Looking at the Viper 800 Anchor Winch and the Lonestar G3 -500D

[PeterInSA]

Firstly have no experience with electric anchor winches and know of no one who has such an item on their boat.

To me the Viper has a faster drop than the 500D, have read some good reports on the 500D Also the Stressfree Free fall to me appears to be $400 more than the non free fall Mini 500W equivalent. So the fee fall must be a real benefit

From the above in your opinion which is the best for a FG 5m half cabin the Viper 800 or the 500D including their anchor drop.

And do not have a real appreciation of the free fall/fast drop except that if it takes a lot of time to drop the anchor I may drift off the spot I want to anchor on.


Thanks

Peter

[chocolatemoose]

hey peter.. first i think this song needs to be on in the background if your going to be making big choices


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fuUY-N0ipk get it! lift me up! winches! ...genius!

so ive had a fair whack of experience on drum winches. when it comes to the viper and lonestar. they are both built very well and priced pretty well. the two things the lone star has thatjust edges out over the lone star is a cavity of air between the top of the terminals and the stainless cap. allowing for heat to expand into.. vs a stainless housing entirely.

wait.. never mind.i just read you were looking at the 800 series viper.. that dosent have the stainless hosuing the proseries 2 viper has.

i wouldnt be to worried about drop. they are all "averaged" lowering rates.. itsa ratio .. more when full and less when empty.. if yourt anchoring in 30mt orless.its going to take.... a minuite or so to get to the bottom. just a quick bit of math will sort you out.

so yep.id go the lonestar

Moose

(for the record. i own a sav

[Dignity]

Peter, are you getting a good deal as the Viper Pro Series 800 (800W) Electric Drum Anchor Winch Kit is superceeded by Viper Pro Series II 1000W Drum Winch. Also as it is a power down winch you have to factor in the power requirements which would be considerable if you move around a fair bit.

[odieman150]

Very good point Dignity about power usage, I bought a sav winch with fast fall function 6 months ago. While being happy with the winch itself so far power usage is pretty high. Had a stress free with freefall on our previous boat but thought I could use the few hundred dollar saving elsewhere this time. If I could rewind I would definitely go stress free again.

[PeterInSA]

Thanks for your replies, At this time will look at the Lonestar G3-500D, just would like to see one installed on a similar boat to mine, will ring around the used boats yards.

Moose, great video, its definitely uplifting.

Peter