G614 broke my spare winch ... Updated

[wingerphil]

Had new Goodyear 614's put on the 3400 today and when the technician tried to put the new spare back "up" the winch locked up and now will not retract to lift the tire/wheel. He said "it's stripped" and blamed the weight of the new tire vs the Chinese ones I had.

Has anyone else had this problem and is there a fix? I have not had time to look at it yet so the only input I have is what the technician was telling me.

Thanks,

Phil

[BusyCarol]

I haven't heard of this specific problem BUT I have heard of a lot of Monty owners having problems with the winch when they take the spare off. When it retracts it doesn't thread/wind up correctly. So maybe they let it retract and then when they had to unwound it went too far or didn't come off the winch correctly. It is only an additional 24lb so I don't believe that it was too heavy. Just my humble opinion.

Sorry...I know that probably isn't much help but I thought it might give you a place to start. I will see if I can find the info.

[DQDick]

Weight of the tire is probably crap. Our G614 doesn't cause any problems under there. Those mechanisms like most of the things you can't see on any rig are cheap and just like the ones on our trucks can get the cable wound around wrong and refuse to go back up. I suppose it's also possible to strip the gears. If that's true it would probably have to be replaced. I have had to get under one of my trucks and pull down on the cable while someone else turned the handle until I got all the cable out and then held the cable tight while they wound the cable back up to the point where the tire went back on and then hooked the tire up and kept going.

[Bill-N-Donna]

It sounds like the cable could be jammed in it. This is the problem we had on our previous Montana. We changed a flat on the highway and not wanting to put the rim back on until I got a new spare we cranked it all the way up. When we went to crank it back down it wouldn’t work, the cable had gotten jammed up inside the wheel pulley. It doesn’t sound like it may have been cranked back up in your case but perhaps without the tire, while it was off the cable may have slipped around some. I’m not saying that’s the problem but just something to think about.

[Tom S.]

No, it's not the weight of the new tire. The winch is crap. We had the same problem with ours with the stock tires. I've thought about getting one off a pickup truck and mounting it instead of the stock unit.

[bncinwv]

The above are correct, the winch cables will jam easily and the worst part is, there is no easy way to get it apart. When ours had an internal jam, it was caused by the cables getting fouled inside the box. The only hope for a solution is to somehow pull on the cable to get it free. If you can get a come-along or a winch on it and somehow secure the come-along to allow it to be used to pull the cable, it may come unjammed. My wandering brain envisions something along the lines of a pulley or a hook mounted through a 4x6 that could be held by the weight of the rig or possibly put beneath the tires. Another option would be to use blocks to hold the 4x6 beneath the frame, use a hook to allow the winch cable to be routed in a fashion that allows the come-along to pull directly down on the winch cable. Then you could rig something behind the rig to attach the come-along to. Have no idea if it would work or not, and it may actually pull the entire assembly off of the bottom of the rig if the jammed cable is stuck hard enough. Throwing out ideas here, as mentioned, it may be easier just to replace the winch.
Bingo

[tim43]

The winch jammed/broke on my SOB about six years ago and had to put a new one in. Come to find out the winch was a produced in China!

[racerjoe]

I think you did him a favor by calling him a "technician" !!

[mhs4771]

Agree with others, probably cranked down to far causing slack in the mech, then when trying to crank back up the cable got crossed and now jammed. When lowering the spare you have to let it just touch the ground so it keeps a little weight on it. We had the same exact problem with a Chevy Blazer spare (same type of mech and probably for the same Chinese supplier). Try Bingo's suggestion and hope for the best, but if it's been cranked both ways several times now you may just be out of luck.

[Ozz]

Heavier spare tire is another reason to add the strap securing the tire to the frame.

[dieselguy]

The entire spare tire mount unbolts easily from the frame ... beats laying on a piece of cardboard on your back under the fiver to attempt a repair.

[Sheepdog]

When I put my G614 spare on, I put a ratchet tie down strap under the tire to secure it to the frame. I don't trust the winch's tiny cable to hold the extra weight, especially if you hit a good bump. Peace of mind. I check the strap often to make sure it's tight.

[wingerphil]

thanks for all the replies guys! I kind of figured the cable was fouled and is causing the problem. I hope to get a chance to look at it this week end and maybe get it working again. I seriously doubt the "technician" gave it more than one try so there is hope I can get it working again.
As for putting a strap on the spare tire, I like that idea, sure would hate to lose that thing ... too expensive!

Phil

[mazboy]

we just got our new 3400 and transferred our 614s to this new trailer....i hope not.

[Slufoot733]

The first thing I did after buying our Monty was to relocate the spare into the cargo bay. Why, you ask, did I do that! Well, the crappy winch for one. Two, the spare is easy to reach and three, it's clean and dry if I have to handle it.
I dropped the spare and rewound the winch (where it stays to this day). I drilled one hole in the front wall of the storage area (lined up with the center of the spare wheel) and secured a piece of all thread with a large washer and nut to both sides of the wall. Then I cut a piece of 1 x 4 to fit flat against the face of the wheel. A hole was drilled to go over the all thread and another large washer and a big wingnut hold it all in place. No muss, no fuss. The tire doesn't take up that much space and is always available if needed. Just a thought.

[wingerphil]

got the time to look at my winch today and it had definately "slipped it's dripper". It would only wind up when I hand fed the cable back in so I decided to trash it. It's only held on by 2 bolts to a crossmember and a bracket for the handle so was easy to remove. I installed 2 12" pieces of allthread in it's place and attached the spare to these using the correct size nuts and washers. I also attached a ratchet strap to make double sure nothing moves.
The new spare is now back under the rig and "snug as a bug in rug".

Phil

[bncinwv]

Sounds like a good solution. Could you post a pic? Curiosity has been piqued, since I may want to remedy a situation before it occurs for a change!!
Bingo

[wingerphil]

Bingo,

I'll try and post a picture but it ended up working out pretty easy. The distance of the holes in the bracket for the winch turned out to be the same as the distance between the lug nut holes on the wheel (from one side to the other). I attached the pieces of all thread (5/16 x 12") through the holes on the 5er crossmember attaching it with nuts and washers above and below the crossmember. I then slid the tire underneath and lifted it up enough so the "bolts" went through the lug nut holes and my DW attached nuts and washers. The tire was now hanging loosely so I wrapped a ratchet strap around it and the upper bracket and used it as sort of a winch to help lift the tire and snug it to it's frame under the 5er, then I tighted the nuts down to secure it. I know it will not be as convienant getting it back out from under there but at least it is secured again out of the way.

Phil

[RickW]

Phil do you have room on the truck?

When I switched to G614s I decided to start carrying a 2nd spare since all my tire problems seem to come in 2s. I do have one spare stored under the trailer but I have little faith in the setup and have had problems with it in the past. I keep the 2nd spare on the truck. It fits under the Jeep. I figure your bike is on the truck but did not know if you had room there for the spare too. I also figure it will be easier to get the spare from the truck before having to crawl under the trailer. Luckily I have not had tire problems since switching to G614s last September so I have not had to test the theory yet. Hopefully I will never have too.

[Exnavydiver]

For those of you who havent had a "technician" bust the spare tire mechanism I have found that when I take the spare off(yes I have many times) before I started cranking the spare back up I grabbed the tire bracket on the end of the cable and pulled it down hard while Betsy turned the lift shaft counter clockwise. This helped take the snarl out of the cable and let the cable lay evenly when cranked back up. I did this after I had the tire under the rig and ready to lift. I slid the bracket into the center hole on the wheel while holding tension on the cable while Betsy slowly cranked it clockwise. Once it has tension on it it comes up very easily. The ratchet strap idea is a very good idea though because I saw a spare come loose from a different brand while I was behind it. It started flipping as it hit the road and pole vaulted the rear rig up. I was able to change lanes before it came bouncing out but the guy behind me wasnt so lucky.. It really did a lot of damage to the rear floor in the rig as well as the underbelly and the poor guy behind..