PTO Winch

Interesting how it is called a shear pin, and it did just that Shear.

Not helping your question, but what exactly is a PTO winch, are these the ones that are driven of the engine throu an output shaft from the transfer case thus PTO or am I thinking of something else.

Never seen a clutch mecanism on a PTO, but the shear pin is usually hard to get at and is also usually mild steel 3/16 diameter. As you would know, a 4 litre motor infront of a reduction gearbox will pull more than 8000lbs....so the best way to use a pto is with a snatch block. I broke my shear pin by not winching with the wheels turning, when i got to the rock step, my front wheels tried to push it uphill too.....so as you can see, the PTO is an excellent winch but needs to be understood....where an electric will stall...a pto will break the shear pin.
Andrew
(ps i was winching up where my cruiser is in the piccy)

No! But the cruiser ute (FJ45) I had back when Jesus was a boy came with a PTO winch, which I really put to test with sunk to the chassis bogs in the swamps around Darwin and the topend. The previous owner replaced the shear pin with a high tensile bolt. Apart from breaking the cable a couple of times nothing else ever failed.

Often the copper shear pin is weakened over time & will break no where near it's full rated capacity. Pays to replace it after repeated heavy use before it lets go. If it's hard to knock out then it's already bent. Early PTO winches had smaller diameter shear pins that failed prematurely. These could be drilled out & the bigger ones used.
I have seen a custom built arrangement that after the pin sheared, a collar was slid over a spline allowing the winch to be backed off or still used with caution to get him out of trouble.
Cheers Craig...........