Replacement winch for MacGreger 222

Posted By: hal halpern
Date: 9/28/99 7:58a.m.

Report: outside forum guidelines

The winch you want is a Dutton-Lainson DBL 800. This company is located in Hastings, Nebraska. This winch is also available from Havencraft in Ma. Havencraft will furnish the winch with an offset handle which is necessary unless you want to trim a little of the fiberglass threshold from the companion way. If you have the old handle, you can probably get the winch cheaper from Dutton-Lainson. Also, they have a winch with what they call a TUFFPLATE finish, whereas Havencraft's are painted. I think the TUFFPLATE finish will resist rust a little better than the paint. In any event, this winch does not require you to reset a rachet prawl. Ya just crank it one way for up (it clicks and clacks) and crank it the other way for down (very quiet). It has some sort of clutch braking mechanism that works great till the washers surrounding the prawl begin to corrode and cause the prawl to hang up. But that's not too big a deal to fix or replace. It's not really too big a deal to replace the winch either, so long as you can lower the keel all the way or other wise get the weight of the keel off the winch. Just make sure ya don't lose the cable through the hull. (Of course you're planning on replacing the cable every few years anyway, right? But that's another story.) Anyway, take the cable off the winch, or slack off the cable as much as you can and then remove the winch from it's mount in the companionway hatch. Then remove the cable. Whatever's easiest. Get the new wiinch; install and attach the cable (or do it the other way round). Use plenty of Life Caulk or other sealer around the bolts and backing plate. Good Luck. What's that you say? There are two many mounting holes in the winch, and one of the two that would match up with the holes in the boat are missing!! Ah, the mystery of the bolt holes. I called MacGreger about this. They told me they only use the two holes on the center line of the winch mounting plate. And some of the winches are sold with three holes in a triangle configuration, one hole on the center line missing. You're gonna have to drill it out. But let me tell you my story. The winch housings (the metal frame of the winch itself) on my boat were all bent and distorted. So much so, that the winch failed by allowing the spool shaft to slide out of the housing. It jammed with the full weight of the keel still on it. It was quite a chore to get the keel weight off the winch in order to replace it. When I finally did and saw the bolt hole problem. I decided that by being supported only along the center axis, the top of the winch was able to bow, thus causing the sides to become distorted and fail. I decided to address this support problem. Here's what I did. I drilled out the winch mounting plate (of my new winch) to be able to use the original holes in the step of the companion way. I also drilled another hole in the companion way. This allowed me to secure the winch to the boat at three points. The other hole falls in a position too far forward to be secured to the boat. What I did was make a plate out of stainless steel, the same size as the top of the winch with four holes in it to match up with the holes in the top winch plate and the holes in the boat. This plate fits between the boat and the winch. Three bolts go through the winch plate, the stainless steel plate I made, and the boat. One bolt secures the winch to the stainless plate only. This plate gives the top of the winch a lot of added rigidity, and also stabilizes the sides from distortion. I hope I've explained this adequately. Since the MacGregor design only called for the two holes, ya could probably feel comfortable with just that. (Still gotta drill it out)...Or ya could go with three by drilling the extra hole hole that can pass through the companion way step. Don't forget to epoxy the holes and redrill and seal it up real good with life caulk. Good luck.