Motorized winches... Good or Bad?

[petrey10]

How are you going to power it?

plug it into the trailer lights....

[petrey10]

When it gets hard to crank have the driver back down a bit to float the boat and crank the rest of the way up.
You should teach your chick how to back the trailer down the ramp. Problem solved.

yeah that would be nice but she aint that willing

[Jason B]

I don't have the patience to teach my wife...and she is a slow learner. No thanks- I'll just back it up.
My ramps will not allow us to power on the trailer, well, you're not SUPPOSED to, but many people still do. I won't.

Personally I think the cables are super fugly. I'll replace the strap for $15 every few years.

My wife weighs 99 lbs. She can't crank the boat all the way onto the trailer. If I back it up further it floats too much and doesn't center itself on the trailer when I pull it out of the water. A power winch would be a very nice solution....if I was willing to spend $$$ on it. lol

[MoneyPity]

I don't have the patience to teach my wife...and she is a slow learner. No thanks- I'll just back it up.
My ramps will not allow us to power on the trailer, well, you're not SUPPOSED to, but many people still do. I won't.

Personally I think the cables are super fugly. I'll replace the strap for $15 every few years.

My wife weighs 99 lbs. She can't crank the boat all the way onto the trailer. If I back it up further it floats too much and doesn't center itself on the trailer when I pull it out of the water. A power winch would be a very nice solution....if I was willing to spend $$$ on it. lol

I agree with Jason and that cables are fugly. I would pay more for a strap because I have cut my hand a few times over the years on them.

I have similar issue as Jason. My wife can back it down the ramp in about 15-20 minutes of trying. If I have her try to drive partway onto trailer she usually is going to fast and off center so I have to get boat between the pylons and hand crank anyway.

If I don't sell this year I will do a bunch of Monday and Friday runs looking at lakes 100-200 miles from home. Since many of those trips I will be alone with the Labs a power winch makes some sense. I will power on if the ramp is a long shallow ramp but I like to avoid as much as possible.

My Brother has a winch clip where once his front lifting eye hits the clip the clip latches to the nose hook so all He does is lean over bow and tighten 1-2 cranks. He still needs to drive up trailer based on launch.

[Oklahoma Breakdown]

Not sure if you guys have a Harbor Freight in your areas but they have a 3000# winch that was on sale this last weekend for $69. HF has no name Chinese power tools and stuff super cheap. I have purchased several air tools and drills there with no problems. Only problem is the winch housing sheath was camo...may not match a Tige trailer paint scheme Just a thought...

[Ewok]

Powerwinch or Boat Buddy...

My old boat was a 22.5' Bayliner Classic. It was our families boat for 17 years, my grandfather had a Powerwinch 910 installed when it was new and it still works great today. It is a cable winch with a pulley to double the pulling power. The power cord is hard-wired to the battery in the tow vehicle, I have a little compartment in the back of my SUV and plug it in and it pulls the boat up nicely on some pretty steep ramps.

I found this thread because I just bought a new 2009 RZ2 and a friend of mine suggested I put a Boat Buddy on the bow-stop. His MC trailer came with it pre-installed and he highly recommends it. I was wondering if anyone else on this website has installed the Boat Buddy and if they like it or hate it. I think it looks like a nice solution to the Powerwinch question, i am considering it, and it looks like its only 100 bucks on Cabellas.

[goboardgo]

I have had my boat for nearly 10 years, I don't think I have seen more than a foot of my winch strap ever. I pull the boat on the trailer, reach over the nose, hook it up and crank it about half a turn and I'm done. I think a power winch would slow me down.