Winch recommendations?

linuxjim

linuxjim

Pre-takeoff checklist
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JJ
I'm getting tired of asking for help pushing the plan up the hill into my hangar. It is not a one man job.

What winch/setup do you recommend? I'd like to mount it to the floor. Would be awesome if it had a wireless remote, but not necessary? What about a fail safe, to make sure it doesn't pull it through the wall?
 
linuxjim said:
I'm getting tired of asking for help pushing the plan up the hill into my hangar. It is not a one man job.

What winch/setup do you recommend? I'd like to mount it to the floor. Would be awesome if it had a wireless remote, but not necessary? What about a fail safe, to make sure it doesn't pull it through the wall?
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Harbor Freight?

Edited to ad: THIS LINK
 
Yup ^

I wouldn't spend too much money on a high performance winch or anything like that for this application, lots of wireless remote options, seems more or less standard issue features these days.
 
I've got a $150 (think was only $120 at the time) harbor freight one in a hangar that does the job. We did take the wired control apart and added somewhere around 20 feet to the cable so I could run the towbar and hold the control.
 
I have installed 4 harbor freight winches on concrete floors over the last 10 years. They are all working great. Many heart attacks prevented.
You can never know if you have the correct size until you install and try it though.
I bought the lowest power one and it struggled with getting a 3000lb plane over a 4" door guide, upgraded after 5 years to the next size up and much better. All four are that size.
The size depends on the weight, slope, and surface smoothness.
I will try to find the model I used.
Mine are all 120V modified with a 100' 14awg power cord to the switch (if you are 12V I wouldn't know which one to suggest)
They all have a shut off switch actuator (which you can reposition), in case the cable does not stop when you think it should. I remove their winch cable and install the length I need as typically theirs is too short. I rewire them so the power cable only requires 2 conductors and a ground wire (they come with alternative wiring).
The switches do fail, I've replaced a few now. I have also had the safety switch fail.
Edit: here is the one I've been buying, its actually a hoist.
http://www.harborfreight.com/880-lb-electric-hoist-with-remote-control-62854.html
The mount I make for it is pretty simple to make, lmk and I will spell that out.
 
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My favorite puller is a Polaris Sportsman 4 wheeler. Way more fun than a winch, but the Polaris has a winch on it just in case.
 
Thanks. I saw aircraft spruce had a 6k lb rig that was about twice the cost of the harbor frieght setup. Based on the recommendations here I should have my new winch from Harbor Freight in a few days. Thanks all.
 
Well if your winch is lacking there are always these guys

1211or-03+new-products-hardware-november-2012+master-pull-sbo3000-snatch-block.jpg
 
linuxjim said:
Thanks. I saw aircraft spruce had a 6k lb rig that was about twice the cost of the harbor frieght setup. Based on the recommendations here I should have my new winch from Harbor Freight in a few days. Thanks all.
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My one suggestion with the HF stuff: Give it a once-over before you install it. A lot of the stuff I've purchased from HF has a thin layer of grease/lubricant on it (probably still left over from the manufacturing process). Some of the very cheap stuff on there, you may just want to replace from supplies you buy at your local hardware store.

In my specific case, I bought a tire bead breaker tool. Some of the clips/bolts/nuts were a little "cheap", so I just went and replaced them with Home Depot stuff. That's basically the "once-over" type of thing i'm talking about. Other than that, decent product for the occasional user. Obviously, their tools and such wont probably be a good fit for a professional application, etc...Hope this helps!
 
what kind of aircraft? only a very few CAN be winched in using the tail tie down ring all taildraggers are ok . i did alot of damage to my 310.
 
hotprops said:
what kind of aircraft? only a very few CAN be winched in using the tail tie down ring all taildraggers are ok . i did alot of damage to my 310.
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Came here to say this. Check your POH/Service manual before you start down this road. For example, the Bonanza POH explicit states not to pull it from the tail hook.
 
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