[TowerTalk] Re: AC electric winch

[Didier Juges]

I just (last December) bought a 12V winch on ebay that has 1500 lbs dead 
weight capacity and is fully reversible.
It has a 1/2 HP motor and will pull 500 lbs at 12 ft/mn (35A current at 
that load) when the cable is on the first layer.

I use it with my folding tower. The only problem was that it came with 30' 
of cable, where I needed about 36'. I was able to transfer the cable from 
my old manual winch to this one. It is a little larger, but still fits 
nicely on the spool. In my case, the maximum load occurs when the cable is 
completely out to 1/2 reeled in. When the spool is almost full, the load 
goes down to zero.

Beside a kind of grinding noise when it runs, it seems to be doing fine. 
Time will tell.

I paid $65 plus shipping for the winch. I power it from a 12V AGM battery 
located inside the house, with about 50' of #8 wires. There is appreciable 
power loss through the wires, but acceptable for my purpose.

By the way, the winch IS made in China (how did you know? :-)

73,
Didier KO4BB

At 07:08 PM 1/2/2004, Jim Lux wrote:

>As a practical matter, 12V winches are going to be pretty expensive and
>inefficient compared to a 110V, except for possibilities of economies of
>scale. (i.e. if you are making zillions of them in China, compared to just a
>few in the US).  Wiring is a big issue...