Winch building web site.

[mhaaland]

I was surfing the web last night and came across this very helpfull winch building web site!!


http://www.wakeboarding-winch.com/portal.php

[highrock]

I have been using that site for some help on my project. I have just about finished.

[mhaaland]

Very nice! That site seems very helpful and i've only had a chance to breeze throught it for about 1 hr. If you don't mind me asking how much cash have you put into your project?

[highrock]

I am using an old Briggs 8 HP motor that I bought from my dad for $100. The most costly part was the torque converter. I did buy the spool off ebay as we found it was just a cheap going that route. I got all the hubs and sprockets from a friend who used to race go carts and has a ton of older stuff just laying around. We actually made the spool quick release to help with pulling the rope out. My dad has a small machine shop and welder so we got to practically everything ourselves and used scrap pieces of metal on the frame.

All in all I think will have about $500-600 or so in it, I do think its better than some you can go out and buy. I tried to design it more like the ridiculous winches on where the rope comes out the bottom and the spool spins opposite of most you see.

Were gonna use it for the first time today so hopefully it all goes well!

[mhaaland]

Let me know who it goes!
I did a material take off and came up with $600-700 in cost but we'll see. I'm glad you mentioned the friend with go-cart parts, i too know someone that has racing go-carts so i'll have to ask him if he has stuff he wants to get rid of. I'm looking at a engine from Harbor Freight that runs around $100 that has almost 100 positive reviews. I can get metal for cheap and weld it myself and i plan on watching ebay for stuff. I'd like to get one built in a month or two because i can use it for snowboarding but we'll see what happens.

[highrock]

It went pretty well for the first go at it. Since the engines kinda older (I would guess at least 20 years old) we are going to put a rpm gauge on it this coming weekend. Keep an eye on ebay for torque converters, thats where I ended up spending the most money. I got the rope from a place from the winch site, it came from Washington State. They give a discount for anything over 600 Ft. I went ahead and got 700 ft. I opted for a larger 8 HP motor because I weigh about 215 and my brother is up about 250ish. I wanted to make sure its enough for both of us. Were gonna play around with some different gearing this coming weekend and fine tune it, but for the most part I was really happy it worked after all the hard work we put into it.

Good luck with your build and if you have any questions I will answer them as best I can

[mhaaland]

Did you see the spool calculator on the site,if not I posted it below.

http://box.arthizm.com/calculator/

[cedarcreek216]

I know this is a random question, but what do you use a winch like this for?

[pj]

fur when u leaves da boat @ hom

[mhaaland]

Anything really, wakeboarding, wakeskating, skateboarding, snowboarding, sledding. I think most people use a winch for a body of water you can't get a watercraft on.

[cedarcreek216]

So you actually drive the vehicle and tow a rider behind? Sorry to seem so ignorant on this topic, just real curious.

[mhaaland]

hopefully this helps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1Id3j1H-mY&NR=1

[cedarcreek216]

I will do some more research as now I'm extremely curious. I understand what a winch is, and why I had one on my Jeep, but still not sure if it has any wakeboarding use. Maybe that's where I'm off, this was just an off topic post and has nothing to do with water sports.

[mhaaland]

The winch on your Jeep is meant for pulling stuff that is stuck so if i'm correct its a low torque winch with not alot of speed. The winch i'm building like in the video has everything to do with water and snow sports. Its a winch that has 600 foot of line and can pull a person as fast as 30 mph.

[mhaaland]

I'll be able to take the winch out of the receiver hitch of the truck and use it on flat ground or roll it to a place where a vehicle can't access. Sorry if i've confused you.