 electric trailer winches | im looking at replacing my manual winch to an electric one can anyone advise me on a good one some are very cheap and some very expensive whats best?
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| Re: electric trailer winches | Greg, I have a $99 one for super cheap that has served me well for over 2 years. I admit I do immerse the wheels to make it easier and somtimes reverse down to ease the load but it sure beats hand whinching
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| Re: electric trailer winches | I have an older Muir winch which works fine. An RL24 is a light yacht and can be winched safely by almost any electric winch sold in Australia.
Quality of wiring is important so be sure you have excellent connections to the battery. Greasing the trailer rollers is also important, I use BelRay motorcycle chain lubricant sprayed on the axles evertime the boat is off the trailer. I use the same spray on the winch cable and trailer brakes.
Also be sure to use the tilt on the trailer its important to let the yacht roll onto the trailer without putting too much force on the rollers trying to lift the bow too early. Use the tilt and the hull pulls onto the trailer a lot straighter with less stress.
There are lots of cheap chinese winches sold on Ebay. The main issue with any winch is keeping the gears well lubricated.
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| Re: electric trailer winches | Don't even bother. The Jarret 10:1/ 5:1/ 1:1 manual winch is great.
We have a mark 1 with an original make trailer and admittedly we immerse the bearings but we float on to over half way then winch the rest (We sail every Wednesday). Its no hassle. I had an electric winch when I got the boat but the running of cables etc and inconvenience if you get the boat on less than straight was not worth it. We had the tilt welded up and the trailer is heaps more stable at speeds over 100km/h which matters when covering distances and just for peace of mind
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| Re: electric trailer winches | Some of the Chinese winches are OK. Many are not. If you get one good enough to pull up an RL and it does it a number of times, you are one of the lucky ones. Anything bigger than a 14 ft tinny is a big ask. The failure rate is quite high. If you buy one, make sure you have a backup plan. I don't wish to be a wet blanket but those are my observations.
Cheers
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| Re: electric trailer winches | I used to use the cheaper type winches for my smaller boats such as the Cole 23 and the Southern Cross 23, and they worked OK, but only just, and eventually failed after about 12 months of use.
When I bought the RL28 I also purchased a genuine Power Winch RC30 model.
http://www.discountmarineworld.com/product_info.php?products_id=20810849
I have never looked back. It has a wireless remote so single handed retrieving is fairly easy.
It is worth spending the extra $$ on something that will do the job and do it well. I have had mine for 3 years now and it has never even looked like giving up on me.
Garry
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