[TowerTalk] motorizing the handwinch on an marb550

[Jim Jarvis]

Tom wrote:

I am thinking about motorizing the hand winch on this tower. In other words,
just putting a belt or chain drive. Seems like this ought to be a lot
cheaper than putting a motorwinch on it. The hand winch has a good friction
brake that prevents runaway. Thoughts?

I have to decide on the drive ratio details, how fast would you drive it?
-0-

Get a 1/2" electric drill with a side chuck.  That way you only have
it in the wx when you need it.  Design a tool to go from the winch spindle
into the drill chuck, and have a local metal shop fab it up for you.

I did this with my AB620a 100' military tower.  Made it considerably easier
to erect.  W3GM used this method to handle his 100' rohn25g layovers single
handedly, even at age 80.

On the other hand, I'd bet there's very little price difference between the
half inch drill system, and a motor winch.

N2EA
jimjarvis at ieee.org
jimjarvis at verizon.net