Electric Trailer Winch

[PeterInSA]

Still looking at a Trailer winch that I can use to pull the boat onto the trailer on my own. Like the Powerwinch PWRC 230 at around $1070 Plus another $54 for the easyfit plate, but would have problems in justifying the price to my partner. Ditto the loading speed at around 14ft/min, great.

However seriously looking at the 4WD type winch as per below at around $110, and will make up an easy fit plate arrangement so the winch will not be left on the trailer when its in the carpark, also thinking of fitting a battery holder on the front on the trailer, so prior to driving the trailer back to the boat ramp, I attach the winch and install a battery in the battery holder. Our Half Cabin Boat is be around 500Kg so this winch would pull out at around 2m+ a minute. Maybe will need the hand winch as back up until I have some experience.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/12V-Wire....c100677.m4598

Comments appreciated.

Peter

[rayken1938]

I think your boat will be a bit over 500kg. Spend another 40 bucks and get a 4000 lb winch with dyneema cable.
Dont worry about making it removable you can replace the supplied securing bolts with theft proof bolts or just drill a couple of extra holes and hit the nuts with a spot of weld.
Why not run 12 v from your car battery to the rear of your tow vehicle and connect via anderson plug or alternatively just carry a small 12v battery in your car and use anderson plugs to connect.
Cheers
Ray

[PeterInSA]

Ray, Thanks for your comments.
Since this winch does not have the hand winch backup, I would like to be able to remove it and replace with the hand winch if necessary, so spot weld is a no go.
Re the 4000kg winch, I think the bigger winches are geared down lower so the pull up speed would be lower eg would prefer a 2000Kg winch with a faster pull up speed.

Would like to do the Car battery to the rear Anderson Plug, but looking at having to do 2 vehicles, then its the additional stone protection for under the vehicle, say using 6m for each vehicle see below even this cable maybe to lite.

https://www.ebay.com.au/p/6metre-8-B....c100005.m1851

Peter

[Gon Fishun]

Why not something like this?

Boat trailer winch.jpg

[rayken1938]

The $100 supercheap ones are extremely slow and do not have power out which is very handy when you are maneuvering the boat to line it up with back roller in the wind by yourself.You would need a heavier gauge cable for the run through to the anderson plugs but you only need one wire as you can earth the other leg to the chassis.
I have a back up winch welded to my winch post in case of the winch failing. Because of the angle it does not pull the boat right up to the winch post but it is far enough to drive the boat and trailer up the ramp and then poke the nose of the car down the ramp and push the boat right up home.Attachment 116552

[PeterInSA]

Hi Rayken, agree the cheaper winches up to around $800 are slow, the PW712A with non wireless control around $1200 also around 14ft/min.. Have also been told that the cheaper winches are only good for short periods and could have problems with steep boat ramps.. Really like the PW230 but its not for me.

RC230
https://www.arnoldsboatshop.com.au/1...pw230/dp/12859

Re the Anderson Plugs, am wary of putting 60amps thru them with possible connection losses, but if I go the 12v Winch is probably the way I will go long term.

Could not get your attachment to work.

Peter

[Haji-Baba]

Check your P. M. box peter.

Haji-Baba

[rayken1938]

001 (640x480).jpg
My winch has no problems pulling 17ft tinny with 400 kg of batterys it up very steep ramp when the water level is down at local dam. No problems with anderson plugs getting warm but i do spray them with wd40 to keep them clean,
cheers
Ray

[EdBerg]

On my last boat trailer I had installed a remote controlled 4000lb winch which was connected to a big battery in the back of the 4wd via Anderson plugs. It lasted about 9 trips out and back before the spool sides broke off, but it was my fault due to me leaving some slack in the line when I went down the ramp a couple of times and the boat started to take off quickly and got stopped abruptly by the 4K lb Dyneema rope with the resultant fracture of the alloy spool.

Having said that it was a 26ft boat and weighed about 2.6T., so all in all it did remarkably well. I replaced it with a 12K lb steel spooled winch which gave no further problems. So your 500+Kg boat would hardly strain a 4K lb winch, bear in mind that there is no winch backup handle on these winches, but they are quite cheap ranging from about $140-170 delivered on Ebay, depending on whether you go for a Dyneema rope or the cheaper wire rope version. Mine was mounted in a lockable ally box on the trailer post to kept interested parties at bay, and at that price you will have lots of change to buy a nice big battery which you can use for other purposes when not boating, ie; camping etc.

You can also get a 3 speed manual hand wind winch for about $150 which can pull about 1500Kg which is more than adequate for your weight, you probably will only use the the 5:1 or the 10:1 ratios if that is all the weight you need to pull.

I am thinking about installing one of the 4k lb winches on my new boat trailer too, but as I haven't put it in the water yet since getting it, I haven't decided if I will even need to, it's is an 18.5ft boat and when we went out for a spin to test the boat, the owner didn't have any drama pulling it out of the water on his own using the 1K Kg winch using the 10:1 ratio, this boat is about 1300Kg.

Hope this helps.

[PeterInSA]

Re (Mine was mounted in a lockable ally box )

At this planning stage looking at Theft Proof Nuts with normal nuts underneath for strength to hold the ewinch onto the winch pole. The Nuts on the Gal U bolts that hold the winch pole onto the trailer will be spot welded so they cannot be removed. Will remove the cables and nuts from the ewinch ( so they cannot be removed by interested parties) and cover the ewinch/mount with a bag/plastic tie.

[Fed]

Just bolt a Powerwinch 315 onto it, fabricate your own back up handle (easy) and go fishing mate.

I've been using Powerwinches on various boats for over 40 Years and never a failure or needed a back up handle but it makes you feel good.

[Dignity]

Just bolt a Powerwinch 315 onto it, fabricate your own back up handle (easy) and go fishing mate.

I've been using Powerwinches on various boats for over 40 Years and never a failure or needed a back up handle but it makes you feel good.

Ditto.

Also when you run your cable for the anderson plugs ensure you throw a circuit breaker in the mix and Anderson plugs give you great connection, best thing around. Better than having a separate battery which is a PIA.

Instead of a spare handle keep a battery drill with the correct socket to fit, makes it a breeze to release cable.

[Fed]

The PW 315 comes with it's own cable, plug & circuit breaker, just leave it rolled up in the boot and pull it out & plug it into the winch, then close the boot on the cable.
The winch handle locks up between 2 nuts on a threaded shaft with flats on either side, easy to modify a store bought spare one.

[PeterInSA]

Re the Cable from the Battery to the Anderson Plug......
Currently have an Anderson Plug on the back of our Cruiser with cable to the aux battery and a 20amp fuse near the Aux Battery.

Looking at running a separate cable using 6 B&S cable from the battery to a new Anderson Plug for the boat trailer winch.

( Also have a Warne winch on the front of the cruiser, the only time I connect the positive lead for the Warne Winch is when I want to use it, ie to me it has no fuse)

So with the Battery/Cable/Anderson Plug setup for the Trailer winch, I will not have an inline fuse, will just connect up the positive lead on the Aux Battery when I want to use the winch.

Question is this the way to go? No Fuse/Circuit Breaker/Overload Cutout?

Thanks

Peter

[scottar]

In short (pun intended) no.