Tree winch mounting system

Tree removal and limb maintenance often require sophisticated rigging and equipment (e.g., ropes, pulleys, climbing accessories, rope brakes, winches, etc . . . ) to control, lift and lower heavy limbs. In the past, tree-mounted winches have been used to provide tension on ropes for lifting, lowering and otherwise controlling tree limbs during removal. Many arborists appreciate the mechanical advantage provided by winches, however, the use of tree-mounted winches has proven to be cumbersome to date. In addition, winches are relatively expensive. One of the primary problems with tree-mounted winches is that the combined weight of the tree-mount and winch tends to be excessive for convenient use by arborists. Prior art tree mounts include a mounting bracket and a strap winch attached thereto with rigging devices, such as a rope brake or winch attached to the tree mount. Some manufacturers have fabricated the tree mount from aluminum in order to lighten the weight of the system. However, in practice the heavy loads encountered in the field are often excessive for aluminum tree mounts. The use of tree-mounted winches has therefore been limited.

The present invention has been developed in an effort to provide an improved tree winch mounting system that is convenient and practical to use, yet sufficiently rugged to withstand normal use in the field.

The invention is a winch mounting system which includes a tree-mount that is secured to the stem of a tree, and is designed to allow a winch to be removably or detachably mounted thereto. Designing the winch to be removable from the tree mount provides several advantages not available in prior art devices. First, the tree mount can be more easily secured to the stem of the tree without carrying the winch and its weight. The construction of the tree mount can therefore be made more rugged without making the tree mount inconvenient to use. Another advantage is that the winch can be removed temporarily without unstrapping the tree mount from the stem of the tree. This provides convenient means for protecting the expensive winch from damage by falling limbs, etc. Another advantage of making the winch removable is that the winch can be used for other purposes, such as on a customized trailer hitch. Yet another advantage of making the winch removable is that the tree mount can be used to secure other rigging devices, such as a bollard or rope brake, a pad eye or pulley mount, etc.

In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the winch is a self-tailing winch that is removably mounted to a winch mounting plate. The winch mounting plate is preferably an aluminum plate. The tree mount includes a center backplate and a receiver that is integral or welded to the backplate. The receiver is adapted to removably receive the winch mounting plate. A right side wing plate and a left side wing plate are pivotally attached to the backplate. A strap winch and strap are attached to one of the wing plates. The other wing plate includes a slot for accepting a hook on the strap. With the backplate and wing plates against the stem of a tree, the strap is tightened around the stem of the tree to secure the tree mount to the tree. A locking mechanism secures the winch mounting plate in the receiver on the backplate. In this manner, the winch is secured in a fixed position relative to the stem of the tree when the strap is tightened. It is important that the components of the tree mount be sufficiently strong to withstand the heavy loads normally encountered in the field. The tree mount is preferably made from steel. Weight is not a problem because the winch is removable.

As mentioned, the winch is preferably a self-tailing winch that includes a self-tailing groove adjacent the winch drum to grip the rope. Preferably, the tree mount has appropriate incoming fair leads to align the rope with the intake on the winch at the base of the drum. In accordance with the invention, there are preferably three incoming fair leads: a right side fair lead, a left side fair lead and an upper fair lead. The fair leads are important so that the rope maintains alignment as it wraps around the winch, otherwise the rope can become knotted. The upper fair lead is preferably a captive fair lead with allows the incoming rope to approach the winch from a wide variety of upward directions and yet maintain proper alignment in the winch. Without a captive fair lead, it would probably be necessary, in most situations, to mount a pulley above the winch. By using a self-tailing winch, the winch can normally be operated by a single person to tighten the rope.

To lower a limb, the rope is removed from the self-tailing mechanism, and the winch operator grips the rope to carefully lower the limb. On occasion, it is desirable for the winch operator to move while lowering the rope without releasing the rope. However, to be safe and reliable, the rope must maintain alignment with the drum on the winch when it returns during lowering. In order to facilitate movement of the winch operator without releasing the outgoing rope, the tree mount preferably includes a hinge-mounted outgoing fair lead that is aligned with a return location on the drum of the winch. The outgoing fair lead is preferably a captive fair lead (e.g., a helical or rams horn captive fair lead) which maintains alignment with the outgoing rope even if the operator of the winch moves. This allows the operator to use their spare hand for other tasks, or to move to a safer area when necessary.

In its preferred embodiment, the winch mounting system also includes a trailer hitch winch mount that enables the winch to be removably mounted to a trailer hitch. The preferred trailer hitch winch mount includes a trailer hitch fitting having a horizontal platform and a vertical platform. A detachable winch mounting base plate can be mounted to either the horizontal platform or the vertical platform on the trailer hitch fitting. A winch mounting plate receiver is integral with or welded to the winch mount base plate. The receiver is adapted to receive the winch mounting plate in a manner similar to the tree mount, thus securing the winch on the trailer hitch.