Deer recovery capstan winch

[Bigjohncat]

Faced with some steep inclines on my shooting permissions and not wishing to write off the quadbike or myself for that matter,I got to thinking about a capstan winch on a budget and came up with this whichvis made from bits bought of FB marketplace. The winch was originally a strap webbing type boat winchso cut the end face off the drum reversed itvonbthe keyed shaftand booted a sailing type capstan winch to the end face. The bracket was made from a pice of scrap angle iron and some 1/8 plate and then attached to a spre tow hitch I had kicking around . For the wiring I bought 2 quick detached plugs from DIY store and wired to battery via 30 Amp in line fuse and swapped out the hand controller for a foot switch off fleabay.
Total cost winch £35,capstan £7.50, connectors £5.90, brackets £0, hitch £0 , straps and shackles already stock. The first pic shows operational setup and second stowed position to give ground clearance. 3rd pic 200m of braided rope on a reel.other pics during production. Hope you like it and feel free to copy.

 

[Bigjohncat]

 

[wytonpjs]

Interesting idea Looking forward to an in-use report and whether there are any stall/current issues please.

I finally weakened and bought the PCW3000 capstan winch and regret not doing it earlier. Its small, lightweight, compact and I can strap it to a tree part way down a slope to do a staged pull back up to the quad/car.

 

[lincolnjefferies]

Looks a handy set up and excellent value for money. If you don’t mind me asking, what make and diameter was the rope and how did it perform ? I have an Eder capstan and proper winch rope is pretty expensive, especially to be dragged through brash

 

[Bigjohncat]

Ref the current draw issue ,that did cross my mind so will probably leave the quad running and charging battery when in use.
As for performance I don't know yet as have only just made it. The rope I picked up at car booty for £40 and think it is sailing rope the drum is off Facebook £30. This is the rope spec :-

 

[angusb1]

Looks like a good idea. Only difference to a portable capstan is it is at a fixed angle to the quad so might not always be a straight pull to what you're winching. With a portable one the winch is free to align itself to what you're pulling usually as it is attached to a plate with a hole in it which goes over the towball/hitch or is attached to an anchor with a strop or rope.

Interested to see how yours works as I think with the capstan drum you have more leeway with the angle it pulls at than with a normal winch fixed to a bumper with fairlead rollers.

 

[Tim.243]

Faced with some steep inclines on my shooting permissions and not wishing to write off the quadbike or myself for that matter,I got to thinking about a capstan winch on a budget and came up with this whichvis made from bits bought of FB marketplace. The winch was originally a strap webbing type boat winchso cut the end face off the drum reversed itvonbthe keyed shaftand booted a sailing type capstan winch to the end face. The bracket was made from a pice of scrap angle iron and some 1/8 plate and then attached to a spre tow hitch I had kicking around . For the wiring I bought 2 quick detached plugs from DIY store and wired to battery via 30 Amp in line fuse and swapped out the hand controller for a foot switch off fleabay.
Total cost winch £35,capstan £7.50, connectors £5.90, brackets £0, hitch £0 , straps and shackles already stock. The first pic shows operational setup and second stowed position to give ground clearance. 3rd pic 200m of braided rope on a reel.other pics during production. Hope you like it and feel free to copy.

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Anyone having a go at solving a problem gets my vote

 

[angusb1]

Was looking at this on the phone before, just looked at this on the pc and I can see you are using a hitch on the towball so it is more free to align itself with what you're pulling so it should be more of a straight pull than I thought.

 

[Bigjohncat]

Yeah there is a few degrees either side although it's not too critical with capstan I don't think.There are calcs. based on load,coefficient of friction number of turns etc. Made a similar one that works off lawn tractor PTO a couple of months ago

 

[Bigjohncat]

 

[angusb1]

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I have that same mower. On mine the deck has rusted right away but I've hung onto it to pull a trailer. Nothing wrong with the rest of it just the deck is shot.

 

[Bigjohncat]

I bought that off Facebook marketplace along with a trailer for £100 then sold the trailer for £50 ! I have a small 27 acre permission about 5 mins from home a mix of horse paddocks and woodland and it gets hellish boggy in the winter, so this was my solution to pulling the sledge over the muddy bits.

 

[jthyttin]

Regarding the current, try to find from quad specs what is the charging current. Also you probably need to keep the quad revving in the midrange, it won't be charging 100% on the idle. Last but not least, can you fire the quad up if it stalls and battery is empty? Kickstart maybe, or external starter pack? Genuine question, it's really no joy to be in such situation.

Also is the winch RPM enough for decent retrieval speed? Just judging by the components, looks like there is transmission and strap type boat winch should have quite low retrieve rate. Larger capstan spool might not speed it up enough.

Where did you get the capstan spool for £7.50, Ebay? 2nd hand or new?

EDIT: also cooling of the motor might be an issue. Don't fry it!

 

[Mike1979]

Anyone having a go at solving a problem gets my vote

Another vote from me I have nothing but admiration for those prepared to have a go with sorting out stuff like this, keep up the good work

 

[Bigjohncat]

Have just ran a test and worked out speed to be 46 rpm which with the capstan diameter at 66mm is about 9.5 meters per minute line retrieval ( not great ) . So next thought is to either increase motor speed or put a bigger diameter capstan on it to replace the FB marketplace second hand one.

 

[Tim.243]

Have just ran a test and worked out speed to be 46 rpm which with the capstan diameter at 66mm is about 9.5 meters per minute line retrieval ( not great ) . So next thought is to either increase motor speed or put a bigger diameter capstan on it to replace the FB marketplace second hand one.

I would test it out real time, having dragged reds 3ft a time on clay 9mts/min and no puffing sounds good

 

[jthyttin]

Regarding motor:

Most times you can run the motor at higher voltage for higher RPM. Problem would in this case be how to create the higher voltage with sufficient current (?)

Also you would need a way to restrict the current draw of motor, otherwise it would burn since current would increase exponentially with voltage increase (IIRC). One way would be PWM that can be adjusted for current. But maybe cheaper and easier just to source new motor.

 

[Bigjohncat]

Yeah true enough .Just put the battery on charge and will re-run test tomorrow. I suppose 10.5 minutes to drag a deer up a steep 100 metre slope without the lung bursting exertion isn't too bad

 

[Bigjohncat]

As Tim says perhaps try it in real world situation before making too many changes. Thanks for the advice though as I'm a mechanical engineer with basic electrical knowledge. Pulleys ,gears etc and machining more my thing.

 

[jthyttin]

Also did you count the rope diameter in the 66mm? If not, you get extra 1.5m per minute with 10mm rope (assuming the rope doesn't "collapse" under load).

But if you have access to lathe and can source some thick aluminium or maybe some plastic it would be easy to knock off another capstan after testing. Or maybe there are rollers for boat trailer or something that can be used.