Electric winch

Posted By: cboutell
Date: 9/14/06 3:25a.m.

Report: outside forum guidelines

In Response To: Anyone use an electric winch? (link) (John--Hampton Roads)

I use an electric winch for my 6.2. It's mounted on the trailer front post on a mast crutch.The crutch extends from the top of the front trailer post about 18 inches. It is a 1500 pound winch that I remove from the trailer after launch or retrieval. I've set it up to lift and lower the mast. It works great. For mast lift I connect the winch wire to the jib halyard. This year I removed the wire from the hand winch, used to attach the boat to the trailer, and ran the electric winch wire thru the hand winch drum so the angle of the pull to the bow eye was identical to the existing winch. I also disabled the locking pawl so the drum turned freely and acted as a pulley.It worked good, but the ramp I use is pretty steep and we had to keep the power on the winch while we pulled the trailer out so it wouldn't allow the wire to be pulled out by the weight of the boat on the steep angle of the ramp. cb.I have long battery cables so a person on the ramp can operate the winch while I stay in the boat during pullout. The winch is similar to the Warn brand, but I can't remember it's brand. It cost me $99.00 on sale several years ago.