Winch tilt? Is this crazy?

I have a 1968 40HP Lark I think it weighs about 154lbs. I have a custom built stand and I have difficulty tilting the motor. Can't imagine I could do it easily from inside the boat and I had this crazy idea. A transom plate with electric tilt would cost me about $600+ US. I can buy a 2000lb electric winch for about $80 US. If I anchor the winch to the floor and attach the hook to the tilt handle I could use a three way switch (up, down, neutral) from my drivers seat and bingo, I have electric remote control tilt for less than $100. Please tell me if I am losing it! No hurry, I have not built the boat yet.

Re: Winch tilt? Is this crazy?

Jai, I will assume you plan on tilting the motor, when your not moving, rather then trying to design a power trim device. If that is true, I think your idea has some potential, but there are some issues. Anchoring the winch to the boat's floor will be difficult to do. You really need to through bolt it with a metal backing plate. Also the winch is succeptable to corrosion. Also it is potentially dangerous to step(or fall) on the winch or cable while underway. Lastly, it would be mechanically difficult to tilt the motor (without damage) by attaching the winch cable to the front bottom of the motor. The best place to tilt the motor from is to grab the rear handle and pull.<br /><br />OMC used to have a big spring in the motor tilt bracket to assist manual tilting. I had one on my '59 50HP Johnson, which weighed 200+ #. This helped quite a bit. Also BoatUS and West Marine(and others) sell handles that attach to the rear of the motor and stick up over the cowling. These make the tilting job much easier.

Re: Winch tilt? Is this crazy?

They make a handle to help tilting the motor from inside the boat. http://www.basspro.com/servlet/cata...arClassCode=2&hvarSubCode=6&hvarTarget=browse

Re: Winch tilt? Is this crazy?

How about one of these?<br /><br /> http://www.iboats.com/mall/index.cgi?prod_id=13581&current_category=power tilt <br /><br /><br />I do not see how your idea would work. It would interfere with the steering.

Re: Winch tilt? Is this crazy?

Thanks guys. The cabel would have to be loose while in the neutral position. I need to be able to raise the motor in the last moments while drifting into shore (river)to avoid possible damage.

Re: Winch tilt? Is this crazy?

I bought one of those handles to use on an old OMC 75hp and it broke after only a couple of days. POS IMHO.

Re: Winch tilt? Is this crazy?

You also have to consider what will happen when you turn the motor. Turning would probably cause the motor to lift some unless the cable is slack. I'm not sure you want that to happen.