Electric Boat Winch

[Grumpy]

This coming June I am going to Michigan for a week to do some fishing. I have a 17.5’ Aluminum Bass Boat with a 40HP Yamaha engine. The lakes and river systems where I am going do not allow “power loading” on the boat ramps, in other words, you cannot use the big motor to drive the boat up onto the trailer, you have to float it onto the trailer as far as it will go then winch it up the rest of way. Most of the boat trailers up there, especially for the bigger boats, have roller bunks instead of cloth bunks, which makes it considerably easier to winch the boat up onto the trailer. I don’t know how much my boat & motor actually weigh but I do know that every once in a while I have had to use the winch to get the boat all the way on and it takes some hard cranking on the winch to get it in place. A couple of times when I have tried moving the trailer deeper to let the boat float more, the bow then got stuck under the bow roller when I tried to use the winch and then I had to back the boat off again to get the bow above the roller. What a pain!

Anyhow, I am thinking of buying an electric winch for the trailer and just bring the boat on as far as it will go, hook up the winch cable and use the winch to power the boat onto the trailer. Has anyone every used a power winch on your boat trailer? If so, do you have any suggestions for me? And, especially would anyone have any idea how big a winch I would need?

I have several winches in mind I could buy so I am not looking for recommendations, just how useful it may or may not be.

Thanks,

Grumpy.

[floatman]

try this Grumpy, it might be what you are after http://www.qualitymarkinc.com/produc...aticboatloader.

Gary

[floatman]

try this Grumpy, it might be what you are after http://www.qualitymarkinc.com/produc...aticboatloader.

Gary

http://www.qualitymarkinc.com/produc...oatloader.html sorry Grumpysee if this works lol

[Grumpy]

Thanks Gary, but I don't want to change the bunks because I can use the regular bunks here in KY and power load on them. I am just looking for POWER assist on the winch. I probably would not even leave it on the trailer year round, just when I go to MI.

Thanks anyhhow,

Grumpy

PS. I added my last line after Gary/Floatman made his recommendation, just so no one thinks he can't read.

[CATCHEMALL]

Get in touch with Elwood. He has one on his deep v tracker. I am sure he will help you any way he can.

[CatFan96]

You might consider a 2-speed manual winch. They are used more in salt water due to larger trailered boat size, but they can be set to the lower gear that makes cranking a heavy boat much easier.

[kydonky]

I have a BIG electric winch that mounts over my trailer ball on my truck. I use it on the farm quite often to pull logs, free a stuck tractor etc. They are very handy tools. When the approch to my barn is covered with snow I use it to bull my boat back into the barn without having to rock with the truck to get it in there with the truck. I would say GO FOR IT. You can get a fairly inexpensive one at harbor freight or even on Ebay. Mine will pull 10,000 lbs, but you will probably only need 2500-3000 lb pull. I would guess your boat is < 3000 lbs. I don't see were you could go too wrong. There are adapters available to give you 12v power off your trailer light hookup.

[Grumpy]

Thanks for all the input and help everyone. i appreciate it. Elnut was kind enough to PM me with all the information about his set up and I think that is what I need. E-bay has several electric winchs in the size I probably need and I can get an adapter to use the cigarette lighter plug in like KYDONKY suggested. I'll let you know how it works when i get it all installed.

Thanks again,

Grumpy