Beware!
The duty cycle of cheap PM motors is very restricted. Better at light load,
but should be considered. Drum capacities are severely limited.
Wireless? Are you kidding? How will you feel when the wireless goes wild and
two blocks your antenna up against the top of the tower? What will break first?
Never mind the anonymous programmers of questionable ability, what happens
when you are swamped by RFI, ignition noise from the tractor, or hash from your
HT!
Switches can fail too. I have experienced two runaways of a HF winch, caused
by their crappy switch coming to pieces. I never operate my winch unless I'm
standing beside the battery with one terminal loose enough to pull off by hand.
Also, I've replaced the HF switch with two independent toggle switches of
known parentage! One of my runaways would have pulled a small (40') tower
over! FYI, Northern Tool small winches seem a cut above HF. My latest one,
inexpensive, came with a beefy reversing relay, so there is minimal current in
the hand held controller.
Reading again, always a good idea, it seems you are talking about the support
cable. Sure that can be tightened, but where is the 250' stored? And do you
really want a hot wifi remote controlled winch tied to the top of your tower by
a 3/16 cable?
What about the traveler cable? The pros I've worked with use nice capstans
mounted on their trucks. Very cool, as long as you pay 110% attention to the
rope and its handling. If you let it jump off, you're in deep doodoo! I
helped tram up some 500+ pound antenna assemblies, to 800', with 3/8 Kevlar
line. The ONLY thing that kept the load from running back down was the guy on
the rope! A one way grabber on the traveler loop (If there's a name, I don't
know it) would have been a good idea, but they certainly didn't use one. I
stayed out of the fall zone!
WL
----- On Jul 24, 2018, at 12:00 PM, towertalk-request@contesting.com wrote:
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> Today's Topics:
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> 1. winch recommendations please (Dave Sublette)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2018 12:19:20 -0400
> From: Dave Sublette <k4to.dave@gmail.com>
> To: kj6y--- via TowerTalk <towertalk@contesting.com>
> Subject: [TowerTalk] winch recommendations please
> Message-ID:
> <CAKynJK=CDnSPPdACFUceAEdF=UUgdGAztANtLyySnABQWGMprg@mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
>
> i use a trolley cable system to erect antennas. A manual crank winch with
> rachettting pall is mounted on the back of my tractor. I tension the cable
> with the winch and suspend the antenna from a pulley that rides on the
> cable. The cable is 3/16" and about 250 feet long.
>
> After only 30 years' use, the cheap, Harbor Freight winch broke (just can't
> seem to get good stuff any more).
>
> So I am thinking to replace it with an electric model having a wireless
> remote control. It won't have to be very heavy duty. The stuff I put up
> is all less than 200 pounds.
>
> Looking at Amazon and Harbor freight, I see bunches of winches for $150 or
> less that look like they would work.
>
> Perhaps some of you have experience (good or bad) with a particular
> brand/model that you would recommend that I either use or avoid. I would
> love to see your input.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> 73,
>
> Dave, K4TO
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Subject: Digest Footer
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> ------------------------------
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> End of TowerTalk Digest, Vol 187, Issue 24
> ******************************************
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