Photos needed. Shed full of S**t Auction

[Tony Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Mike Cecil

I have to wonder if the CD was the only one (especially given the difficulty with the supply of the specified cable).

There's certainly a shortage of cable on this 9th Div jeep winch, looks like the equivalent of one full layer on the drum, which works out to a little over 20' length. However it's definitely 3/8" cable, as opposed to 7/16" on Tony's old winch and also my Dawn No.5 winch.

dawn-1 - Copy (2).jpg

jeep0041 - Copy.jpg

From this we might infer limited stock of 3/8" cable which was rationed, and no suitable alternative available. Why else would you shorten the cable so drastically from the 120' spec, which is comparable to 125' CMP spec? You could still use the winch effectively by extending the cable with rope as req'd and winding in 20' at a time. You don't need much rope strength to pull a jeep slowly through mud, and with this winch I mean EXCRUCIATINGLY slowly! Even up a 45 degree incline you only need 1/2 ton force which would only require the rope to be doubled up.

Yes it's highly speculative but there must be a reason for shortening the cable so drastically, and there must also be a reason why so few jeeps had what strikes me as an extraordinarily useful piece of kit, notwithstanding slow operation. Nowadays we have electric front mount winches and no one goes off-road without one, and judging by all the wartime pics of jeeps being towed or pushed through bogs there was plainly a need for this mod. Indeed the very existence of this mod tells us that. It could even be operated under water to ford deep creeks and rivers, rather than waiting hours for a truck to come along. I know I'd be a lot happier going bush with one of these on the front, esp. in jungle terrain.

Therefore I suspect you're right Mike, all the evidence points to this mod being scotched after the first order due to lack of cable, as there was still a whole year of war to go. I'd be interested to see a blow up of the 9th Div jeep coming ashore, it too looks short on cable to me, and may even have non-spec cable, ie. much thicker.