Allied’s Newest Winch Gets Trial by Ice

The English expression “trial by fire” doesn’t quite describe this frozen test of an Allied winch. Ice is the dominant challenge in Siberia, where the new H12A hydraulic winch proved itself last winter.

Modern Machinery, Komatsu dealer headquartered in Missoula, Montana, with a branch in Magadan, Russia, recently won a major contract to supply Bema Gold Corporation with 18 machines for their Kupol project. The gold mining operations are located in the Chukotka region of extreme northeast Russia. The area is remote—some 1,250 miles (2,000 km) north of Magadan, and 800 miles (1,300 km) beyond the end of any road.

Getting those 18 machines to the Kupol site involved a treacherous overland trip in winter, to permit crossing rivers and poor soil conditions without bridges. The equipment headed out under its own power on February 13, 2004, and arrived 41 days later. Temperatures were often around -40 degrees F (-40 degrees C).

According to Bob Robinson, director of Russian Operations for Modern Machinery, “getting the machines to Magadan was one thing. Getting them to the project site was something else. It was certainly not like anything I’ve ever been involved with before.”

For most of the trip, a Komatsu D375 dozer led the way. They needed 6 feet (1.8 meters) of ice to support the D375, the heaviest piece of equipment.

For rescue purposes, Bema Gold also took a Komatsu D155AX-5 dozer with Allied H12A winch. Despite the ice and cold, the H12A winch worked perfectly. The extreme arctic conditions weren’t enough to stop this winch.

Richard Matson, Kupol project construction manager for Bema Gold, says that “we were especially impressed with the way the machines handled the brutal cold on the trip up here. The arctic packages that Modern installed really did the job.”

The H12A is Allied’s newest entry into the field of hydraulic towing winches for crawler dozers. With changing technology, such as hydrostatic design, some of the newer dozers are no longer equipped with PTO shaft. The hydraulic winch is the best option for meeting the demand for towing winches on dozers without PTO shaft.

The winch obtains hydraulic power from the ripper hydraulic circuit and uses the ripper control lever to operate the winch. The ripper hydraulics power the winch motor, which drives a planetary gear train connected to the winch drum. There are no clutches to apply, which makes for smooth, shock-free application of the tractive force.

The hydraulic winch has the ability to operate at any line speed from zero to its maximum, and deliver full pulling power throughout its speed range. This feature makes it especially valuable for rescue work and for any application where precise line positioning is important.

For greater flexibility, the motor has two speeds. An electrical pushbutton switch controls on-the-fly shifting from slow to fast operation.

The H12A winch is suitable for dozers from 200 to 400 HP.