The tilt over winch on my HDX5106 is a K2550, as
supplied by UST. This seems to be a marginal design
because the cranking effort is really high (at least
50 pounds on the handle) and the brake overheats on
the the way down. I see that there is a Fulton K3000W
worm drive winch. It is very similar to the K2550
in most respects and is even rated slightly higher
(3000 lbs vs 2500 lbs). It has an extra 3:1 mechanical
advantage which should be about right so that cranking
is no longer an athletic event. The brake overheating
issue also goes away.
The question is: does the worm drive act as a brake or
can the winch still free wheel? Is there any other
reason why I shouldn't violate the "prime directive" and
replace the K2550 with the K3000W? I am somewhat apprehensive
since I've never see a worm drive winch on a tower.
It may be that the extra mechanical advantage is not needed
on lesser towers than the 4000 lb HDX5106.
Rick N6RK
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