PTO winch and there's nothing I've hooked it to yet that it won't pull. The only drawback is that there's no freespool so you need to either feed the line out to your buddy who's chasing for you or lay a bunch of cable out on the ground and then drag it out towards your item, run back to the cat, lay out some more, and repeat as necessary... For as often as I use it though it's no problem, plus I need the exercise anyway. If you like I'll try to find some pictures of the winch and sub-frame. There's a short video of it pulling a fairly large cottonwood tree here: https://youtu.be/1x9q3CyYKT0
Thanks for all the replies guys, much appreciated I would like to go the Hyster route if i can find one. Old Magnet, Can you shed any more light on what the PC (Power controlled) designation means?
Nice video Spitzair! Your machine sounds really nice! Whats in that H for power?
Power control means you have a way to disconnect the winch from the continuous drive of the power shift transmission. Involves hydraulically operated clutches in the winch and hydraulic pump source either mounted to the engine or in the winch itself. Control of wind, unwind, free spool and neutral is then remotely controlled by operating the various clutches.
Thanks. It's got a D333 in it.