Re: Any tips for electric winches vs hand crank?
Re: Any tips for electric winches vs hand crank?
I've been using Powerwinches almost all my life and am a big fan. I spent my teen years hand cranking on tilt trailers and dry retrieves.
Don't put a battery on the trailer. Use the one already installed under the hood. That's all you need.
Be sure to use the wiring that (should) come with the winch. It has to be heavy duty and have the circuit breakers. You can put jumper cable clamps on one end and just hook to the battery, or hard wire the rig to your tow vehicle. Just connect to battery, run the wire under the vehicle, and find a way to tuck it in (I stuff mine into the trailer hitch bar). It's bad when they come loose and drag. BTDT.
My dad had the wires hard wired and run to the trunk or spare tire well of his cars. But having the cable loose means you can use other tow vehicles.
Be sure to leave enough wire to be able to turn; or disconnect before pulling up the ramp.
ETA: when doing the wiring, and clamping, be very careful about polarity. It matters.
You will probably not need the block and therefore you won't need 50' of cable. But since you've bought it, see if it works. You may find a shorter cable works better if you don't need to double it.
Roller trailer? You probably won't need to sink the trailer. That's one of the main advantages of a power winch and your axles and brakes will thank you.
Keep the hand crank with you in case of winch failure. That's when, not if.
Some people loosen the clutch while towing and use other means to secure the boat to the trailer, so the bouncing won't stress the clutch. I go both ways on that.
When rigging and pulling up the first time, be mindful that the cable shouldn't cut through the bow stop rollers; you need a direct shot.
Although you can rig it to pull the boat off to launch, if you have rollers you won't need to. Some people leave the cable hooked up when they launch to pull it out, but I don't; I pull it out by hand before I retrieve.
Even though they have level-wind, it's a good idea to feed the loose cable and add tension by hand while taking up the slack. You'll learn not to roll out too much. I put the bow on the first roller of the trailer, so the cable is not pulled out all the way to the end, but is between the axle and end of the trailer.
Your boat and winch are new enough that you don't have to worry about the bow eye coming loose or the cable snapping, but get in the habit of inspecting them and standing to the side. Lubricate the cable to prevent rust but do not use WD40. I think the cable and winch will weather better left uncovered, to dry out, rather than encased with moisture.
