I've never seen a winch fly apart under load but I did have one come
dismounted and turn into a projectile. Fortunately no one was in the
way and the only damage was scars to the fiberglass. It turned out
that the problem was corroded mounting bolts - bronze winch, bronze
bolts, powder coated aluminum mounting base - each bolt became a
minature battery.

The most common failures in my experience are frozen gears, broken
pawls, broken bearings, etc.

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On Fri, 21 May 2004 07:44:33 -0500, Courtney Thomas
wrote:

I assume that since winches can be under tremendous pressure, that all
suffer the possibility of exploding if pushed beyond their design.

Given that,.... are there known "dangerous" winches and what is the
source of their danger and how can it be determined that improper use is
not the culprit, rather than inherent inadequacy ?

Thank you.