[TowerTalk] Harbor Freight Winch

[N2TK, Tony]

I have been using the W200-5 for about 32 years without any problems to tilt
over 80' Rohn 45 with up to 300 lbs. of antennas on top with a 32' mast -
24' sticking out of the tower. I use a very large pulley on the end of 40'
of Rohn 45 gin pole to run the cable up to the gin pole and back to the
winch mount to increase the capacity.  The gin pole is permanently attached
to the tower hinge base.
I use a very heavy duty 3/4" drill motor with a homemade adapter  to fit
over the pinned shaft of the winch and clamp in the jaws of the drill motor
to raise and lower the tower. 
This seems to be a high quality winch.

http://www.wintech-winches.com/Hand_Winches/shur_worm_winches.htm

73 and Merry Christmas,
N2TK, Tony


-----Original Message-----
From: towertalk-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:towertalk-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of EZ Rhino
Sent: Monday, December 19, 2011 7:25 PM
To: TowerTalk construction topics.
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Harbor Freight Winch

Okay, I've learned a few things as I've spend a boatload of cash at this
place over the years.

Some of their stuff is perfectly fine.  Hand tools, sockets (not the
ratchets though, get those at Sears!), grinding discs, etc. all seem fine.
They are usually cheap enough to buy and test one time to see if add'l
purchases are worth it.  As a general rule, most electric powered hand tools
there are garbage at best.  I had a drill once that didn't make it through
one hole!  (I took it back).  Also their hand held spot welders are good for
about 50 welds then throw away (buy the extended warranty!)  I had a bench
top drill press that was junked in a couple years, but also have a floor
model that has been fantastic.  So as you can see it's hit and miss.

I find it hilarious that they had the guts to actually add customer reviews
to their website!!  There aren't many items with a lot of 5 star reviews.

So with the winch....I have two friends here locally that bought the red
2000lb hoist for their towers.  One has been perfect.  The other friend has
been through 3 or 4 of them before he found one that worked out of the box.
That one was actually bought at Northern Tool (looks identical, probably
from the same factory).

My first tower winch was the $40 HF worm drive hand crank, and like Dave
sez, it didn't even crank the tower all the way up once and it was shot.
Total and complete crap!  The second was from Mile Marker, a reputable
brand, but the one I chose was still a cheapie made in China.  It last a
year, and getting the tower down when it pooped out on me was interesting to
say the least.

The third (you can see a trend here that I sometimes don't learn...) was a
HF winch, 2000lb, but this time I put a pulley on the cable to double the
pull power, or rather, half the effort of the winch.  This was a good idea.
It's been going strong ever since.  I use a deep cycle battery to power it
(I already had the battery, otherwise I wouldn't have gone this route!) and
a wall wart type trickle charger to keep it going.  It uses an RF remote
control key fob type controller, which is handy as I can walk away from the
tower and watch it go up and down.  The controller has been a bit
intermittent as of late; I think the contacts on the relay are dirty.  I
need to get in there and clean them.

Having said all this, I also have a Warn xd9000i on my Jeep and that is like
the Timex watch that never stops.  Fabulous piece of equipment.  

Chris
KF7P



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