There has been alot of talk recently with regard to winches and which ones are better, how to use them, etc.
Someone posted that there is always a problem if you are forced to winch other than in a straight line, in that the the cable does not spool evenly onto the drum. I always seem to have that problem - the anchor point for self recovery is always off to the left or right.
Indeed, watching many other people winch I have seen the cable bunch at one end of the drum, once it starts it just gets worse. Not only does it lead to cable damage but it counts as extra layers on the drum and thus decreases the pulling power available more than it would if it was layering on evenly.
It got me thinking and I thought that many years ago I had read about or seen in a magazine a spooling device on the front of a winch that helped lay the cable evenly on the drum. I'm not sure whether it was geared off the drum rotation, but it was a small guide which moved across the drum from left to right and then back again in front of the fairlead.
Anyone know anymore about these and possibly point me at some websites?
