OT winch on trailer

I have a winch on my trailer that is a hand crank and I was going to make it so I can run it off of a electric drill. My drill says it will draw 6AMPS so how big of a inverter will I need to put on my truck. This is the winch that I have.

Bob

I don't think your drill will have any where near the torque it would need to do much if any thing with that winch. It would take a few HP motor to do much if any thing at all with a winch that big

120 x 6 = 720 watts MINIMUM running power,starting would take more. I dont think i would look at less than a thousand watt. especialy as thats probably the running amperage unloaded.If thats the full load or locked rotor amps,a thousand should cover it.I rigged one of those up with a starter motor once,worked good but you needed to have the motor running and a GOOD alternator !LOL. i would bet if your drill would operate it you could find a 12v motor for less money than a inverter. probably could buy a 12v winch cheaper.

HMMMMMMMMMM just how big is this electric drill you have?????? Thats an awful heavy lookin winch!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just friction alone takes some HP to turn it ya know!!!!!!!!!

Okay, if an appliance draws 6 amps at 120 volts, thats 720 watts, so you may have to buy like a 1000 watt (subject to sizes sold) or so Inverter to run it. Then if your pulling like 720 watts out of that inverter and since its NOT 100% efficent, you may have to put 800 watts OR more (depends on its efficiency) on its input, and at 12 volts thats 67 amps the battery has to supply YOU ALSO NEED A GOOD BATTERY AND CHARGING SYSTEM and good heavy cables not too long from the battery to the inverter!!!!!!!!!

HOWEVER if you put its rated load on that big honkin winch ITS GONNA TAKE SOME DECENT HP AND TORQUE TO TURN IT MIND YOU

NOTE the drill still has to have enough horsepower and torque to turn that winch AND ESPECIALLY IF ITS UNDER ITS RATED LOAD

It takes X HP to turn that winch at X load so will your drill supply that????????????????? IFFFFFFFFFFF so then a 1000 watt inverter may do the trick subject to run time and battery capacity AND BIG HEAVY CABLES NOT TO LONG

I just cant answer all this not knowing the load and drill rating, I can the inverter size BUT NO WARRANTY THE DRILL IS BIG ENOUGH TO RUN THAT WINCH UNDER A HEAVY LOAD

Good luck with it

John T

I forgot to add I believe Id invest in a 12 volt automotive starter rigged to run the winch. I have one that runs like that with a reverser solenoid set up. Then with good heavy cables and a good battery n charging system it can work decent subject to load and HP requirements

John T

The drill is a Thor 3/4 inch chuck and 350 RPM. When I was farming I used it to raise the silo unloader and on 18 and 20 ft silo's 60foot tall it had no problems raising them.

Bob

Im like old though,im not sure a drill will do it,at least not with a load.just looking at the picture it appears to me you have a mechanical advantage there of @4-1.Like old i dont think your drill would have the starting torque even if it could operate it unloaded.maybe if you ran it through a 20-1 gearbox or something first but then it would be way slow. my opinion of course.what i did when i used a 12motor was to put a small sprocket on the motor with maybe ten teeth,then mounted a sprocket on the winch with about 40 teeth as i recall(been thirty years ago)then chain drove it that gave me a initial advantage of 4-1then with the winch gears increased to like 20-1. made a strong little winch but it was a power user for sure. and by the time i rigged all the stuff up i could have bought a stronger winch for less money. but it was a project!LOL

just fyi,cant use a starter motor.you cant reverse one, you have to use something like a golf cart motor or have a reversing gear box between. I said i used a starter motor but it wasnt a ordinary starter motor. it was custom wound for this. on a regular starter it doesnt matter how you hook up the cables it will only run one direction.

Well that sounds MUCH better, I was expecting say a little 3/8 or even a 1/2 but a heavy 3/4 now that may do the trick (again subject to winch load HP requirements which I dont know)

The inverter still needs to be 1000 watts Id say plus good heavy cables to it

John T

18-20 foot silo unloaders are likely something over 1500 lbs.

My experience with inverters, is they will handle a surge but a constant load will kick out their breaker. I would get at least a 1500 watt. Vic

That crank winch has a low-range ratio of around 24 to 1, and a high-range ratio of 4 to 1. To use a 6 amp drill, you'd need at least a 70 to 1 ratio and they would not be fully useful. A typical 5000 lb. pull 12 volt winch is geared at 265 to 1 and draws 150 amps at 12 volts, not 60 amps at 12 volts like your electric drill will.

I've got the same winch on my trailer and love it. You hand crank that winch in low range at maybe 40-50 RPM until you get tire and the load pulls hard - then maybe 20 RPM per minute?

6 amp drill will run on a good quality 1000 watt continuous/2000 watt surge inverter.

I've had my winch in low-range pulling a tractor up the ramps and it took some arm power using the 14" long hand-crank in low range. Note that the crank has 14" of leverage and a drill turning the drum in the center will not. If you put a 14" pulley on the drum at least equal to the offset of your crank - you'd be getting closer.

What you probably need is an electric motor up in the 2000-3000 watt range to work well. At 12 volts that's going to be 250-300 amps - like a typical automotive starter motor.

I forgot to mention that those Beebe 5 ton crank winches are worth a lot of money. New today they cost near $2000. I bought one last summer at a yard sale for $50 and was offered $500 for it the next day (I kept it).

That makes two winches like that I"ve seen in my life. The other is mounted on a trailer we used for years to moves some very big loads. That winch is nearly indestructable. Don"t modify it! Cut that stub shaft of of the original drive hub/gear and insert a handle through it. A piece of flat stock with a roller on the end. It goes through the slot in it. There was originally a bolt in the center of the hub to tighten it/hold in place. By sliding it back and forth, you can vary the length of the handle. Shorter for less torque/faster rewinds. Long for more torque/slower rewinds. Stick it right in the middle of the big gear, shorten the handle, and you can wind up the cable for storage so fast your head will spin. It will amaze with the loads you can move with little effort, even not using the reduction, but in direct (center of hub). However, I don"t think your drill will work, because silo unloader winches were usually worm drive (low torque requirements, extremely slow speeds). Please try it before modifying that thing. It will probably work so well you won"t want to mess with electrifying it.

For sure somewhat bigger wont hurt, I usually go a bit bigger when in doubt, it still of course depends on the load. If the actual load is no greater then 720 watts max, (NO big long duration surges above that) a 1000 watt inverter ought to do the trick.

Fun chat

John T

i used to work at the local farmers elavator for 10yr,s and thats what we used to wench up all the new equipment up the side of the elavator ( 150 ft ) and we used a 3/4 millwakee drill and never had any problems. you just cant beat the bee bee bros wench. i have a 2 ton and the 5 ton. thanks Bob

6 amps is about 650 watts so you'd need 1300 watts I believe to handle starting the drill. 2000 would prolly be better. Maybe LJD will kick in with the real answer...

Sure wish I could help, maybe some of the other more current in the practice electricians, engineers, mechanics and sparkies can help, but its my engineering "opinion" NO ONE can accurately compute the "real answer" you mentioned unless we know the actual load placed on the winch and its own friction inefficiency. I'm rusty as an old nail on this stuff but heres kind of an OLD rusty engineers approach to answer what we can based on what few facts we have


1) For starters, if his drill draws 6 amps at 120 volts, that computes to 720 watts to operate it (Another conversion factor comes to mind, 1 HP = 746 watts if I recall correctly). So, if you had an inverter rated for 1000 watts with a sufficient surge capacity (perhaps 1500 to 2000 watts, we would need the drill and inverter actual specs) allowing the drill to start ITS MY ENGINEERING "OPINION" THAT WILL RUN THE DRILL provided the drills load isnt greater then its capacity. You're only putting x amount of energy into the drill and its NOT 100% efficient, so you cant get more energy out of it then its input

Hey if the drill draws 6 amps and the load is such???? that the drill is producing sufficient HP at a 6 amp draw to maintain operation of the winch and its load, WELL THEN IT WILL WORK But we dont know the load on the winch now do we, so how can we say??????


2) HOWEVER THE QUESTION WE CANT ANSWER AS WE DONT KNOW THE LOAD PLACED ON THE WINCH is if the drill will operate it????????????????????

3) Let me point out why we cant provide the "real answer" you asked about by posing a few questions....

a) Whats the weight of the item being winched?
b) Is it on wheels or being drug along and
whats the drag friction???
c) Whats the rolling friction if on wheels
d) Whats the angle of incline, if any
e) What is the winches efficiency. It has
gears and they produce friction and heat so
there are losses

ARE YOU BEGINNING TO UNDERSTAND WHY WE DONT HAVE ENOUGH FACTS TO OBTAIN THE "REAL ANSWER"

It takes x horsepower just to turn all those heavy winch gears you know, so some of the energy the drill puts into the winch gets dissipated as heat WHICH MAKES THINGS EVEN WORSE

I will still venture a few pure educated guesses if that helps answer your question???

1) Id GUESS that 6 amp 120 volt drill will turn that winch if theres no load placed on it

2) Id GUESS if you were winching a light lawn mower on wheels up no greater then a 10% incline the 6 amp 120 volt drill will work

3) Id GUESS if you tried to winch a 10,000 LB truck up a 30 degree incline loading ramp that 6 amp 120 volt drill WILL NOT WORK

SOOOOOOOOO never say never and Im always willing to learn, so if someone can tell us if that drill will operate the winch successfully without knowing the load, the weight, the incline, the rolling or dragging friction WELL I JUST GOTTA HEAR THAT LOL

That being said I will venture another pure guess and "opinion" that drill isnt very practical as far as being to pull much weight up much of an incline being operated off an Inverter. ITS JUST DONT SOUND VERY FEASIBLE TO ME IF HE NEEDS TO PULL VERY MUCH WEIGHT.....

All are entitled to their opinions but NOT their own facts so I hope other engineering and technical types and sparkies can give you the "real answer" Sorry I just cant not knowing the load placed on the winch and drill.......

Some of us here like me LOVE engineering and sparky chat and hearing other opinions (agree or disagree), Im sorry if it bores the others

God Bless Yall and Merry CHRISTmas

John T

An invertor produces pulsating DC not pure AC. That will burn up some drill motors.

Theres different types of Inverters (price, quality, type) out there, some produce closer to a sine wave others look like chopped maybe more square lookin waves etc. His drill can be a brush type repulsion motor which is different from an induction only motor. The type and size of the inverter and the drill itself are all factors that make a difference.

Fun chat, I enjoy it

John T

Show me evidence of a sine-wave inverter made within the past 15 years EVER causing trouble with an electric motor. Name the make and model please. I do not believe your claim.

My house and barn run on twin inverters. Made by Outback. I've also tested several other brands from 1000 watts to 10,000 watts and all worked fine on everything tested. That includes sensitive electronics and electric motors.

Do you know the difference between a square wave, modified wave, and simulated sine-wave inverter?

That motor draws 6 Amps, at rated RPM.

You start lugging it down and the Amps will really start to climb. Down near a stall it could be pulling upwards of 15 Amps.

IMHO, even 2000 Watts is iffy.

With larger inverters and big loads, you will definitely want to connect directly to your truck's battery, and leave the engine running.

I've got enough facts. I own two of those same winchs. It'a 5000 lb. winch with a handle that gives it 14" of leverage. Low range ratio of 24 to 1. I'm going to assume the question is - can a 6 amp/120 VAC drill make it pull 5000 lbs at "normal" speed in low-range.

The answer is that just about any drill can do it if geared down enough. But to match hand-cranking speed at 5000 lbs? NO, a 850 RPM 6 amp drill can't do it with added gearing. But yes, a HD 1/2" or 3/4" drill can power it if it has super-reduction. Many big drills with creeper low-ranges can power the winch but it will be slow.

I tested a new cheap 1/2" drill I got recently. Rated 6.3 amps. Full lock it draws 1800 watts. Working real hard but not locking it draws around 800 watts. My AIMs 1250 watt mod-wave inverter handles it fine. So does my AIMs 1000 watt mod-wave. So does my Ramsond full sine-wave 1500 watt. A Black and Decker Vector mod-wave 1000 watt inverter won't. So much for Black and Decker/Vector.

AIMs 1250 watt mod-wave inverter is rated at 3100 watts surge. Cost $129.

AIMs 1000 watt mod-wave inverter is rated 3000 watts surge.
Cost $74.

Ramsond Sunray 1000 watt pure sinewave inverter is rated 3100 watts surge. $240

Black and Decker Vector 1000 watt is rated only 2000 watts surge. Tripped when I drew only 1200 amps.

You can reverse a starter motor if you know how I have used more than one on winches I have built.