winch pull of plane into hanger

I am back to pulling the warrior back into the hanger with a winch. I
tried modifying a small briggs and stratton powered "mule" to the
cherokee towbar attachment but could not get the control I wanted.

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 have thought
about standing in the hanger at the back of the plane and controling
the winch with the exsisting setup but then I lose the steering option
I have from the front. It should be mentioned that I have 8 inches
outside of each wingtip to the i-beams. Easily doable but with a
pucker factor component.

I would like to hear from anyone who has a similar rigup and how
suggestions to living with the system, especially if you have tought of
something different. Thanks, Leo

You need to do what my hanger neighbor did. He went down to the pawn shop
and bought an riding lawn mower for next to nothing. He had a tow bar
mounted to the front and now uses it to both take his Beech 36 out of the
hanger but to put it back in as well.

The nice thing about it is he can still use it to mow the 10ft wide fire
alley between the hangers.


wrote in message
ups.com...

I am back to pulling the warrior back into the hanger with a winch. I
tried modifying a small briggs and stratton powered "mule" to the
cherokee towbar attachment but could not get the control I wanted.

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 have thought
about standing in the hanger at the back of the plane and controling
the winch with the exsisting setup but then I lose the steering option
I have from the front. It should be mentioned that I have 8 inches
outside of each wingtip to the i-beams. Easily doable but with a
pucker factor component.

I would like to hear from anyone who has a similar rigup and how
suggestions to living with the system, especially if you have tought of
something different. Thanks, Leo

"Gig 601XL Builder" wrDOTgiaconaATcox.net wrote in message
...
You need to do what my hanger neighbor did. He went down to the pawn shop
and bought an riding lawn mower for next to nothing. He had a tow bar
mounted to the front and now uses it to both take his Beech 36 out of the
hanger but to put it back in as well.

The nice thing about it is he can still use it to mow the 10ft wide fire
alley between the hangers.

The eight of us in the hangar row have a similar set up (we share a lawn
tractor..."donated" by a gentleman that bought a fancy schmantzy new one)
but it doesn't do too well on snow and ice.

wrote:
I am back to pulling the warrior back into the hanger with a winch. I

I've used a constant speed winch to pull a 172 uphill over ice etc into
a previous hangar with maybe 24" tip space on each side. It had a long
cable (actually nylon rope) and a single direction switch but it was
not a very good feeling task as the winch was fixed direction, constant
speed, & controlled with an ON-OFF switch - to maybe 6 inches/sec.

The good thing was that the winch drum could be released from the drive
so that the rope could be quickly manually played out.

Do you really need 14 ga wire? much less all four conductors? That is
good for 20 amps pushing things for intermittent duty.

Is your winch motor synchronous or is it a universal motor/ (might it
be 12V even?) Universals are nice in that the speed can be controlled
with an SCR box. I couldn't figure out what winch you are looking at
at HF.

nrp

NRP: Sorry I didn't answer all your question. The winch is Harbor
Freight's "440 lb capacity electric hoist, # 40765-vga". Leo

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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