Winch Question

[TheSmiths]

We finished my FIL's owl guard today. Unfortunately, it added quite a bit of weight to his rope & pulley setup. I'm concerned the rope could slip out of our hands causing us an injury or the rope could come untied at the cleat causing the rack to fall and injure the birds. The ground is too saturated from months of rain to take the pole down and properly replace the rope & pulleys with a winch and cable. We have a DL-350 brake winch available. Could we use it with his rope for this season? (It is a high quality polyester rope in very good condition). If so, what is the proper method to secure the beginning of the rope onto the spool? The birds are due back soon and today certainly had the windy weather to bring them in. Thank you!


Edited to say "polyester" rather than "cotton".

[Brad Biddle]

The answer really depends on the condition of the rope. It is very easy to replace the rope with a cable though and that would be my suggestion. Just remove the rope from where it attaches to the rack. Rope end pointing one way, cable end pointing the other... Overlap those 2 ends about 6” long and tightly tape them together with high quality electrical tape. Then use the rope to pull the cable through the pulleys and back down the other side to the winch. The more cable that you put on the spool of the winch, the faster your rack will raise and lower. The excess cable makes the diameter of the winch spool larger which increases the gear ratio. I usually put close to 100 feet of cable on each winch.

[Doug Martin - PA]

I would think the rope will be fine for a season but with a lot of weight it may have a shorter life. So keep a close eye on it.

You should be able to feed the rope through the holes in the side of spool and tie it. Make sure you have plenty of extra on the spool.

Inspect it often.

Better switch it out though if you think the rope can not possibly support it. That's what metal cable is for.

Good luck.

[TheSmiths]

Thank you for the responses.

My FILs rack has the polyester rope and four-part pulley system sold my the PMCA installed on it. I'm not afraid the rope will break as it has only been used one season and is of good quality. I'm afraid it will slip out of our hands or my FIL, who is not in the best of health, will underestimate what he can lift and injure himself.

As far as threading the wire through using the rope, I don't think the four-part rope pulleys will work properly with wire.

[Brad Biddle]

I agree, I wouldn't try to thread cable through that.

A winch would work. I would get a brake winch, that way if the handle slipped out of his hands the handle wouldn't spin out of control.

[Whippy]

The Smiths.

Winches typically have a hole in the inside wall of the spool which is used to secure the wire or the rope. Simply thread the rope through this hole and tie a knot to prevent it from coming out then wind up the rope on the spool.

Coolwhips

[jasalva]

I have a question about the DL 350 Brake Winch, too. We have two with cables on two poles. They both lift grounds as normal but when you lower, the handle has trouble engaging and you can’t lower the grounds. The handle just hangs loosely. If you push the center in you can get it to work with much effort. The winches are about 10 years. Is there an easy fix?

[Duke]

jasalva make sure the nut is tight on handle. Seems like your having to push the handle in to engage the drum gear. Also make sure your gourd rack is not getting stuck up on top. With no weight on the line when trying to come down line will seem list. Try some WD-40 too. If none of this seems to help it’s probably time to change the wench. Ten good years is pretty good. Better to be safe.

[jasalva]

Duke, Thank you. Appreciate your advise! Will try. Judy

[jasalva]

Duke, WD 40 and tightening worked. Thank you.

[Duke]

Great to hear @jasalva! Good luck this season with the Martins.

[Rodger Drye]

The Smiths,

I have 7 Pole Systems and all of them have Dutton-Lainson 2000 lb. Worm Gear Winches. Which are in essence a true Brake Winch. You just use a hand held drill with a 5/8” socket to raise and lower your Rack. Up or down it doesn’t matter, when you stop it stops. Very smooth and easy, no jerking or cranking. I wouldn’t think of having anything else.!!

I wouldn’t think of having that rope stuff on my Racks. Sometimes my Grandkids come over and I let them lower and raise the Racks. I would be afraid to let them with a rope system because several of my Pole Systems are large and heavy. Heaven forbid for a Rack to fall 14 to 16 ft. It could potentially injure or kill someone.

If you do it you may as well do it right .! Use Stainless Steel Cable not Galvanized. Galvanized will rust and look bad in a couple of years... I’m telling and advising you because I made the mistake of using Galvanized, then I had to go back and change a lot of it out. It all looks Great now.!! I used 1/4” x 7x19 Type 316 Stainless Steel and if I remember right I got it at E-rigging.com.

My cables are 34 ft. On a 16 ft. Pole and that still leaves a lot of room on the spool. Them Troyer boy’s have their cable lengths set at 33 ft. You’ll have to place just one pulley at the top, and Troyer’s Bird’s Paradise has these as well, or you can install your own. You can’t find Troyer’s on the internet because they are Amish and don’t use computers. You’ll have to call them and order a Catalog @ 814-587-2756. I believe their cables are 3/16” Stainless and I used a full 1/4” on mine. There is a small hole in the side of the spool that you weave (Insert) your cable through. Then while someone holds the cable and wraps it, someone else operates the drill and wraps it around the spool.

I know it may sound like a lot but when you get it done you will be proud of it, and you won’t ever have to worry about it ever again.

Good Luck to you. If I can help you with anything else please don’t hesitate to ask.

Rodger

[TheSmiths]

We already have a brake winch, pulley, and wire cable. We even have the winch mounted to the pole. We just can't get a vehicle out there to install the pulley at the top because the ground is too saturated. Putting the polyester rope on the winch was going to be a temporary one-season-only measure until things dry out. Thus far we've just tied the rope off rather than winding it onto the winch.

[Rodger Drye]

That’s Great, sounds like you have it pretty much going on. It has been a very wet Spring everywhere.
If all your going to have is one rack, the rope set up might be o.k..
I been keeping these Bird’s for 31 years now and back in 1990 I built 2 Steel Racks with 2” x 2” Steel Poles. Back then I Bolted them up to another piece of steel that I concreted about 3ft. In the ground. When I wanted to work on or do a Nest Check I’d have to get someone to help me lay or hinge the pole down with the last guide bolt still in place. Some of my first Rack’s alone weighed close to 300 lbs. I welded out old 1040 steel.

Over the years and as I kept adding Aluminum Racks I had to figure out a better system to accomplish this task. So now I’ve made it were all my poles lay or hinge down. I can completely take the pole down and remove the whole system if I want or need to.

Also with the Worm Gear Winches I can raise and lower them a hundred times a day if I want to. And I do not have to call anyone to help me like I did in the olden days.

Best of Luck to you.

Rodger