We had a tree stump in the front , it’s diameter is about a little bit more than 4 feet, it had bothered us for a few years, we’ve tried chainsaw on it but nothing can go through it, lately we bought a cable puller with 4 ton capacity , hooked onto a pickup and pulled the stump out like a decayed molar in a few minutes!
Cable pullers are great multipurpose and heavy duty stretching tools that any handy man should have them around in their tool boxes . The rated capacity of cable puller usually comes in from 1 ton to 4 ton(2200lbs to 8800lbs), the reach of the pullers is usually 6 feet to 12 feet, the higher the capacity, the shorter the reach, 1 ton puller can have 12′ reach while 4 ton puller will only have 6′ reach, but some extra heavy duty 4 ton ones can have 11′ or more. People sometimes call these cable pullers “Come Along”, but come along refers to a lot of different hand tools besides cable pullers, such as chain hoists, chain pullers, hand winch, strap pullers, and more, in a word, a come along is a hand operated ratchet lever winch. What makes cable puller different is that it’s capacity can be as strong as 4 ton, or 8800lbs, it is considered heavy duty tools, while regular hand winch has 400-4000lbs capacity and mostly used to pull boat out of or lower boat into water from trailer, sometimes also called boat trailer winch.
You have to do your homework before you go out to buy a cable puller, get to know it’s features. The cable guide on a cable puller help to keep 2 wraps of cable on ratchet wheel, and you can release loads one notch at a time, this way you can release a vehicle or a boat safely, it usually has a laminated steel ratchet wheel, rust resistant plated steel, drop forged steel safety hooks, it features aircraft cable, 4 ton one will have 5/16” galvanized aircraft cable, and all the cable pullers will have to meet OSHA and ASME specs. The cable pullers usually come with two slip hooks with safety latch, and some extra heavy duty ones have 3 safety hooks for added protection.
If you want to lifting or lowering something, you should choose cable pullers. To pull vehicles onto the trailer or release the vehicle off the trailer, to pull or tear down trees, to lift or lower heavy stuff in your house, pull the tree stumps out of ditch , compare to electric powered winch, e.g. electric winch , cable pullers are cheaper handy tools.
