Converting winch auger to HYD raise/lower

Anyone done it? I have an 8 inch hutchison that I"m tired of cranking and Dad can hardly do it anymore. Takes us both to crank it up taking turns or me a heck of a long time. I have a reel motor off an 820 IH platform I can use, make a flange and bolt direct or mount behind and use a chain? Is it going to cost me more in hoses than a 2,000 lb. harbor freight 12V winch?

Remember to think about a brake of some kind to hold it from winding back down.

We had orbital hydraulic motor lift on a grain elevator. It had a fiction brake to hold it in place. It worked great for lifting compared to hand cranking.

Gary

On my auger on my feed wagon I replaced the winch handle with a 1 1/16"" nut welded to the smaller nut on the shaft that held the handle on, turn it with a cordless impact wrench, my 18 volt cordless drill will also do the job but the battery don"t last as long as the impact wrench.

I"ve made a couple of them- one on an 8x56 auger, the other on a silo unloader winch. Each used a Char-Lynn motor on a steel plate, chain drive to the winch. Neither needed a brake.

Hi
stay clear of the electric winch if it's a big auger. When I worked at the seed plant my cheap boss would not pay the extra for a proper hyd drive winch with the mover kit we fitted the spool was already with the kit lol.

The auger was an 8" 51ft I believe. the winch worked good till the plastic bushings wore, then one day the auger was right up going in a bin and the free wheel pin let go. The auger dropped hit the bin top dented that, then slipped down the side of the bin and hit the lower stop. then bent the living day lights outta the a frame and dented the tube. This all happened at what seemed to be a 100 miles an hour with me standing there operating it !

After straightening out the mess we got a drive motor from an old bin sweep in the junk pile out back. cut the drive collar off the auger and mounted the motor right on the end of the shaft the winch handle fitted on so the winch brake still worked as with the handle, and had a flat plate to hold the motor to the frame. it is still working now and I left there 3 years ago this feb.
it took a little while to do but would of saved $1000 of damage if he did it the first time!.
Regards Robert

Sounds great guys. If I do either, I will utilize the hand crank that's already there as it has the automatic brake on it, don't have to crank it back up a notch after lowering to set it or anything. It's an 8x71

Hi yes if it's that big use the winch and just add the motor. I forgot to say we re fitted the old hand crank winch back on when we did the conversion. It was one like yours that didn't need turning back to lock it.
good luck and I hope it works good for you.
Regards Robert

If you put the hydro motor on, you don't have to worry about it moving after you unhook the tractor since the oil has no where to go. We did that on one auger many years ago, never an issue.

Unless connected to a winch with a worm gear, a hydraulic motor operated winch would slowly "creep" down under load due to internal oil leakage in the motor.

Westfield does it quite handsomely and simply with a hydraulic cylinder and compound reverse "block and tackle" setup.

Here's a couple of photos of different setups.

<img src = "http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u125/27Grainfield/Westfield.jpg">

<img src = "http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u125/27Grainfield/Westfield2.jpg">

I don't know if it will work for you, but a friend of mine welded a hex end on his silo unloader and uses a big electric drill to crank it up before filling. It saves a lot of time and manual cranking. He lowers it by hand, same crank, but it is raised by electric, and only cost a few cents to make the fitting from a bolt, and the crank handle fits right over the bolt head. It can also be lowered using the drill.