Electric anchor whinch

[nautical prince]

hi Guy's i am looking for a new upgrade from my old whinch as it shat itself and am interested in some views on what to look for next the existing one was very slow and laboured alot i have a 21 ft kevlacat and only do offshore fishing. Any help or referals would be great.
Cheers lance :D

[ozscott]

Hi mate - I have a South Pacific 750f - good winch for the Vagabond, but I have had to strip it down and clean the commutator and shave one of the brushes with wet and dry so that it slides properly in the slide. Good inside - german bearings (not simply bushed) at both ends of the motor. Steel worm and brass planatary gears. All up very good value and hault up the plough well. However for your extra weight it wouldnt be good enough. Overall if there wasnt too much money difference if I had your boat I would go a Muir, Jarrett or similar I reckon. Having said that the South Pacific mob do some very big winches - you could go larger than you technically need and probably still be cheaper than the smaller brand names ones. Just be aware that quality control might be a bit down (I have heard of other 750's doing similar things).

Cheers

[nautical prince]

Cheers mate it sounds like you know your whinches that will give me a broader range to look at

[Fish Guts]

have a muir and cannot fault it. bit more expensive but you pay for what you get.

www.muir.com.au (http://www.muir.com.au)

[tenzing]

My vote is for the Muir as well. I have a muir 600 atlantic (iI think?) No complaints, 20 ft boat.
Brendan

[ozscott]

to be honest I just did a lot of research before my purchase and ended up sucking it and seeing how the cheaper one would work (I have never serviced an electric motor before this one (although seen them apart) but its not hard).

Cheers

[Coontakinta]

http://www.################.com.au/
These have a big following up here in SA. A bit pricey, but comes well reccommended. There is another locally produced one at a fraction of the price but cant seem to find a link to it. Its called Mick's Winch. I know he would put them on ebay occassionally so perhaps a look there. The seller would be in Paralowie SA from memory.

[ovakil]

I've had my Muir for 3 years,could not fault it.;D

[Rock Crab]

The stress free anchor winches, as Coonta alluded to, are the best by miles - basic design means less troubles. I used to own a South Pacific 710 freefall and honestly that was nothing but a toy compared to the stress free. Any of those winches with the gypsy style will always end up giving you problems because you are relying on the teeth of the gypsy to grab the rope but inevitably the rope will slip when under load where as the drum style stress free winch is the total opposite. I think Muir also have a drum winch which would also no doubt be very good .:)

Cheers

[BM]

Go with the major brands such as Muir, Quick etc. The cheaper units usually rely on gearing to get over the smaller motor. And they look unappealing with this horrible box sitting up on the deck.

One of my customers has an original Muir on his 1982 Bertram 25 which works perfectly. Back then they only had the capstan top on them but now you get the combined rope/chain gypsy and capstan.

The drum type (stress free brand etc) work well but are an ugly agricultural winch. Fine if its going to be hidden in the anchor well but I have seen them mounted on the deck too. Destroys the nice look of a new boat.

Cheers

[ozscott]

Rock Crab - I havent used the winch your talking about but I have seen it..it takes up quite a bit of room below decks and your limited by the drum capacity...but I dont know what that capacity is. As for gypsy winches all the big brands have them and they are extensively used in boating. I have the 710 with the stainless steel gypsy and proper sized nylon (not poly - gets hard) rope and it never slips even under extreme load.

Cheers

[pirate2540]

i have owned 2 trailers with electric winches and i replaced them with multi geared manual winches, it seemed that the electric winches always let me down at a crictical stage. sorry but i wouldnt put one 1 on my trailer if u gave it to me.

[ozscott]

...Pirate - mate he is asking about anchor winches. Whilst on the topic though I had a Jarrett 3 speed manual for my Vagabond. I actually took it off in favour of a remote control operated big ass 4WD Winch with massive cable...and I never ever have a problem skull dragging the old girl up or launching by myself..the 30 foot of cable allows me to go down and keep her straight as I operate the winch.

Cheers

PS. The cheap trailer winches are pretty useless

[Luke G]

Lookout for the Muirs, after a few years the cases on the 600 series fall part from electrolosis. The Whalar has a Marlin type winch thats brillient. It's got controls up the front which is handy and its full stainless construction. Also with some of the yank winches they use imperial chain and its very expensive, 50 odd bucks a meter.

Cheers

[nautical prince]

well fellas thankyou all for your input i will start doing up some priceing and tell tha misus where the tax refund is going to be spent (may be)

[BrenMac]

NP, I have a Maxwell 500 on my new boat.

Have been anchoring in 25mtrs of water (75mtrs of chain / rope out) and it beats the crap out of pulling it all in by hand!!:P

Only prob I have had was the rope and chain piling up in the chain well when retrieving from that depth, which jams the winch, so with about 25mtrs to retrieve, I have to spread the rope out to allow the rope and chain room to fall into the well. Boat's fault, not the winch! Doesn't happen in shallower water as not as much rope is retrieved.

Apart from that, works a treat!

Cheers
Brendan