Garhauer Rope Clutches

[keelsidedown]

Originally Posted by rhr1956

Garhauer seems to be about 30% less expensive than Lewmar or Spinlock clutches. Are they any good?

I know I'm late to this party, but I thought I'd add some information.

Just purchased a used Garhauer rope clutch to replace an older (circa 1990s) era spinlock. The mechanisms are almost identical. The Spinklocks have slightly larger internal components and the springs are incompatible, but the mechanism of action is exactly the same with the thru-bolts, bolt-down points, pivot points and clutch throw-out mechanisms being exactly the same.

There are aspect of the Garhauer that I don't like (rivited thru-bolts , loose rope guides, smaller rope contact area, narrower handles, but damned the thing looks good.

The Spinlocks just look cheesey with all their faded plastic, but it's obvious that they improved on the design. internally, using larger component with greater contact areas (larger rope contact patch on the cam and handles that are wider, requiring less force per square inch on the hand)

The weak points for both clutches are the plastic bushings (at least you can replace them on the Spinlocks due to the bolted instead of riveted thru-bolts) springs (less so on the Garhauer as it avoids the 90 degree bend in the retaining portion of the spring) and the aluminum contact cam.

To illustrate the similarities, I've taken pictures of the two clutches side by side:

imgur: the simple image sharer
imgur: the simple image sharer
imgur: the simple image sharer
imgur: the simple image sharer
imgur: the simple image sharer
imgur: the simple image sharer
imgur: the simple image sharer
imgur: the simple image sharer
imgur: the simple image sharer
imgur: the simple image sharer