I have been raising and lowering by 65' Rohn 25 tilt over tower for the last
1-1/2 years with a ratchet-type boat winch. It has aproximately a 15 to 1 gear
ratio. It is quite a job to crank it up by hand. On Friday I ordered a Fulton
KW3000 worm gear winch to replace the old winch with. I raised and lowered the
tower twice on Saturday with out a problem. I was adjusting the tap point for
my shunt feed. This morning I lower the tower again. When I raised it this
time, the bushing that holds the worm gear in place, broke. The tower was about
half-way up when it happened. I was able to lower the tower without a disaster.
I replaced the worm gear winch with the old winch and raised the tower back up
with no problem.
I would have thought that a worm gear winch designed for 3000 pounds of weight
would have handled the load with no problem. The tower has a 5 band hexbeam, an
8 element 2 meter quad, and a 6 element 6 meter Hy-Gain Yagi on it. The 18'
aluminum mast is 2" o.d., 1/4" wall, with 6' inside the tower.
Anyone else had any similar problems with the KW3000 winch?
John
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