Re: Winch conversion
You can do this pretty easily. I've converted a PowerWinch 915 and a Promark 10,500 to strap in a couple hours time each. Basically, you need to disassemble the winch to the point where you can remove the spool shaft. I say that because you need to remove quite a bit of the other gears and shafts to get that far. It might help to snap a few pictures so you know how everything goes back together.
Once you get the shaft removed, in order to attach a strap properly, you'll need to grind a flat spot on the shaft in the center at least the width of the nylon strap (Essentially, a side view of the shaft will look like a "D"). I did this with a 4.5" angle grinder with a flap-wheel. The shaft is pretty easy to grind. I just took my time to minimize heat buildup. With a flat spot about .75" wide, I then drilled and tapped two holes for the strap to mount, cut/drilled a small piece of steel strap to match the holes, then used a .25" bolt heated to melt holes into the strap about 4" from the end. Sandwich the nylon strap between the shaft and the steel strap. I used round allen head bolts because of their typically smaller size and to minimize sharp edges. When winding, I used the 4" of extra strap to fold over the bolt heads so that 1) any chaffing that could happen would happen to the extra nylon, and 2) by folding it over, would put less stress on the two holes in the strap.
If the spool is wider than the strap (My 915's spool was 1" wider), you can cut two pieces of polycarbonate to space the strap to the center of the spool. I used part of .5" cutting board to make my spacers. I use 10,000lb straps on mine and was only able to get about 15' of strap on the spool. If you're using a lighter strap, you can get more.
If you don't feel like taking this on, Bob's right, the 712 strap winch's shaft might be a direct fit.
*$#@!!*%
