Below some observations about the Wallenstein FX12000 winch ser # A05910043

PERFORMANCE

The Wallenstein FX 12000 winch that we tried out was brand new, and in the condition it was delivered to us. The maximum line pull of the winch was 9877lbs. To reach that pull one had to pull the control rope at a force equal to lifting a 150-lb. weight off the ground. The winching of a hitch can take 45 seconds so providing the 150-lb. effort might be difficult for some operators.

The Wallenstein brochure advertises a pulling capacity of 12000 lbs. so the actual pull was over a ton less.

MANUFACTURING

THE AXLE

The most unbelievable observation was that the axle was not machined. There are threads on both ends, but the axle itself is round bar from the smelter. It has not been machined, so there is pits on the surface. The winch does not have any bearings so the pits on the axle scrapes directly on the bronze bushings that are between the axle and the drum. There is no way of greasing the axle without taking the winch completely apart. What is the life expectancy of a bronze bushing which cannot be greased scraping against a pitted axle?

By comparison, the Farmi JL501 has a machined axle and bearings with lubrication.

THE LOWER SNATCHBLOCK

The pulley does not have a machined pin. Instead of a machined pin the winch has 3/4” grade 2 bolt. Instead of ball bearings there was a bronze bushing on the pulley. The bronze bushing ran partly on top of the thread of the bolt. There were no provisions to grease the pin. In comparison, the Farmi JL 501 has a machined pin through the pulley. Between the pulley and the pin there is two side-by-side sealed ball bearings.

THE UPPER PULLEY

The Wallenstein upper pulley also has a bronze bushing rubbing directly on the pin. There were no provisions to grease the pin. The Farmi upper pulley has two sealed ball bearings side by side on the pin.

THE DRIVE SHAFT

We first noticed that the drive shaft on the Wallenstein moved back and forth inside the bearing, which made us wonder how long the drive chain would stay on the sprocket. We then pulled out the driveshaft with the bearings and noticed that the driveshaft is so poorly fitted to the bearing that it turns freely inside the inner race. The axle spins but the bearing does not.

USE

PULLING OUT THE CABLE

The cable comes out very hard in the Wallenstein winch. By engaging two men in pulling out the cable we could get out about 130 feet. Then the resistance became too much for two men, so to pull out the rest we hooked up the end of the cable to a stump and drove the tractor forward to spool the cable off the drum. Reasons of the trouble are design related. See under Design below “Coiling Mechanism” and “Cable”

VISIBILITY

Visibility toward the load was diminished because the winch had a screen obstructing a clear view. Look “screen” below under design.

DIFFICULTIES IN OPERATING IN SOFT GROUND

The Wallenstein winch has no support surface on the blade so it sinks into the ground. See cause below under blade.

SAFETY

CLUTCH RELEASE

The clutch release spring in the Wallenstein is made of 0.08” material and it has no rust resistant coating. (The Farmi winches have rust resistant coatings on the clutch return springs and the springs are over 30% thicker)

The Wallenstein spring already had some rust on it, and as winches are used, and sometimes stored, outside. One wonders how long it will take for the spring to rust through.

The Farmi JL501 has a redundant secondary system for clutch release which is independent of the clutch release spring. The Wallenstein does not have a secondary clutch release system.

CLUTCH ENGAGEMENT MECHANISM

The Wallenstein has a clutch engagement system that has 3 steel balls on a slanted plane. This is a cheap method of clutch engagement that has been tried by others. The problem that others have noticed with this system is that when the clutch pads wear down, the play between the clutch engagement halves increases. The balls can then fall between the clutch engagement halves and the clutch will not release so the winch stays in the pull mode until the tractor engine is killed or something else gives. A bad clutch adjustment can cause the same result.

Forty years ago Farmi designed and patented their famous clutch engagement mechanism, successfully used in over 100,000 Farmi Skidding winches.

NOTCHES FOR THE DRUM LOCK

To ensure that the drum is safely locked in place, the Farmi drums have deep notches for the ratchet and the notches are so formed that the ratchet will stay locked. The Wallenstein has many shallower and differently formed notches. On all winches, the notches tend to round-out with extensive use, so the Farmi has a built in margin for wear.

DESIGN

CABLE

“Aircraft cable” sounds high tech, but it is in reality a cheap grade of cable that we have always considered unsuitable to use in skidding winches. The cable is so stiff that after a little use it retains the form of the drum and looks like a slinky when it is pulled out. This kind of stiff cable takes a lot of effort to pull out. The enormous effort is necessary because the stiff cable must, in the Wallenstein case first be bent around a ž”diameter coiling device roller and then through the upper snatchblock.

The Farmi winches are sold with flexible, steel core wire rope.

COILER

The coiling device in the Wallenstein has the above mentioned ž” roller around which the cable must be bent. This increases the resistance when pulling out the stiff cable. We also noticed that sometimes the roller did not turn so there was added resistance from the friction of dragging a stiff cable on nearly a 90-degree angle over a stationary bar.

The small diameter of the roller will cause additional resistance when the cable develops kinks. Then you have to find a cable pulling crew strong enough to force a 1” kink past the obstacle. Most likely it cannot be done. The next step would be to force the cable out by fastening the end of it to a tree and driving the tractor forward.

The Farmi has a coiler roller that has diameter of 1 5/8” so the cable is easier to pull out and kinks can pass past the roller.

The coiling device is useless without a spring that controls the brake. It appears that the Wallenstein has placed the spring on top of the drum where the cable can tear it off. We could not find the spring on the Wallenstein winch after the cable had been pulled in twice. We then looked in the spare parts diagram to see to find out if the spring was supposed to be there. The spring was not mentioned in the spare parts list or the spare parts diagram.

The Farmi has the coiler control spring next to the coiler axle where it cannot be destroyed by unintentional contact with the cable.

The brake piece for the coiling adjustment is not protected in any way. It runs next to a greasy chain. Adjusting the brake piece seems to be complicated. There are no instructions about it in the operator’s manual, so perhaps one has to have factory personnel perform this adjustment.

The brake piece on the Farmi is easily adjusted by turning a bolt.

DRUM LOCK

The Wallenstein drum lock repeatedly engaged by itself when the cable is pulled out. One person from the cable pulling team had to walk back to the winch and undo the brake. The Farmi, by comparison has a drum lock that is twice as heavy, and that will not engage spontaniously.

The winch drum is full with 165 feet of cable. (See specifications below) Fastening the cable to the drum is also much more difficult than on the Farmi.

SCREEN

Most winch users shy away from a screen on the winch. They find it better to operate the winch standing on the ground where they can operate the winch from either side, where ever they can see the load best.

The screen is needed when the operator winches in loads sitting on the tractor’s seat. The screen is needed to protect the operator in case of the cable or chains breaking because they will fly toward the cab. It is uncomfortable to run the winch from the tractor seat because the operator must twist the body 180 degrees in the tractor seat. This method also entails added climbing to and from the cab.

The screens on the Wallenstein winch can crush the rear window of the cab and interfere with the roll over protection when the winch is in skidding position.

BLADE

The Wallenstein blade does not have provisions to keep the winch from sinking into the ground. It will therefore go straight down under a pull, until the parking stands and tool pockets produce resistance. The PTO shaft is then running at an extreme angle.

The Farmi winch has a cross bar which runs almost the width of the blade and carries the winch after the blade has dug in a couple of inches.

SPECIFICATIONS

The winch is supposed to pull 12,000 lbs. Serial # A05910043 pulled max 9877 lbs.

The Wallenstein FX12000 brochure claims, that the drum hold up to 215 feet of ˝”cable. This is an error. The winch had 165” of cable when it was delivered to us, and that amount did not fit on the drum without rubbing on the frame around it.

The brochure claims that the winch is 71” high. Our Wallenstein FX 12000 is 68 3/4” high in parked position.

The brochure claims that the winch is 60” wide. Our Wallenstein is 58 ˝” wide.

The Farmi products are made by robots in jigs so all the winches of a particular model are all the same size. Every winch is test pulled in the factory, so each Farmi winch has the intended level of pull.

Information on other winch models: