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Forum Index : Other Stuff : boat trailer winch upgrade
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yahoo2 Guru  Joined: 05/04/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1166 |
I have been thinking about making a electric boat winch for my dad. He launches from the beach a lot and the soft sand means you cant muck around when its time to get the boat back on the trailer. The plan WAS to use a landcruiser starter motor and the flex plate and ring gear from a toyota 4runner and mount it to the other side from the winch handle. That would be a pretty neat solution but it is a bit of engineering work and heavy duty wiring that would be prone to corrosion. I decided a bit of lateral thinking was in order there has to be a better way to do this with gear that is portable and we have laying around. the winch is a three speed with 22 mm hex drive heads for the winch handle so I am thinking I might try an impact wrench. I reckon one of the new high power cordless impact wrenches or a half inch air wrench driven from a 40 litre air tank driving the 10:1 reduction gear would be just the ticket. 
I'm not sure that it will work but it is worth a shot. I'm confused, no wait... maybe I'm not... |
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Tinker Guru Joined: 07/11/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1904 |
Interesting idea, might even work  but I'm not sure about the longevity in the harsh marine boat ramp environment.
The starter motor idea definitely works, have been using it for about 10 years on the boat you see in my avatar. She weighs in at a little over 2 tons and gets dragged dry (not floated) onto my trailer to avoid getting its wheels dunked in salt water. I fitted a V pulley to the starter shaft after removing the throw in gear. This drives another V pulley with a 6:1 ratio, the larger pulley is fitted to the input shaft of a 30:1 heavy duty trailer winch. The starter motor field has been modified from 2 x 2 coils in series/parallel to 1 x 4 coils in series to lower the tremendous starter motor current to something more manageable. I have seen the starter/ ring gear combination at the ramps but its very noisy, most long time users end up with the V pulley arrangement. If you want to get really  creative you could use an idea a sailing mate of mine uses; he has a small stationary Honda petrol motor on a pivot bracket on the winch post. He starts the thing with the V belt slack and, once running, tensions the belt by pivoting the motor and the boat just zaps up onto the trailer in seconds. It quite something to watch and always attracts a crowd of onlookers at the ramp .Klaus |
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| Disco Stu Newbie  Joined: 13/12/2009 Location: Posts: 16 |
evening with the rattle guns when loaded up they will impact this may be a bit destructive in the winch gear, although an air powered ratchet may be better stu |
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| yahoo2 Guru Joined: 05/04/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1166 |
Yep you are right, I tried my cordless rattle gun on a 3:1 brake winch I have on an Auger at home. Worked great at light loads but it started to hammer and slow down at higher loads. I will try a big 1000 ftlb air wrench but I think it will be worse, they seem to spin faster and hammer sooner. Looks like I am back to the starter motor. I am looking to design something that is elegant, compact and removable. Thoughts of right angle reduction boxes and planetary gears....hmmm 
I have been trying to avoid modifying the pinion, I should just build one like Tinkers with less reduction and get it working. Fishing is ultra high priority, fancy engineering can wait till I get some inspiration.  and tasty whiting!I'm confused, no wait... maybe I'm not... |
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| Warpspeed Guru Joined: 09/08/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 4406 |
I am building up an engine for a Hot Rod project, and stumbled across some very interesting geared starter motors. These use a permanent magnet 1.9Hp motor that is much smaller and lighter than a traditional direct drive starter motor, (4Kg versus 13Kg in my application) but the internal gearing of 4.4:1 produces far more output torque for much less battery current. Could also be useful in a 12 volt winch application. http://www.enginecentre.com.au/no-frames/nf-starters.html Cheers, Tony. |
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| yahoo2 Guru Joined: 05/04/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1166 |
That is the reason I was going with the landcruiser starter motor Tony, what you are looking at is identical to that but with a custom casting, the 2.5 Kw reduction starter has been very popular for the old big block Chevy's for years. Denso have been making that reduction starter for some time now it is very reliable and has heaps of grunt and is an off the shelf replacement part for every cruiser model right back to the sixties. Don't quote me on this but I think they make a version that will take an end plate adapter so that the Denso starter can be fitted to some really oddball motors. The only downside is the imitation starters are flooding the market now and they are hard to pick from the original, as usual the quality is poor. Its funny, this all started with someone asking me if it was possible to build an electric crank handle for old cars and stationary motors, I thought it would be an easier build to start with the winch before tackling that one. I know I can buy the pinion and gear, so I might see if I can modify that easily before I go all out and build the complete unit. 
I'm confused, no wait... maybe I'm not... |
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| Warpspeed Guru Joined: 09/08/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 4406 |
I know some of the really big inch American V8's used geared reduction starters as original factory equipment, but only in the last couple of days discovered these geared reduction units are now manufactured to fit almost ANYTHING as modern replacements and upgrades. Even more satisfying is to discover they are readily available off the shelf from an agent right in here in Melbourne that I can visit and actually see, discuss, and handle these geared reduction starters before purchase. Nothing worse than ordering something from overseas, waiting many weeks, and paying huge shipping costs, only to discover what finally arrives (or never arrives) turns out to be rather different from what was expected. Cheers, Tony. |
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