Electric Trailer Winch

[shakey55]

I do apologise for bringing this up again. I’ve read many old posts about brand, size, retrieval speed, back up manual winch, etc, etc and need to get up to date information.

I have a current shape Seafarer V-Sea with Johnson 115hp (2 strike).

The fact is I love this boat, I don’t intend selling it, and I’m getting older (65) and looking to make boat retrieval easier. I can still hand winch her up, but looking to make life easier as I sometimes fish alone.

Question:

What is my best option for reliability, speed, and mounting.


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[ozscott]

Mate I am fan of a good quality 4wd winch. I used a Tmax small 4wd winch on my Vagabond and it skull dragged it very nicely. Quick too. These days you would have available models with full wireless in and out remote control. Get Dynema or similar rope.

Cheers

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[ericcs]

Powerwinch have been around forever, and use the normal winch mounts. Best thing is you can clip a rope to the on/off lever and control it while down back holding the boat for 1 person retrieval. my 712 winched a 5.6m/140hp no problem!

[scottar]

Powerwinch on mine as well. Slow but has been reliable.

[Fed]

Powerwinch 315 pulls my old 17' Viking up without any fuss at all.

I've previously used Powerwinch 712s on a heavy 16' Sharkcat and a very heavy 20.5' Caribbean Commodore sterndrive.

All single line pulls with no need to go to doubles which reduces the speed.

IMO the 712s are 'better built' than the 315s and they should come with an emergency crank handle although my 315 didn't and I had to make one, never had to use the crank handles anyway.
The 712s use a good rotary switch but the 315s use a cheaper toggle switch which hasn't got a very strong return.

Look them up but by memory they run about 15 feet per minute so your looking at 1-2 Minutes of pulling.

You won't regret it Shakey.

[inveratta]

I renovated a old 712 that came with the trailer...could find all the parts ..so they cant have changed all that much...The main thing was the thrust washers....bog simple pretty bullet proof...slow but powerful...The other thing was adapting the trailer for safer and easier drive on and just winch up the last couple of feet.Just thinking how I can make getting off the boat round to the winch easier and safer and maybe drier....like you age and ease of operation is becoming more important.

[ericcs]

I renovated a old 712 that came with the trailer...could find all the parts ..so they cant have changed all that much...The main thing was the thrust washers....bog simple pretty bullet proof...slow but powerful...The other thing was adapting the trailer for safer and easier drive on and just winch up the last couple of feet.Just thinking how I can make getting off the boat round to the winch easier and safer and maybe drier....like you age and ease of operation is becoming more important.

mine was given to me last year, and was easy 20 years old. Cost me around $100 for a complete set of thrust washers and bearings, runs like new!

[Chimo]

shakey

912 on my Tinka that I use on my Vagabond. Would eat your rig.

I use a pulley block and so run a double cable so slow but I skull drag the boat without drowning the the trailer that is now 20 yrs old.

Can see no sense in drowning the trailer as being retired I have no interest or need to buy a new one and I also avoid wheel rotor and bearing repaiirs too.

Launching the boat pulls the winch cable out and a climbing 8 allows me to easily control the speed of the boat off the rollers.

Solo launch and retrieve is no problem.

With a 912 as long as you adjust the clutch after you start the winch you avoid stuffing the clutch too. Its only small.

Ask if you want to know more ...

Cheers
Chimo

[purnong]

This is left field but I bought a 15/1 trailer winch and I use my 18 volt cordless drill to pull the boat on, The winch has 3 speeds 15/1, 10/1 & 1/1, I use it the 15/1 setting and low speed on the drill
The boat is a 5 metre Classic Craft with a 115hp Mercury and is quite heavy, The drill does it easy

https://thewinchwarehouse.com.au/col...and-winch-rope

[shakey55]

shakey

912 on my Tinka that I use on my Vagabond. Would eat your rig.

I use a pulley block and so run a double cable so slow but I skull drag the boat without drowning the the trailer that is now 20 yrs old.

Can see no sense in drowning the trailer as being retired I have no interest or need to buy a new one and I also avoid wheel rotor and bearing repaiirs too.

Launching the boat pulls the winch cable out and a climbing 8 allows me to easily control the speed of the boat off the rollers.

Solo launch and retrieve is no problem.

With a 912 as long as you adjust the clutch after you start the winch you avoid stuffing the clutch too. Its only small.

Ask if you want to know more ...

Cheers
Chimo

Thanks chimo & others
Not having had anything to do with these I know nothing about them.

Just not sure what you mean by adjusting clutch. Do you have to adjust while winching?

What maintenance is required?

Have read up on Powerwinch and all sounds good and it appears several members use them and have done for a while without issues which is a good recommendation


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[Fed]

The 'clutch' is like the drag on your fishing reel, tighten it up to engage & loosen it to disengage.
Chimo will tell you all sorts of perverse stories about lowering the boat gently down the trailer using the clutch and some exotic figure 8 knot but really there is nothing to it.
Disengage to pull the cable out by hand or manually wind with emergency handle.
Engage to pull the cable in with winch motor.

[Achjimmy]

There’s a guy in cairns (Ian’s winches) makes one using a Camry starter motor who gets a good wrap. I bought similar of a bloke in Sth Au (schippwinch) There a conversion of a Jarrett winch. Work fantastic remote control and come in fast also have a handle so can use manually . Highly recommended

[Achjimmy]

This is the one I have

[Cox76y]

+1 for the 4wd winch. I retrieve from the beach without a problem. Will be buggered if it fails tho as I have no option to manually winch the boat in..

[Chimo]

Fed is a little confused about using the powerwich to lower the boat into the water.
Winch has nothing to do with controlling the boat as it rolls off the trailer.

Probably part of the confusion is because my rear trailer wheel rotors only just gets wet when the boat goes into the water and the rest of the trailer stays dry hence little rust and not much need for maintenance on wheel bearings and the like.

Because I use a pulley block ie double cable I would love to see Fed or anyone else pull the cable out by hand which is why I let the boat pull the cable and more accurately the pulley block out to the end of the trailer as the baot goes into the water where it stays until the boat is again loaded onto the trailer.


Anyhow there are many options out there for you to choose just beware of figure eight knots in the meantime.



Again Fed's confusion is to be admired as he has confused a knot with a climbing 8 used to control a mans speed when he abseils off a cliff or in this case to control a boat as it rolls off a trailer.

If you have ever seen a boat depart a Tinka roller trailer or any roller trailer when the chain is undone and the winch is uncoupled and someone backs down a ramp you may understand.

Thanks Fed your explanation about figure eight knots and the like that put a real smile on my face and thats a good thing with all these viruses and such getting about.

Cheers
Chimo