[TowerTalk] Your experience with rope capstan hoists or winches

[Steve Maki]

For any kind of serious ham tower work, a good quality cathead, or 
capstan hoist, is a Godsend. As Wayne mentioned, the AB Chance catheads 
are the industry standard.

Unless you are pulling loads far from a 115V outlet, you will be 
thankful that you chose a 115V AC model.

Chance has two 115V models - a 1000lb version for around $2k, and a 
3000lb version for around $3k. The main difference is gearing - the 
1000lb version runs 40' per minute, and the 3000lb version runs at 12' 
per minute. I have half a dozen of them. We use these catheads for 
pulling fairly heavy loads (by ham standards) up 1000' towers. You must 
have patience (because of the low line speed), but they run forever.

Personally I'd stay away from the cheaper 12V capstans, but they might 
be worth a try for light ham use. Let us know if they work out for you.

-Steve K8LX.

On 9/12/2017 10:59 AM, Charles Morrison wrote:

> Hi Mates !
> I've been looking at products to assisting with tower section raising (uo
> to 55G) and antenna raising (up to 48ft boom). Having never used a rope
> winch, I researched rope capstan winches & rope capstan hoists. They are
> available inexpensively and expensively. They are available with chainsaw
> mounts or with DC motors.
> 
> I found these three electric units that would meet my station work need. By
> the time you mount them up, wire them in, your looking at close to $1000.