How to connect wireless remote to power winch?

[scoutabout]

Looking for some advice. We recently installed a marine railway to pull the boat out of the lake. Problem is that once I have the boat secured to the cradle to come up I then have to climb over the bow and tight-rope walk up the rails to the switch at the winch. It's quite the pain in the rear.

Can anyone explain how I could wire up a remote that would work with the setup pictured here? The switch in the gray box is spring-loaded. Hold it off centre one way and the cable unwinds; hold it off centre the other way and it retracts; release in either position and it snaps to the off position.

The electric motor is 1 hp and plugs into a regular 110 AC outdoor GFCI. It also has its own breaker inline. Belt driven gearbox is a 50:1 reduction.

Wiring ain't my strong suit so don't be afraid to use little words and big pictures!

 

[nuttyboater]

Re: How to connect wireless remote to power winch?

Thats a cool looking setup, didn't even know they made such a thing! If i lived on a lake i would want one no doubt! lol

As for the wiring, i guess my first question is can the winch pull the added weight, that is you being in the boat while its going up?

Or are you planning on having a remote switch down at the other end and you will get out of the boat and send it up and then walk up yourself?

Call out an electrician, its not that difficult wiring up something like this, you basically need a three wire cable/cord down to another switch which will be wired in parallel to the other switch box. But if you don't have any electrical experience you might want a pro to do this up for you!

It would literally take me a trip to Lowes/Home Depot and it would be done after taking a quick look at the current wiring in that switch box, but then i have years worth of electrical/electronics knowledge.

 

[scoutabout]

Re: How to connect wireless remote to power winch?

Thanks nutty -- it is pretty cool. There's no problem with the extra weight of someone in the boat. The rig is rated for 4000 pounds and the boat all up with gas and gear is probably just over half that weight. I deliberately got it over-sized as I'd like to use it to haul our floating docks out for the winter as well.

The idea was to have a remote in the boat I could just click and hold for up and down action. I did also wonder about just relocating the switch box itself to the top of one of the guide poles on the carriage where I could reach it from within the boat but the proximity to the water makes me nervous considering the AC voltage. I'm also not sure if there would be resistance issues having the switch on a long run of wire instead of mounted right at the motor. There must be a reason they've designed it that way.

Another view

 

[tommays]

Re: How to connect wireless remote to power winch?

The switch could be moved BUT you would have to go to great cost to make a remote as right now it just a simple drum switch for forward and reverse


I guess a handy guy could DIY it buy using the control guts from a garage door opener that had a 1 HP motor

 

[nuttyboater]

Re: How to connect wireless remote to power winch?

I would ask an electrician quick, because i know he could make one for you slicker than all get out.

Out on the farm we had controls like this for augers and feed belts, its a waterproof switch box and cover with momentary push buttons, go to a car wash and look at their door controls same thing, just a box with momentary push buttons in a cover that is gasket sealed to the box and the switches have flexible rubber covers over them.

You put that on some heavy gauge flexible cord and you could put it on one of the poles with a latching hook and loop, then when its time to go up or down just pull it off the pole so you can stand or sit wherever you want to raise or lower it.

This isn't complicated, if you lived close to me i would just show you what to buy and Lowe's or Homedepot and put it together. The only determining factor is the amperage required by the motor, you can look at the switch in the box on there now and see if its labeled with a current rating, then buy some cord thats appropriate. If your power source is GFCI protected, AND IT SHOULD BE since its outside and near water, then you have nothing to fear, you would have a ground through the cord to the remote switch and that end would be all sealed up anyway. In theory you could toss that remote box in the water and it wouldn't be a problem, you should see what some of those remotes had to deal with on the farm, rain, snow, manure, you name it.

The ones we had were not commercially made either, i just consulted with the wiring diagram for them and went and bought everything and built them. The cord enters the remote switch box through a weathertight compression fitting, the box has a gasket sealing the front switch panel, and the switches are sealed with rubber covers. I could toss that in a bucket of water and it would still work, and most importantly nobody would get shocked. We used them in the rain all the time without problems.