Startor motor beach winch - Holden V8 starter enough?

[CT]

I'm gearing up to take the boat to Fraser next year and thinking about making a starter motor powered winch. I thought a starter off a 1HZ diesel cruiser or similar would be the go but then I priced them and promptly ditched that idea. You can get new Holden V8 starters for about $100 and a flexplate for about $50 second hand so the price is right but I'm wondering if anyone knows if it would have enough grunt. The boat is a 5 m Cruise Craft on a multi roller trailer.

Cheers
Craig

[Out-Station]

Craig, we used 1Hz starters from the wrecker, they were cheap and still going. I recon the v8 starter would be fine, being a strater it will spin as fast as the load on it lets it. If your worried rig it up so its on the 10:1 shaft, my 1hz handles my boat fine on the 5:1. (toyota surf flex plates) I've seen fellas uses straters out of suzuki's and the like that seemed to work. Mines 8 years old ad get used every retreive i do, still fine. Do a search for the pics of the one a built on here somewhere.
Scott

[scottar]

When you think about the manual effort that would be required to hand start most engines, with the additional gearing provided by the winch, just about any starter motor would work.

[Noelm]

I would look for a starter from something older (like maybe an old HQ Holden?) most "modern" starters don't like being used for a few minutes continuous, but the older ones seem to be OK being used like that, I could be wrong, but was told that by a very good auto electrician.

[Steeler]

I can recall about 20yrs ago a particular brand of power wench was fitted with a Corolla starter motor.

I reckon you will be just fine.

[CT]

Thanks Scott,
Mine's a a 5:1 as well. I've checked out your winch pics, your drawbar pics and your youtube vids. Some top ideas in there. It looks like you blokes have a ball at Fraser!

My drawbar is just about done so I'll see how motivated I get with the winch. Bring on June 2017!

Cheers
Craig

[CT]

Thanks all for the advice. Looks like it's time to hit the shed!

[upstart]

I'd really appreciate seeing some detailed build pics along the way.
Cheers.

[EdBerg]

Hi Craig, if you are willing to spend $150 on the starter motor and flexplate, then why not just spend that and get a 4000 - 4500lb 12v winch for the same money delivered, you will get remotes to control it, it already has the rope and drum plus a fitting kit and it's all ready to mount on a trailer, and will probably do a better job and less effort than trying to make one?

They are plenty strong, I had one on my trailer for about 10 trips before one of the drum flanges cracked off, (alloy drum spool) however my boat frequently stuck to the trailer before it would release and so it had quite a bit of shock stress on the drum when it did finally start to move and came to a sudden stop by the spectra rope. (my 26ft boat weighs about 2.6t so much heavier than yours). If your boat goes off the trailer smoothly than that won't be an issue for you.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/I-Max-12V-Wireless-4000LB-1800KG-Electric-Synthetic-Rope-Winch-ATV-4WD-4x4-Boat-/391423988924?hash=item5b22b014bc:g:wBEAAOSwud1XAK8 b

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/391374460064?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Unless you just want to do it to see if you can, which I can appreciate, but I think you are reinventing the wheel so to speak! ::)

Cheers

Ed.

[scottar]

The difference if done properly Ed is speed. The winch with the flexplate will be a lot quicker if built properly. I have a standard Powerwinch setup on mine and while it is fine for the ramp, off the beach I think it would be way to slow. The best I have seen used a stationary Briggs and Stratton (if you don't count the tractor with the PTO) - hauled a 26 footer out in a manner that required some care and attention on the part of the controller but meant the vehicle was in the surf zone for a lot less time.

[EdBerg]

Fair enough, I didn't think about that as I have only once put a boat in the surf and that was only a small 14 footer, also a tractor job.

I do know that it takes me a couple of minutes to get mine out of the water using a winch, even the 12000lb winch I put on the trailer still takes about the same time as the smaller one it replaced,( but with much less strain on the winch motor) as it is geared much lower as well as having a more powerful electric motor. Definitely don't need that much pulling power but it was 50% cheaper than one half that size, and the weight wasn't much different, probably due to the shear numbers they produce for the 4WD market, but it does come with a steel drum and not much chance of snapping the rope or the spool! ;D. As you said, using a starter motor should increase your retrieval speed.

[CT]

Speed is exactly what I'm chasing.The winch on my car is painfully slow hence my reluctance to head down that path,

I'll take a bunch of photos if I build one.

Cheers
Craig

[bushwacker]

Hi mate, my brother an I built two of these an used the Toyota starters expensive but we have had no trouble so far maybe online second hand search might save u a few bucks. The flexplate from memory we sourced from a forklift the ratio was right, we also built a battery box on the trailer made it waterproof with a small solar panel attached so we didn't have to run leads to the car For what its worth I reckon these are the best winches you can have, no belts to deal with and super fast.

[Danf]

When I first started boating back in the late 70's, people made their own electric winches using a starter motor and ring gear fitted to the existing trailer winch. Most trailers were equipped timber slippers and rollers under the keel, and of course most of the boats were heavy fiberglass. This made life a little easier getting these mothers up onto the trailer, whilst getting them off was another story.
Holden or Ford were probably the choice for starter motors. I remember some had a small vee pulley on the starter pinion and a larger one on the input shaft to the winch. Other designs used the flywheel ring gear and the starter was left with the bendix to engage the gear. Upmarket ones had a handle fitted to the larger pulley in case one needed to winch up by hand.
I made this one about 30 years ago using a selection of gears I had collected. It was used on a Haines and then I fitted it to the Kevlacat trailer and use it when I can not get the trailer deep enough.
This winch has a clutch which would allow the Haines to glide back while hooked up to the winch. Power comes from the vehicles battery through a large welding cable and connector. It has an aluminum cover with a panel push button the start the winch. I suppose that this is not practical in this day and age with what is available of the shelf.
114634

[CT]

Attachment isn't showing mate.Keen to see your winch.

[Danf]

I can click on link and photo shows. I will try upload again.


114636

[blue_marlin]

sorry mate - attachment still not working

[Danf]

Try again with a different format.

114795

[Danf]

Not working. I give up...

[Lovey80]

Click go advanced, then down the bottom "manage attachments" upload the file then insert it.

[Danf]

Thanks. I will give it a go.

114797

[CT]

That is seriously geared!