This ain't your daddy's winch!!

[rogerflies]

Well, here's my latest project. Someone gave me the old lawn tractor with a Briggs and Stratton 18HP flat twin engine. I had to do a little work on the engine, but it's running pretty good now. I also had to make a new air cleaner, since the original was missing.

But the important part is the winch. It's got a stationary shaft to support the drum. One end is fixed to the frame, and the other end fits into a bearing in the end of the PTO shaft adapter. This arrangement keeps the drum from creeping as the engine runs with the clutch disengaged.

With the engine running at a modest speed, I should be able to get plenty of power to handle any size plane with the line speed where it neeeds to be. A smaller engine would have to run pretty fast to give the torque needed for a larger plane.

I'm hoping I can just step on the pedal for the entire launch with no pulsing. Of course, I can always let off to slow the plane down. The drum is pretty heavy with the ball bearing hubs and clutch disc, so the response will be much like a direct-drive winch when I let off switch to disengage the clutch.

It'll take some experimenting to determine the correct speed for launching. I may need to use tachometer, but I'm going to start out slow, and see how it goes.

The brake will be a traditional belt and arm arrangement. That should work OK since the drum weight is in the same range as a drum/armature on a regular winch.

So far, the total out-of-pocket expense is under $40, less than a pair of good solenoids. That makes the project pretty high on the entertainment per dollar scale. :)

Roger

[atmosteve]

Roger, you are mad as cut snake, aren't you..? BTW I love it, i have full faith that you will have something that can work, with some work.
:cool:

[BrianSmith]

I have loved looking at the things you machine and construct. Over the years you have come up with some very neat and some times wild ideas, but when you post, "I READ".. :D. Thanks. Brian

[lincoln]

If you're going to work on LSF tasks, then you'd better make a very good muffler or it'll just be LF.

[rogerflies]

I doubt the engine will be any louder than the big trucks going by the field we use. With the electric start, it will only have to run for a minute or so for each launch.

I do need a trailer to carry it around, but maybe one'll turn up.

Roger

[ChuckA]

My daddy's winch was mounted on his farm tractor. :) Your winch reminds me of the first winch I ever used. Back in 1971, I built a winch on an ancient cast iron Briggs&Stratton that Ben Cleveland loaned me. Speed was controlled by a foot throttle and was much easier to use. Some called it a Cadillac winch because it was so big, heavy and smooth running.

[schrederman]

You could probably winch hang gliders with that! Cool!

[jbrandon]

Roger, you are as mad as the hatter! But I love it!!

Jim
www.theshope.net (http://www.theshope.net/)

[rogerflies]

I finished and installed the brake parts. I made them a little beefy to stand up to the vibration. It can be adjusted to change the braking action, but it seems quite effective.

I also ran the engine with the winch installed to check the clutch action. It works just like I expected it to.

I haven't measured the speed of the engine, but the drum looks like it's running very close to the speed of an electric winch during a launch when the engine is just above idle. According to the engine specs, the governor will give me 8-9 HP at that speed if the governor opens the throttle all the way. That's about 26 foot-pounds of torque, which converts to just over 300 pounds of tension on the line.

That'll be enough to launch my Lovesong, won't it? :D

Roger

[rdeis]

A set of plans for a chainsaw powered winch gets posted to ebay from time to time- seller claims that the centrifugal clutch arrangement self-regulates the line tension.

Never thought I'd see one used, though!

[rogerflies]

My flying friend came through with a trailer to haul the winch around. Had to add a deck and weld on some tiedowns. Minimal cost, and I love to weld.

I took the winch out for it's first trials this morning. I transferred the line from my clutch-winch. Got the winch aligned with the turnaround so the line would wind level across the drum. Also checked out the operation of the brake.

The line tension builds up slowly with the engine set at idle, but there's plenty of pull once the line gets tight.

The wind today was fairly steady at about 10 mph. That's a little more than I wanted for a first try on a new winch, but the I knew the Lovesong could handle it. I didn't even add ballast. :D

I set the engine speed at 1650 RPM for the first launch. (Idle is around 1250.) It took a couple seconds for the line tension to build up, but I was able to hold the pedal down for almost the entire launch. I could see that the wings were flexing some as the plane leveled out, so I tapped the pedal several times before letting off entirely. I think I could have held the pedal down the whole way up if the wind had been lighter. The launch altitude was what I'd expect for the distance to the TA and the wind speed.

The brake worked fine: three or four quick chirps of the belt, and the drum is stopped. Line retrieval takes just a little more pull than my clutch-winch.

I made several more launches with the same results. No problems, no surprises. It works exactly like I expected it would.

The brake may be a little aggressive, but I want to see how it does with my friend's larger plane and his more aggressive launch style before changing anything. I can easily reposition the belt anchor and the arm attachment to soften it up.

I'm really pleased with how well it works. :) :)

Roger

[BrianSmith]

Wish I could have been there. :D Brian

[soarluck]

this looks so similair to the winches built to step tow hanggliders in the early eighties ,,step towing winches would allow a pilot to first tow into the wind ,then turn downwind and pay out line then turn back into the wind and so on using very small fields for large agl

I remeber one club that used a rear end or div. to allow the pay out and more advanced units used hyrolics

[rogerflies]

It sound similar to this one that's used to pull parasails:
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u172/Spkrman15/DSCF0032.jpg

It's powered by a V6 car engine.

Roger