[TowerTalk] Re: Electric winches

[david l hyman]

Hello Fred . . .

On Sunday you responded to my Tower Talk post about my experience with an
electric vs manual winch for a  HyGain HG-52SS 52' crankup.

>I have not heard of the high failure rate of winches, I wonder which
brand had the most failures? 

I don't know which electric winch had the problem because when I bought
it . . . the manual winch had ALREADY been installed by the ham who
previously owned it. But here's a thought: Give a call to HyGain at
1-800-551-9641 and ask for "Barb" in the Sales Dept. Barb is a very
helpful and  extremely knowledgable lady who knows just about everything
about everything. Perhaps she can answer your question.

>Do you still use a manual winch, or did you convert back to an electric
winch?

I use a manual winch. I also added an ADDITIONAL winch to serve as a
positive pull-down. But THAT'S another story and I don't want to take the
bandwidth. If anybody is interested in the how and why of a pull down
email me directly at kb0onf@juno.com.

>I think my tower uses the same pulleys for either a manual or electric
winch. 

The pulleys for the electric winch were quite a bit smaller and I used
THEM for the SECOND winch (the positive pull- down).

>I imagine that would be a real chore, manually cranking up the tower
with all that weight on it. 

On my crankup . . . using the manual winch . . . it takes about 5 minutes
to crank all the way up. It takes about 2 minutes to bring it down. And
I've got about  70 lbs of beam up on top (a HyGain Explorer 14 with 40
meter add-on).

> I just replaced my rotor, and it was a real pain getting
the beam and mast out of the old Tailtwister.  I replaced it with a Ham
IV.

My tower came with a Ham IV and I've had no problems with it. Aside from
that . . . I've got a buddy who repairs rotors and he has done some
maintenance for me.

>I bought my tower/rotor/beam at an estate sale, got it all for  $750.00,
plus a few other 2 meter antennas, wire, etc..  I have noticed that my
cable is beginning to show a few rust spots, so I am planning on
replacing the cable soon also.

Wow! $750 for all that. You got a heckuva deal! You may find that the
rust may be surface only and can be removed with a little WD-40. You can
then use some spray galvanizing where the rust spot was (use a little
lacquer thinner to clean off the WD-40).

73 de Dave KB0ONF

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