Hi All
I'd be grateful for some ideas on my latest possible project.
I've been asked at my sailing club whether it would be possible to have
a winch to pull boats up the slipway. The boats in question are patrol
boats with outboard motors and probably weigh about 500 pounds. The
slipway is about 1 in 8 at its steepest part and it normally takes three
people to pull the boats up the slipway.
There is no mains electricity available and it needs to be mobile as
there are two slipways. I've considered a winch as used on 4*4s but the
recovery rate is tiny and the current demand in huge.
I have been wondering about a petrol powered winch - my initial thoughts
were to use a cylinder lawn mower - remove the blades and modify the
roller to reduce the diameter and use that as the winch. I'm not sure
whether that would be sufficiently low geared for the steepest bits.
The ideal solution would probably have more than one gear.
Is this a completely stupid idea - are there any better ideas out there
- like a motor mover of some sort - that won't take loads of time and
material.
Russell
Phil O. Sopher - 03 Sep 2009 11:20 GMT
> I've been asked at my sailing club whether it would be possible to have
> a winch to pull boats up the slipway. The boats in question are patrol
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
> - like a motor mover of some sort - that won't take loads of time and
> material.
The fishermen at Cadgwith on the Lizard Peninsula have long had an internal
combustion-powered winch to haul their craft up the beach and it is housed
in
one of the stone sheds adjacent to the beach (at least this was the
case in 1993 when I was last there)
The early LandRovers had an engine-powered winch. This wouldalso solve the
problem of transporting the winch itself to where it was needed.
Tony Jeffree - 03 Sep 2009 11:25 GMT
>I'd be grateful for some ideas on my latest possible project.
>
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
>Is this a completely stupid idea - are there any better ideas out there
>- like a motor mover of some
How about a quad bike? The ones that are sold for agricultural use are
fitted with a tow ball & you may be able to pick up a s/h one for not
a lot.
Regards,
Tony
Cliff Coggin - 03 Sep 2009 12:22 GMT
> Hi All
>
[quoted text clipped - 21 lines]
>
> Russell
When I was involved in lauching and recovering a 4.8 m. RIB, probably
weighing 700 kg. gross on a similar gradient we did it with a rope attached
to the towing vehicle to avoid immersing the car. Once up the slipway the
trailor would be attached to the towball as normal. The method requires a
jockey wheel at the front of the trailor and a couple of people to steer it.
It easy, cheap and rapid.
Cliff Coggin.
small.planes - 03 Sep 2009 14:13 GMT
> Hi All
>
[quoted text clipped - 21 lines]
>
> Russell
Take a look at mile marker or similar hydralic winches. The rating is
overkill,
but you can run a power steering pump off a 3.5Hp lawnmower engine to
drive one,
and itll run all day long (as long as you remember the petrol...)
Hydralic winches somtime come up at witham-sv.com ex mod.
Dave
Dave Baker - 03 Sep 2009 14:24 GMT
> Hi All
>
[quoted text clipped - 21 lines]
>
> Russell
You mean something like this?
http://www.ryderswinch.co.uk/product.asp?pgid=18&prodid=87&catid=95
Andrew Mawson - 03 Sep 2009 22:57 GMT
> > Hi All
> >
[quoted text clipped - 25 lines]
>
> http://www.ryderswinch.co.uk/product.asp?pgid=18&prodid=87&catid=95
Excellent value - to try to price it I 'added to cart' and it came up
as £0.00 plus vat though!
AWEM
Bob Minchin - 03 Sep 2009 23:05 GMT
>>> Hi All
>>>
[quoted text clipped - 41 lines]
>
> AWEM
OOH! I'll have two then!
Bob
Brian Reay - 03 Sep 2009 17:59 GMT
> Is this a completely stupid idea - are there any better ideas out there
> - like a motor mover of some sort - that won't take loads of time and
> material.
As Gareth posted, the standard "fix" in the fishing industry is a car engine
on a mount, generally in some sort of shed/hut.
If you wander along any beach where the fishing boats are launched and
landed on the shore you will see them.
Often as not they've got the engine and gear box, complete with the gear
lever!, just as if the whole lump has been lifted from the car. How the
drive is coupled to the winch varies- at least one I saw had a "chopped
down" prop shaft. It looked like on of the Ford ones (Mr2 Escort vintage but
may be not an Escort) which had a "mid" UJ. The winch drum was fabricated
around the short propshaft section. All contained in an angle iron "cage".
Loads of rust, oil, smoke etc. but it dragged a big boat up the shingle
beach like it was a roller skate on a mirror.
Brian
bigegg - 03 Sep 2009 20:31 GMT
>> Is this a completely stupid idea - are there any better ideas out there
>> - like a motor mover of some sort - that won't take loads of time and
[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]
>
> Brian
or an old scrap car on bricks, and wrap the cable round one of the
wheels (sans tyre)?
Might have to weld up the diff.

Signature
bigegg
_ - 04 Sep 2009 12:04 GMT
>> Often as not they've got the engine and gear box, complete with the gear
>> lever!, just as if the whole lump has been lifted from the car. How the
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
> wheels (sans tyre)?
> Might have to weld up the diff.
Sailplane club did launches with a rusted truck mounted on a frame and the
wire cable wound around one of the wheel drums.
Might be too fast for boat hauling.
Christopher Tidy - 06 Sep 2009 03:56 GMT
> I have been wondering about a petrol powered winch - my initial thoughts
> were to use a cylinder lawn mower - remove the blades and modify the
> roller to reduce the diameter and use that as the winch. I'm not sure
> whether that would be sufficiently low geared for the steepest bits.
> The ideal solution would probably have more than one gear.
The cylinder mower might work. You could use ropes or chains around the
front roller to secure it, then make some feet to hold the rear roller
off the ground. But some mowers have a belt-driven rear roller, which is
a bad idea as the belt can slip. You might also have a problem getting
the rope between the rear roller and chassis. But with a mower you do
get the clutch included. Pick the right mower and it could probably pull
the boat without reducing the diameter of the rear roller. But it'd be
fast, and it'd also be a bit of a shame to do that to a good mower :-).
Do post some pictures if you build one.
Best wishes,
Chris
Russell - 11 Sep 2009 10:46 GMT
> > I have been wondering about a petrol powered winch - my initial thoughts
> > were to use a cylinder lawn mower - remove the blades and modify the
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
>
> Chris
Thanks for all the suggestions - there's some food for thought there.
Clearly throwing money at it is the easy solution.
A quadbike or a car would be easy - the car would take space and the
quadbike would be used as a toy until someone broke it.
The petrol powered winch link claimed a 125:1 reduction using a 50cc
size motor and a 2.5" barrel. That's interesting as it gives some
parameters for my original idea. I have an old Suffolk Punch with a
similar sized engine and I estimate about a 40:1 reduction to the rear
roller which is about 7" diameter. As Chris points out this has all the
controls nicely to hand but to match the commercial winches pulling
power I need more gearing. If I reduced the roller diameter to 1.25"
then I might get a pull something like 1300 lbs - probably enough to
break the mower into pieces.
I'll be giving this some more thought but I'd welcome any more
suggestions or comments.
Russell
Dave Baker - 11 Sep 2009 11:50 GMT
>> > I have been wondering about a petrol powered winch - my initial
>> > thoughts
[quoted text clipped - 38 lines]
>
> Russell
Easiest way is to start from expected torque per litre from an engine. For a
4 stroke in a very mild state of tune like a lawnmower that's probably about
40 to 50 ft lbs per litre. A 2 valve car engine would be more like 50 to 60.
So for a 50cc engine we can assume perhaps 2 to 2.5 ft lbs.
Call it 2.25 and add a 40:1 reduction ratio. That's 90 ft lbs which would
give a pull of 540 lbs at a 2 inch radius. You have a 500 lb boat coming up
a maybe 1 in 10 slope. The required pull is unlikely to be more than 200 lbs
or so depending on coefficient of friction. It should actually be much less
but you can measure it with a spring balance. You can probably use a 4 inch
radius for a 270 lb pull. About the same size as your rear roller anyway
which would pull over 300 lbs.
Now we can move to bhp and pull speed. One bhp is 33000 ft lbs per minute.
2.25 ft lbs at 3000 rpm is 2.25 x 3000/5252 = 1.28 bhp or 42412 ft lbs per
minute. That can move a 200 lb pull 212 ft per minute = 2.4 mph. It'll whizz
your boat up a slipway in less than 30 seconds.
Measure your actual reduction ratio and pull force required and you can work
out the rest very simply by following the maths above.

Signature
Dave Baker
Andrew Mawson - 12 Sep 2009 07:52 GMT
> >> > I have been wondering about a petrol powered winch - my initial
> >> > thoughts
[quoted text clipped - 59 lines]
> Measure your actual reduction ratio and pull force required and you can work
> out the rest very simply by following the maths above.
I'd want to look carefully how the roller and its bearings are secured
to the frame - it wasn't originally designed for a load greater than
the weight of the mower plus a margin, whereas your application has a
darn great boat hanging on it !
AWEM
rsss - 11 Sep 2009 17:58 GMT
Russell Wrote:
> [color=blue]
> >[color=green]
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>
> Russell
The simplest idea might be to acquire an old kart. (Go kart). Many of
these are chucked away when teh chassis gets fatigued but all you want
is the backend.
You have the engine with a chain drive to an axle, with all the gearing
you could want (At least 9 to 1 easily available, 80 to 1 with a little
welding to make an intermediate shaft)
Simply take the tyre off one wheel, wrap the boat rope round the
capstan shape of the rim. With up to 28 hp available from a 125cc or
8hp from a Cadet 60CC you should have no problem getting the boats out
of the water. You could even get a Honda GX160 as used on your local
hire and drive.
And if you want to spend a little money, kart engines come with water
cooling and electric start and centrifugal clutch.
And if you use the system as a capstan, not a winch, you have all the
control you could want.
Robin

Signature
rsss
Harry Bloomfield - 30 Sep 2009 22:34 GMT
Russell pretended :
> I've been asked at my sailing club whether it would be possible to have
> a winch to pull boats up the slipway. The boats in question are patrol
> boats with outboard motors and probably weigh about 500 pounds. The
> slipway is about 1 in 8 at its steepest part and it normally takes three
> people to pull the boats up the slipway.
Very much heavier than that, but a little less steep - I pull the
caravan back up the drive with a hand winch and it is quick plus easy.
They sell the winches at car accessory shops and on ebay, around £10 to
£20, with a ratchet to stop them slipping back if you stop cranking.
I have the winch bolted onto a flat plate welded to a short scaffold
pole. The pole drops into a suitable hole at the top of the drive,
leaving the crank at a good working height.

Signature
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk