[TowerTalk] Anyone Using a Fulton KW3000 Winch with Powerful 1/2 inch Pistol Drill for tower tilting ?

[Dennis Vernacchia]

*Wondering if anyone has been thru this exercise before so I don't have to
reinvent the wheel
and waste more valuable time ( Time that could be used for working MORE DX
or making MORE Contest QSOS !!! )


Our contest group has tower trailer with a 40 ft tubular crankup that has
the rotating base assembly
so entire tower rotates. This is a very heavy system especially when the the
antenna and mast
are on the tower and we are tilting the tower and antennas up using Flip
/Tilt Brackets on antennas )
( See  http://www.n6rk.com/monstilt/monstilt.html  or
http://www.nn4zz.com/tiltplate.htm or  if you are not familiar with Antenna
Flip/Tilt Brackets )

Originally there was a Fulton 1500 winch on the system, leftover from when
the tower
did not have rotating base fixture. With the extra weight of Rotating base
system we decided to switch
to a Fulton KW3000 winch . ( **borrowed - Try before we buy !  They are
around $145 at Grainger right now )*
*
Now with the KW3000 52 to 1 ratio winch ( worm gear type ) we need to use
a drill motor to turn the winch shaft or else crank forever with a hand
winch.

I had a "drill-to-winch shaft"  adapter fabricated which works fine and
does not slip on shaft when
using **my venerable 50 year old THOR 1/2 inch chuck NON reversible D handle
Drill*
*but I can not find MODERN*** 1/2 inch chuck Variable Speed and Reversible
drill that has enough torque to turn the winch
and not stall.

I went to a local Tool Supply Store that handles every major brand of Hand
held Drills and after much discussion with some
very knowledgeable people in the Repair and Sales arenas, they could not
come up with a Variable Speed 1/2 inch chuck
Reversible drill motor that would have as much power and torque as my
ancient Thor drill !

I even called Milwaukee, Mikita, Ridgid and a few more major drill
manufacturer headquarters and none of them could
supply me info on Low RPM VS Torque of their most powerful drills or come up
with a drill
they would guarantee to do the job !

Anyway my only thoughts at this time is either to modify the Old THOR drill
I have to reverse field wires on it to get it
to reverse direction ( and hopefully enough room inside drill motor body to
mount a DPDT HD Switch or possibly
rent ( before buying ) and try a Milwaukee 300 RPM ( NO Variable Speed )
Hole Hawg Drill and hope the speed isn't
too fast ( or too slow when under load )

No, I do want to have to rig up a Pulley and gearbox system as I know that I
already have a drill ( The Ol Thor ) that
works but just doesn't afford me a Reverse mode

Yes, I can just use another 1/2 inch chuck drill to tilt it down, but very
awkward swapping out two drills  in during the
tilt Up/Down exercise.

Advise appreciated especially if you have been down this road before.

Budget is $250 to $300 to buy a drill that can outperform the old Thor and
no time to rig up
a Rube Goldberg system.

73, Dennis N6KI









*