A while ago we had been wrestling with a large Balsam Fir which had been partially blown up and ended up hanging on to another tree, and it was on a steep slope within less than 10 feet of our garage, we bought a 2 ton cable puller and ended up destroying the puller, we had to buy a cable puller with 4 ton capacity , and this time it did the job and our garage was still standing .
Actually cable pullers are heavy duty hand tools and can be used to do a lot of things, sometimes you even can use it in pace of ATV Winch to save money. 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. We usually call cable puller “Come Along”, by definition, a come along is a hand operated ratchet lever winch, so cable puller can be called come along, along with chain puller, chain hoist, hand winch, trailer winch. Typically hand winch is used to pull boat out of water on the boat trailer or lower the boat into water, hence the name ‘boat trailer winch”, and hand winch has to be fixed onto something before use while you can just hook cable puller onto something immobile , such as a tree.
Cable pullers have some nice features and interesting applications you should know before you buy them. The cable limiter 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. Typically the cable pullers will have two slip safety hooks with latch, but some super heavy duty ones have 3 safety hooks for enhanced protection.
For stretching, pulling, lifting and lowering, cable pullers are the best choice. You can pull or release vehicles onto and from trailer respectively, to pull or tear down trees, to lift or lower heavy stuff in your house, pull the stuck vehicle out of somewhere, compare to electric powered winch, e.g. electric winch , cable pullers are cheaper alternatives.
