winch?

mr. Blond · Posted: May 12, 2006 6:29 am Post subject: winch?

would it me more efficient to work all summer and buy a $2000 professionally built winch or attempt to constuct my own..........with very little mechanical experience.

does anyone have any blueprints?

8824 · Posted: May 12, 2006 7:00 am Post subject:

go to wakeskating.com

they have a ton of info on winches, all the info you need is right there.

You might want to ask Nick Taylor who post here............ He can point you in the right direction.

Nick Taylor · Posted: May 14, 2006 9:59 am Post subject:

It will cost you as much to build one as it would to buy one. The Pulldozer is $1600 I believe, a well made winch also.

melvinator · Criminal Joined: 26 Sep 2003 Posts: 80 City: caledonia

I will sell you my winch for half of what the big guys are selling theirs for. I will even throw in the 600 ft of spectra line!!

lake weir rider fl · Newbie Joined: 05 Jun 2005 Posts: 39 City: Ocala

Nick Taylor, people can make winches for about 1/4 as much as the pulldozer and grinch winch

Nick Taylor · Posted: May 14, 2006 6:41 pm Post subject:

lake weir rider fl, Really? I tried to count up how much it would cost me, but I'm mechanically retarded, so I could've been looking in the wrong places. I'd love to see more homemade winches out there.

scott a · Ladies Man Joined: 13 Jan 2003 Posts: 9810

the ONLY way you can make a solid winch for less than $1300 or so is if you already have parts laying around. that's why there are only a few companies that make winches- there's just no possible way to make money off it. its a garage project, and its damn fun to build them and get your hands all f-d up knowing that once its done youre gonna hit that ditch that you've been driving by every day.

check out www.winchskating.com it was made so that riders can come together and post their winches online. there's tons of info available from a bunch of knowledgable riders, and there's much more to come...

but if you do wanna buy one i would suggest a pulldozer. its one of the least expensive, and they are built damn well.

lake weir rider fl · Newbie Joined: 05 Jun 2005 Posts: 39 City: Ocala

Nick Taylor, if you make it nice and simple it won't cost you much...and just get your tubing for the frame from a scrap metal shop, i believe i read that it cost someone $400 on wakeskating.com...if im not mistaken

scott a · Ladies Man Joined: 13 Jan 2003 Posts: 9810

lake weir rider fl, a half decent briggs engine alone would cost that much, and so would having the tubing bent/welded by a professional if you dont know how to do it yourself...

lake weir rider fl · Newbie Joined: 05 Jun 2005 Posts: 39 City: Ocala

scott a, look on ebay and tell me how much a 6.5hp side shaft go cart engine is...then take back your last comment

noneya · Addict Joined: 13 Jan 2003 Posts: 796 City: Roxboro, NC

We looked really hard at doing this ourselves....800 to 1000 for something like the grinch....

Engines are about 250 - 300 (for a nice one..you can get cheaper)
suprisingly (or maybe not) the rope is the next most expensive thing around 1 $/ft so another 250 there. (same thing here, you can get poly E for a lot cheaper, but you get what you pay for)

Add the frame, clutch, sprocket, chain, spool, bearings, axle, paint....youre up around a cool G

scott a · Ladies Man Joined: 13 Jan 2003 Posts: 9810

lake weir rider fl, cheapest one i see (whose auction ends in the next day or so...) is around a hundred bucks. great. now you have $300 left to build the rest of the winch. do you know how to weld? i hope so, because you cant just buy winch frames at the hardware store.

regardless, winches are machines and you shouldnt try and build them for 500 bucks or whatever. i can understand being on a budget, but in a year when your garage project breaks down you're probably just going to need to spend even more to maintain your winch. just realize that it WILL take $1300 to build something that is solid and will withstand the abuse and rigors of people riding behind it over and over and over for the next few years. and then factor into that the cost of a new clutch every now and again because those arent invincible, either...

either way, have fun with whatever it is you guys decide to do.

Beaver · Posted: May 22, 2006 2:36 pm Post subject:

I built mine for under 500 but like you said i got my metal and welding done for free and discounts on everything but my rope. I couldn't be happier with mine its solid. If i would have to pay full price i would be up in the 800-1000 mark. I plan to build another for a buddy providing i can find some more free metal if i cant its almost as much as buying one. It was super fun building though id say build if you have the skills.

melvinator · Criminal Joined: 26 Sep 2003 Posts: 80 City: caledonia

I don't have a finished picture right now, but they can be built way cheaper than $1300 if you look around. 1/8" spectra is about $.13 a foot if you look. Honda knock off motors run great and run about $125 shipped. We start our motor and make a 20 second run and shut it down, so about 30 seconds of running time. We made a good 30 runs this weekend and only ran the winch for maybe 15 minutes. I would not want to use our cheap motor on a lawnmower that gets 50 hours of use a summer, it would not last, for winching its fine. We got our steel from the scrap yard for free because we traded in a bunch of brake rotors and drums. If you have access and the skills to fabricate steel(cutting torch & welder) it is pretty easy, just time consuming. Having someone make it for you will cost a ton, weldeing is skilled labor and not cheap, I am a shop teacher I know. That is why mass produced winches are so expensive, they are not using old steel behind someones garage, they have to purchase materials and pay someone to build frames. They use B&S motors not cheap chinese knock offs. I like winches as a buddy/garage project, get a few guys from your crew together, someone always knows "someone". Any questions just email or call me I would love to help.

narxs70 · Criminal Joined: 05 Jun 2006 Posts: 69 City: Beaver Lake

my 2 pennies: you could maybe get the high school welding shop to do your welding for a class project. that would save you some there. we used to do stuff like that all the time for people. man high school was sooo long ago.

lake weir rider fl · Newbie Joined: 05 Jun 2005 Posts: 39 City: Ocala

scott a, my neighbor welds and he'd do it for me for free...also one of my best friends dad owns a scrapyard Very Happy