Vintage Items
Well yes, it would depend upon the condition of the item when it comes to cleaning and or "extracting". A heavy but vintage quilt that is very fragile probably won't withstand extraction by either wringer or spinning without a real risk of damage.
OTHO a heavy wool blanket or whatever that is in good condition should be fine.
Most all my vintage laundry manuals give directions for using a wringer washer or mangle (all that was around at the time), when cleanng "comforts", quilts, blankets, coverlets and so forth. As another poster stated upthread you had to adjust the mangle/wringer rollers to suit.
Wringer vs Extraction:
Machine extraction will most always remove more water, detergent residue and so forth even at lower speeds than a wringer. Though each involve forces of compression, a machine can do so (hopefully) by some what evenly distributing weight of an item. On a wringer one has to keep feeding the item through several times, each pass requiring closer and closer spacing of the rollers to squeeze out water. If this is not done properly it can lead to textile damage, especially if air bubbles are trapped at the end of whatever and have no where else to go. For this reason items like pillow slips are always fed into any mangle/ironer/wringer *closed end first*.
Cleaning anything heavy that will only become more so once wet, such as quilts, blankets, coverlets, etc can be a challenge for front loaders. Normally one attempts to have a mix of items in a load so the machine can properly balance, and for good washing action. Large bulky items may by themselves reach the dry weight limit of a washer, and adding another heavy item such as a towel (for balance), may not help things.
What normally happens is the bulky item balls up upon itself, and if the washer isn't careful about spinning, the first attempt can send that heavy wet thing slamming against the drums. Many a domestic front loader has seen it's shocks shattered, concrete balance weights destroyed, and or simply bashed itself to death.
