electic Drum anchor winch

[ozassassin]

HI i live in Brisbane QLD and would like to know, is there any engineering places around here that can make up a drum anchor winch, why are they all produced down in SA. what no one up here smart enough to come up with a design, i find that hard to believe after all we are the smart state or is it the competition.

I'm like a lot of other boaties getting to old to be dropping and pulling up the anchor all the time, have been looking around now for a long time to find all sorts of info on anchor winches. Others say go for the float and ring idea, i use that idea, but still out pulling in the rope and anchor.

the other problem is the price to get one, it is crap the amount of money you need to fork out to get your hands on one, are the prices really justified or is it one of those things, it's for a boat so we will charge what we like.

I'm not saying i can do up a design, but have looked at gear-motors right angle shafts and the cost of material and it don't come close to what these other places are charging, have a look at a drum winch there's not much to them so what are they charging for?, do we need more competition in the market place to help keep the prices down so the average Jo blow fisher man can afford the luxury of boating, I'm not saying i can't afford to go out and buy one i can, it's the principle of the whole thing, what are the views of other boaties.

Eric

[oldboot]

I don't know why but SA has always been a small scale engineering power house.
I don't know why but they seem to be competitive on a number of things......the whole "Hills" empire is run from SA, the best trailer couplings (trigg bros) are made in SA.....and start looking arround there is lots of stuff that comes out of SA.

Why not here.........apart from there being better ways to make a quid, and the government making it increasingly hard to run a small engineering operation.....cant say.


now think about the cost........yes the product contains an "M" word ( marine, medical, military) that always causes cost to rise.

the item needs to be salt water and corrosion resistant.......not only does the winch need to haul a considerable weight.... but it also needs to lock and hold considerably more....and it should be able to pay out or free spool at a decent rate to get the pick down to where it should be.

consider that the going rate for the most cheap and basic 4WD winch is arround $800....and that is neither waterproof nor corrosion resistant.

think about it.

cheers

[ozassassin]

Oldboot, your right mate it's just the technology that go's into a drum winch compared to one that sits outside on top of the anchor well, i would of thought the one outside would cost more cause of the engineering that goes into it, to make it more impervious to the elements, the drum winch goes in side the well, and it is just that, it's just a drum with a motor no cowling no other protection only just for the anchor well, so where is the added cost involved i just don't see it.

Eric

[bennyboy]

We have been installing the Stress Free anchor winches for over 2 years now and we have not had 1 come back with any issue whatsoever!
I wish the rest of the products we sold were so reliable!

[Hell Boy]

i've got one of the stress free winches and i love it. but i have to agree with ozassassin, they are expensive for what they are. i really had no choice but to get one so i could go fishing, but i'm used to being screwed by the "M" word , bloody Medical stuff


Bryn

[frank100]

Hi Guys,
Do a search on "recipe for an anchor winch".
Funnilly enough I'm originally from SA .(well after I migrated at the age of 6 months LOL)

Frank

[oldboot]

oh and don't forget the "S" word......Stanless......expensive to buy, expensive to cut and expensive to weld.

cheers

[Fish Lips]

I know exactly how you feel Ozassassin,
I'm looking around at anchor winches at the moment, and i also think the price of them is a bit rich.
It seems to be a fairly simple piece of machinery, the main cost should be in the quality of the materials.

better components=higher cost

but $1500+ (just for the basic one) doesn't seem right.

on the other hand,

as a proud South Aussie, it's nice to see some of my fellow crow eaters milking as much money out of you Banana Benders as possible.
LOL


Cheers
Simmo

[ozassassin]

I have no problems with SA manufacture of their anchor winches, i just could not see why we could not engineer and manufacture one of our own, but can see now that it would not help the fact that most of all the manufacturing imports and supply come out of the southern states, so that makes sense to keep it all in a central location to help keep cost down. Have talked to Mick Winches and was alarmed to hear that he gets phone calls from Stress free wanting him to put up his prices, just so they can sleep batter at night and justify how much they charge like a wounded bull. Competition is the only answer to keep it honest other wise it company's like Stress Free that take advantage of the monopoly, this is one of the reasons i will not be going out and getting my self a Stress Free winch now. I look like going with Muir winches the HFF 600 and a cost saving of over a thousand dollars and it's free fall.

Eric