writes:


So now, I need the experience of anyone else who has rigged up a winch
with extended control. I have a Harbor Freight winch which will do
just fine to pull a warrior up a slight incline but the switch which
controls the direction of the spool has a 6 foot wire. I want to stand
in front of the plane with the towbar in hand to do the guiding. This
means I need something like a 50 foot extension to the switch control
wire, doable but clumsy using a 4 conductor cable with #14 wires. I
could rig up a smaller wire system with relays and transformers, etc
but that gets even more clumsy and prone to failure.


I've back-of-the-envelope engineered this for a friend.

There is no reason to use #14 wire. You can use inexpensive "iceberg"
SSR's [Solid State Relay -- really an optocoupler and triac in a
moulded block], some multi-pair stranded cable, say 22 gauge, with
any old "wallwart" to provide the needed 5-24vdc. [Everyone has
one, left over from a now dead phone, radio, or other gadget..]

The issue to me was a safety switch. You want some 100% sure way to
shut it off before it pulls the tail off, even if al-la Star Trek
"Captain...the controls are dead..."

One is a socket on the wall, wired in series with the winch supply.
Put a jumper in its plug, and anchor the control cord to it. In
other words, if the winch won't stop; PULL hard on the control cable,
the plug come out, and the winch has no power. Use a wierd plug/socket
so that no one tries to plug in the fridge, etc.

Another involves a knot in the cable, or a clamp; the cable passes
through a hole on a plate and that plate works a disconnect switch.

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