Which tirfor is this?

[biosurf]

Been offered a Tirfor pretty cheap for somebody and having problems identifying it.
I think its the equivalent to the TU16 but wondered if anyone who knows their winches could help me out?
If it is the TU16 and therefore has a pulling rating of 2400kg pulling its not enough for the Surf, although if you use snatch blocks to increase the pull will this work or will it still put too much strain on the mechanism?
Also the cylindrical sticky outy bit on the side (technical huh? ) looks like its maybe missing a handle or something. Any ideas?

[nero279]

Snatch blocks will be fine with tirfor's. But it'll become a slow process for any long pull you may have to undertake.

Not sure about which one it is, there aint a lot in the picture to give it any scale other than ther rope and hooks, and it looks fairly small compared to them. The technical information sheets here will give you a better idea of sizing http://www.tractel.com/en/proddetail.php?prod=11130 , click the bottom left of the 4 icons below 'more details' and it'll open a PDF in a new window with a page of dimensions for each model. That cylindrical sticky out bit that spaces the handle away fro the body concerns me though, it's not original, and people do all sorts of weird and wonderful things with tirfors to try and get more leverage and so on, none of them work, or are necessary, but the extension being there means you can't see the shear pins underneath it. Which are meant to be alloy, and shear before the mechanism is overloaded, then they can be replaced and the tirfor's fine to continue using. Often though when they are overloaded, people stick a steel nail in in place of the shear pin, out of ignorance or stupidity doesn't matter, it then means the mechanism can be overloaded and damaged. The handle itself in the top of the pic fits onto the splines of that sticky out bit, but again doesn't look original to me.

Also looking at the cable I can't tell if it's a tirfor cable or not. Tirfor cables should be tapered for about 3 or 4 inches on the end, I can't see for sure, but that looks like it may be a normal wire rope with a bit of tape round the end, which will jam very easily.

If you can ascertain that the shear pins are still intact and alloy, and can remove the handle spacer to convert it back to original it may be worth a punt.