[TowerTalk] motorizing my winch reply de K0FF

[K0FF]

In my opinion a V belt and pulley would be better than a gear because it
would give a smoother rotation. This assumes as you said the gearbox is such
that there is no force transferred back to the handle.  One mode of failure
for those hand winches is the shock from the drum when a cable snaps over on
itself. This force is transferred back to the drum shaft, and can actually
shear the woodruf key, allowing the drum to freewheel and the tower to
pancake (been there, done that...sometime I'll tell the story of the Mosley
beam, that after repairs worked fine but we couldn't get the kink out of the
boom, so we rotated every other boom section 180, and gave it a kind of
ruptured duck look, not to mention the aluminum "rain" as all the solid
elements broke off the VHF beams when she hit bottom.).

*Don't eat the Batteries clause*................
Be careful. I do not endorse any kind of homebrew winches on crankup towers.
They are dangerous and can be deadly, even under the best o circumstances
(that said, let us know how it works!)

PS you remembered correctly, the big wheel goes on the winch and the little
one on the motor.

Geo>K0FF
-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Heinzinger <w9ol@billnjudy.com>
To: Tower Talk (mail list) <towertalk@contesting.com>
Date: Friday, September 15, 2000 11:20 AM
Subject: [TowerTalk] motorizing my winch


>
>I have a 2000 lbs hand powered winch manufactured by Thern of Winona MN.
>It has a oil filled gear case with the kind of gears that hold it's
>position.
>What I mean is that what ever position the crank is in it does not
>freewheel.
>I forget what kind of gears those are called.
>It does a great job raising my old Wilson 55 ft rotatable.
>
>The only problem is that it takes 25 turns of the crank to make 1 rotation
>of the drum.
>That's a lot of turns from nested to full extension.
>The though of removing the crank and placing it with a motor has crossed my
>mind.
>
>Anybody done such a mod. I think it should be a small gear on the motor
>shaft and a large gear on the winch crank shaft if my high school physics
is
>still with me.
>
>Anybody have any ideas?
>I've got the steel, welder and skill to fabricate a mount.
>Need a reversible outside proof motor though.
>
>
>
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you've never tried
>------------------------------------------------------------
>
>w9ol@billnjudy.com           http://www.billnjudy.com
>w9ol@telocity.com
>
>
>
>
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