Electric or Manual Winch

I have decide to add a winch to my Trailex trailer. Those who have manual winches, do you feel the desire for an electric winch or are these boats so light that there is no real need?
I would be winching a loaded AI on PVC bunks.

My concerns about an electric winch are that I do not want to have to take it on and off each time to prevent theft while out sailing. I also have concerns of breaking something on the boat if I do not stop the electric winch in time. Also worried about rusting in a saltwater environment. Valid concerns?

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Greg

2016 AI - Spinn & Jib

“Out of sight of land the sailor feels safe. It is the beach that worries him.”
– Charles G. Davis

My TI doesn't even require a manual winch to get it on the trailer. I switched to PVC bunks this year and now the boat just slides right on with a minimum of effort. I only use the winch to secure the bow to the trailer, not to pull it.

I can't see any reason for an electric winch unless someone had a physical issue which prevented them from pulling or manually winching the TI onto the trailer.

I bought a cheapo harbor freight mechanical winch, the type with the metal cable (the cheapest, I think under $20 bucks)).
I replaced the cable with a 1"wide nylon strap (the kind that comes with those cheap home depot ratchet straps). What I do is bring my cordless drill along, and rigged a socket for the chuck that fits the drill, (happens to be the same size as the levelor jacks for our camper), then rigged double nuts on the winch. I have the nuts a little further in on the shaft so I can still use the crank arm that came with the winch, (but I have to hold it in place).
Been using for 3-4 yrs now with no major issues. About half the time I forget the stupid drill, the crank has plenty of leverage so it's not a backbreaking experience cranking the boat up manually, (no different than any other boat, pretty standard setup). Some days I don't even bother with the winch, the boat is pretty easy to pull onto the pvc bunks, especially with a roller at the back of the trailer. With the PVC rails (mounted on 11" centers) mounted a foot or so behind the back of the trailer they help guide and center the boat onto the trailer in crosswinds.

We keep our TI fully rigged with it's big sailsets, big ole twin outboards, modified hull, etc on the trailer in our garage, I'm fairly sure the boat is tipping close to 300 lbs fully loaded and ready to go, (takes unde five minutes to hook on the back of the car and go). I happen to use PVC cradles that I carefully designed to fully support the entire boat evenly. If I didn't have the knowhow to do this (I'm an engineer), I would have purchased the Hobie cradle system (tried and true, and proven to work reliably on thousands of boats). If not sure, get the cradles.
Just my opinion
FE

Thanks for the responses. I use PVC bunks and yes it is easy unless you have a steep ramp or are trying to avoid dipping the trailer into the saltwater. I'm just being lazy. So you have to lift the bow onto the trailer, secure the winch strap to the boat and then go back to the winch and hand crank? Anyone out there find it difficult at all to hand crank the boat up onto the trailer at this point?

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Greg

2016 AI - Spinn & Jib

“Out of sight of land the sailor feels safe. It is the beach that worries him.”
– Charles G. Davis

I have experience with both, but not on my TI.

I have three cradles. By my calculation that is 50% more drag than the standard two cradles and the PVC is probably less drag than even the two cradle setup. Oh, and I often have a Suzuki 2.5 mounted when I winch it on the trailer.

That said, I wouldn't even consider electric for my setup. As a matter of fact, I sent my first winch back to get one with a different ratio that made it harder to crank, but less cranks to pull the strap in.

If you search for my name and winch you can find details I wrote while it was fresh on my mind.

I do exactly that. I use an off-road tree strap (used for attaching a winch cable to a tree trunk) as a bridle, wrapped around the front aka supports and then pulled through itself so one end is just above the front hatch. I pull the winch line all the way out, hook up to the bridle, and lift the bow onto the rear roller. Sometimes I have to do this step in reverse, lift bow onto roller first then hook up winch to bridle. This keeps the boat from rolling back off the roller if the ramp is steep. I can then walk back up to the winch and crank away. Because of the PVC bunks the TI self aligns with the scupper grooves.

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2015 Hobie Tandem Island Hibiscus
"Third Normal Form"

• Trampolines
• Hobie cover
• Davis Spar Fly
• Kayakbob's Sprayskirts
• Spine Board Hakas

IMHO an electric winch is way overkill. I haul my TI onto trailer pvc bunks no bother without a winch.

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

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2016 Tandem Island (Red)

+What Pottsy said...

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2015 Tandem Island - Golden Papaya "HALIBOO"
(retired) Outback - Hibiscus Red

Yeah, manual wench is the way to go.

Keith

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2015 AI 2, 2014 Tandem

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex ... It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." A. Einstein

"Less is more" Anon