Windlass style Winch

Many years ago, when I was very first involved with HMCG, we had an old Series 3 (probably) that had a windlass hydraulic winch on the front for cliff rescue jobs - you'd nail the 90 down with 6 x 3-ft spikes and rope, then the man would go over the edge with his mainline connected to the windlass and his safety via 2 blokes.

Now the point of this thread is to find out if such winches are still available? I have this thought that they would be better than the standard which, which is limited to the X number of meters you get on the drum. With a windlass, you're not. The local Lifeboat station use to use a petrol driven one bolted to the boathouse floor to recover the inshore boat & trailer, so they are capable of doing some load I guess...

Discuss...

I had a windlass on my series but it ran off the front pto, not hydraulic.

Sofasurfer said:

I had a windlass on my series but it ran off the front pto, not hydraulic.

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That is entirely possible as I may well be wrong with the hydraulic theory... it would make sense.

Wots the difference between a capstan and a windlass winch?

Oh and if it were a Series it'd bin an 88

blue beasty said:

Wots the difference between a capstan and a windlass winch?

Oh and if it were a Series it'd bin an 88

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Nothing. Although Capstan were Full Strength lung crackers....

Remember lifting lobster creels on my mates boat in Dunbar with a hydrolic winch there was a fair weight in the lines of pots.
The winch on my 101 is pto capstan not that ive tried it yet

Recovery with a capstan/ windlass takes great care otherwise you’ll get slippage. Need a double loop to maintain grip. Stopping and starting also tricky. I’d love to fit a PTO capstan to my S3. They come up on fleabay in various states. Good ones cost at least £500. You can google to download instructions for fitting n maintainace.

John S said:

Recovery with a capstan/ windlass takes great care otherwise you’ll get slippage. Need a double loop to maintain grip. Stopping and starting also tricky. I’d love to fit a PTO capstan to my S3. They come up on fleabay in various states. Good ones cost at least £500. You can google to download instructions for fitting n maintainace.

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Yes i beleive it is tricky its a knokken ive got operated by hand throttle in cab runs out either front or rear from mid chassis mount not tried it yet lots still to do...but reading handbook without pressure on cable wont pull and if you cut engine will if youve got weight on it will spool back out...will find out soon...lol

John S said:

Recovery with a capstan/ windlass takes great care otherwise you’ll get slippage. Need a double loop to maintain grip. Stopping and starting also tricky. I’d love to fit a PTO capstan to my S3. They come up on fleabay in various states. Good ones cost at least £500. You can google to download instructions for fitting n maintainace.

Click to expand...

Yes i beleive it is tricky its a knokken ive got operated by hand throttle in cab runs out either front or rear from mid chassis mount not tried it yet lots still to do...but reading handbook without pressure on cable wont pull and if you cut engine will if youve got weight on it will spool back out...will find out soon...lol

Have you got a 101?

John S said:

Have you got a 101?

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Yes its the pic in my avatar the pic is as found spent around 12yrs like that