Lifting Winch

[silversailor]

My 28' sailboat has a 7' lifting keel weighing about 1300 lbs. A cable is lowered through the cabin top and a worm winch is used to raise and lower the keel. The winch sits in a box about 24' x 10" to spread the load. Using the worm winch is maddingly slow. A solution is to use an expensive 28V Milwaukee right angle drill. I looking at replacing the worm winch with a 12V electric winch but I'm finding that most have pulling power but substantially reduced lifting power. Is anyone aware of a compact 12V winch which can lift 1500-2000 lbs? Thanks.

[rbk]

Is it really lifting 1500-2000lbs? I would test that to see first to see exactly what your pulling then you could size and wire up an atv winch to do the work for less than $200.

[psk125]

If there’s a concern about the capabilities of electric winches, could you perhaps rework the wire attachement to the keel with a pulley so as to reduce the required lifting force by half?

[rbk]

Most atv winches were staged 2500-3000lbs ~ $200 1500lbs ~ $120 plus a snatch block or two can reduce the loads but you’ll have to beef up any attachment points. I doubt the weight is that much and more likely the actual keel weight and the pulling weight half to a third that. Size it accordingly as a bigger winch will require more power and more costs.