Electric Winches

[sparrowhawk1]

Thanks

[svHyLyte]

Originally Posted by sparrowhawk1

I guess you could find it on eBay but I remember someone was charging a reasonable price for Machining a "bit" that would fit the winch. Did you buy the kit or did you buy a drill and a bit separately?

Another alternative is the Winch Bit:




For more information see (click on) Winch Bit.

We have been using a Milwaukee Right Angle Drill fitted with a Winch Bit since 2005 and have found it very useful and inexpensive. There are several threads discussing the gear on this site that can be found with the "Search" function in the header, above. Our kit, purchased on-line from Tool-Up.com and Winch Bit, including two batteries and a 12v charger cost us less than $500 USD, somewhat less than half the cost of the same gear being sold as a "Winch Buddy" (although we didn't get the handsome cover that we had to conjure up by hand.

FWIW...

[a64pilot]

The draw back to the bits is two fold from my understanding, first is weight cause they go into the drill just like a drill bit meaning the chuck is retained, and the chuck is heavy.
The cranker replaces the chuck so it's a little lighter.
My understanding to is with the chuck there is some kind of shear pin that may shear when the drill is run backwards, but since I never used the bit I don't know.
If you get one, it's a straight as well as angled drill too of course, and two gear ratios depending on which way the angle adapter is put on, you want it to be slow speed of course. slow speed = high torque


Either way, in my opinion it was a good value, I've only had mine for two years, but I'll likely buy a back up as I depend on it so much.
I guess it depends on upper body strength and or how lazy you are as to whether its worth it or not.

[a64pilot]

Went on the Cranker website and saw this.

Web site special this week only: The Ultimate Cranker Complete (no carry bag) is only $499.00 with free shipping on phone orders!

[Dockhead]

It depends very much on the boat, but especially, on the sail areas involved. As sail areas get bigger, hand cranking the winches quickly becomes very difficult. Furthermore, it requires time and a lot of energy grinding, which a short handed crew may not have to spare, with a lot of other things on their mind.

We have four powered winches on my boat -- two large primary sheet winches (ST64's), and two coachroof winches (an ST44 and an ST42) which are used for -- mainsheet, vang, staysail sheet, mainsail furling, outhaul, topping lift.

Trying to manage my boat without them, or even without two of them, would involve a major reallocation of crew resource and would really almost prevent using the boat short handed. The yankee sheets are subject to such forces that hand grinding them with one person would be so slow, that the life of the sail would be seriously compromised from flogging while you're trying to grind it in.

So on my boat at least, worth their weight in gold. I wouldn't mind a couple more, actually. We have 10 winches and there are never enough.

[sparrowhawk1]

Originally Posted by svHyLyte

Another alternative is the Winch Bit:




For more information see (click on) Winch Bit.

We have been using a Milwaukee Right Angle Drill fitted with a Winch Bit since 2005 and have found it very useful and inexpensive. There are several threads discussing the gear on this site that can be found with the "Search" function in the header, above. Our kit, purchased on-line from Tool-Up.com and Winch Bit, including two batteries and a 12v charger cost us less than $500 USD, somewhat less than half the cost of the same gear being sold as a "Winch Buddy" (although we didn't get the handsome cover that we had to conjure up by hand.

FWIW...

Thanks for the info but the one you sent me is for $50 the other one is $35