[TowerTalk] Tower winch failure

[Tom Anderson]

When I bought my W51 crankup from Triex in 1993 they were sending the 
Fulton 1550 winch with it.  The first one's brake pads deteriorated 
after a couple years and for other reasons I ended up buy another 1550, 
but now have a 2550.  Both the 1550s squealed like a banshee when 
cranking the tower down.  The neighborts must have thought I was beating 
my kids.


Tom, WW5L



k6xyz wrote:
> This is probably why my Tri-Ex came with a worm drive winch. 
> Both the raising and erect/tilt winches were worm drive.
> A friend of mine had the same tower with one of the winches that you
> describe but as far as I know, he never had a problem. His tower was made
> several years before mine was.
> 
> Regards
> 
> Dave Harmon
> NSRCA 586
> K6XYZ[at]sbcglobal[dot]net
> Sperry, Ok.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: towertalk-bounces at contesting.com
> [mailto:towertalk-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Al Williams
> Sent: Monday, March 19, 2007 11:42 AM
> To: towertalk reflector
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Tower winch failure
> 
> Are you referring to the winch being used to tilt the tower over or to raise
> 
> the tower when it is in vertical position?  If the latter then the winch 
> cable is always loading the winch and would not operate in free wheel as 
> mine does when tilting the tower up or down.
> 
> This morning I went to both of my towers (one is horizontal now and the 
> other is vertical).  I observed the pawl and pawl gear.  As Alan mentions, 
> the pawl gear rotates and pawl bobs in and out as the winch cable  is being 
> wound in but does not when the winch cable is being let out.  I did not see 
> any lateral (along the axis) movement of the pawl gear. I surmise that the 
> purpose of the spring is to bring the pawl back out as the pawl gear rotates
> 
> between teeth.
> 
> After cranking the winch to make the cable taut and then reversing to play 
> out the cable, the braking mechanism is operating which requires force on 
> the handle to overcome the braking.  As the cable becomes less taught the 
> braking mechanism applies less and less force and shortly gravity on the 
> winch handle is enough to overcome any residual braking that is still in 
> operation.  As mentioned the pawl gear and pawl is not operating during the 
> cable let out.
> 
> I will appreciate if anyone can explain how the braking mechanism actually 
> works to decrease the braking pressure on the pads when the load on the 
> winch is decreased?
> 
> I write these lengthy postings to alert readers that the Fulton k1550 and 
> k2550 definitely can get into a free wheeling mode without a winch failure. 
> It appears that if one goes from a taut (loaded) winch directly to let out 
> the cable the winch braking mechanism will hold the tower without the handle
> 
> being held.  However if the winch cable is slack (unloaded) and the tower is
> 
> moved to begin its lowering (tilt) the braking mechanism will not be 
> operating and the tower can crash to the ground.
> 
> When preparing to tilt the tower back down, be sure to crank the winch until
> 
> the cable is taut.  Then when pulling on the handle to let out the cable to 
> lower the tower be sure to notice that it requires considerable force on the
> 
> winch handle to move it.  Then it is safe (probably)  to move the tower into
> 
> a falling position.
> 
> k7puc
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Alan NV8A" <nv8a at att.net>
> To: "towertalk reflector" <towertalk at contesting.com>
> Cc: "Al Williams" <alwilliams at olywa.net>
> Sent: Monday, March 19, 2007 7:49 AM
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Tower winch failure
> 
> 
> 
>>When I examined the winch on my HDX-555, it seemed that the brake 
>>mechanism applied permanent friction between the shaft and the toothed 
>>wheel, but when the cable was being wound in the pawl allowed that toothed
> 
> 
>>wheel to turn freely. When the cable was being let out, the spring-loaded 
>>pawl prevented the toothed wheel from turning, the friction being 
>>sufficient to prevent free-wheeling and in fact requiring considerable 
>>effort let the cable out and lower the tower.
>>
>>AFAICS, the only way it can free-wheel is if something moves out of 
>>alignment or if the pawl fails to engage the toothed wheel due to spring 
>>failure or lack of lubrication of the pivot.
> 
>  snip
> 
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