When I bought my W51 crankup from Triex in 1993 they were sending the
Fulton 1550 winch with it. The first one's brake pads deteriorated
after a couple years and for other reasons I ended up buy another 1550,
but now have a 2550. Both the 1550s squealed like a banshee when
cranking the tower down. The neighborts must have thought I was beating
my kids.
Tom, WW5L
k6xyz wrote:
> This is probably why my Tri-Ex came with a worm drive winch.
> Both the raising and erect/tilt winches were worm drive.
> A friend of mine had the same tower with one of the winches that you
> describe but as far as I know, he never had a problem. His tower was made
> several years before mine was.
>
> Regards
>
> Dave Harmon
> NSRCA 586
> K6XYZ[at]sbcglobal[dot]net
> Sperry, Ok.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: towertalk-bounces@contesting.com
> [mailto:towertalk-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Al Williams
> Sent: Monday, March 19, 2007 11:42 AM
> To: towertalk reflector
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Tower winch failure
>
> Are you referring to the winch being used to tilt the tower over or to raise
>
> the tower when it is in vertical position? If the latter then the winch
> cable is always loading the winch and would not operate in free wheel as
> mine does when tilting the tower up or down.
>
> This morning I went to both of my towers (one is horizontal now and the
> other is vertical). I observed the pawl and pawl gear. As Alan mentions,
> the pawl gear rotates and pawl bobs in and out as the winch cable is being
> wound in but does not when the winch cable is being let out. I did not see
> any lateral (along the axis) movement of the pawl gear. I surmise that the
> purpose of the spring is to bring the pawl back out as the pawl gear rotates
>
> between teeth.
>
> After cranking the winch to make the cable taut and then reversing to play
> out the cable, the braking mechanism is operating which requires force on
> the handle to overcome the braking. As the cable becomes less taught the
> braking mechanism applies less and less force and shortly gravity on the
> winch handle is enough to overcome any residual braking that is still in
> operation. As mentioned the pawl gear and pawl is not operating during the
> cable let out.
>
> I will appreciate if anyone can explain how the braking mechanism actually
> works to decrease the braking pressure on the pads when the load on the
> winch is decreased?
>
> I write these lengthy postings to alert readers that the Fulton k1550 and
> k2550 definitely can get into a free wheeling mode without a winch failure.
> It appears that if one goes from a taut (loaded) winch directly to let out
> the cable the winch braking mechanism will hold the tower without the handle
>
> being held. However if the winch cable is slack (unloaded) and the tower is
>
> moved to begin its lowering (tilt) the braking mechanism will not be
> operating and the tower can crash to the ground.
>
> When preparing to tilt the tower back down, be sure to crank the winch until
>
> the cable is taut. Then when pulling on the handle to let out the cable to
> lower the tower be sure to notice that it requires considerable force on the
>
> winch handle to move it. Then it is safe (probably) to move the tower into
>
> a falling position.
>
> k7puc
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Alan NV8A" <nv8a@att.net>
> To: "towertalk reflector" <towertalk@contesting.com>
> Cc: "Al Williams" <alwilliams@olywa.net>
> Sent: Monday, March 19, 2007 7:49 AM
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Tower winch failure
>
>
>
>>When I examined the winch on my HDX-555, it seemed that the brake
>>mechanism applied permanent friction between the shaft and the toothed
>>wheel, but when the cable was being wound in the pawl allowed that toothed
>
>
>>wheel to turn freely. When the cable was being let out, the spring-loaded
>>pawl prevented the toothed wheel from turning, the friction being
>>sufficient to prevent free-wheeling and in fact requiring considerable
>>effort let the cable out and lower the tower.
>>
>>AFAICS, the only way it can free-wheel is if something moves out of
>>alignment or if the pawl fails to engage the toothed wheel due to spring
>>failure or lack of lubrication of the pivot.
>
> snip
>
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