Power winch for wake-boarding

Voltron said:
You could market that to flat land hang gliding and paragliding operations... they would be salivating over that with the portability. How many feet of line will it hold?

It would beat the crap out of the normal setup...

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If you look close you can see the towline running out under where the front wheel was, and it runs thru a pulley anchored out in the field and back to the pilot to let the scooter operator be nearby.

On a really good day I've done a tow to 500 feet and dropped the line, then thermal-ed up to 9000 feet in flatland Fla. so it doesn't take a lot of initial altitude...

The cord length it will hold is dependant on the cord diameter. 1,500 feet is the max length cord it will hold if using 300 pound test Spectra cord. This cord is 800 pound test. It is much thicker. So, the drum will not hold as much cord. I believe it is 800 feet IIRC.

The only bummer about marketting this is cost. I have over $2,400 spent on this winch, not including the build time of roughly 25 hours. So, it would sell for something like $3,500 to $4,000. I doubt that is an acceptable marketing price. Of course, this could be built less costly. For instance, it has a $900 motor, a $300 ESC, $800 of fancy CNC machining, $180 for a high-end Spectra Fiber cord, etc.

I am nearly finished with the winch. Today I fabricated and installed the cord tensioner. It is a carbon fiber flex plate mounted on an angle machined into the feed block at the front of the winch. The entire assembly as you see it in these pictures weighs in at 32 pounds.

Matt
 

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The winch is finished. The strap will be used to anchor the winch to a tree. It is a lumber hauling strap I bought years ago from Menards.

Matt
 

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We have been using the winch. It is running great. It pulled my son and I on the same sled (total weight nearly 300 pounds with the both of us) through the grass!

It is snowing today, so we will be using it for its intended purpose this afternoon. The only issue I have found is cord management. I have 3 separate ideas to implement to assure slack free, even wrapping cord.

Matt
 
Very cool project. I have been toying with the idea of buying a gas powered winch and selling the wakeboat, but this would be even better! I also may know who your client might be. He brought two of his jetboards out on the boat with me and can ride the heck out of them and brings them with him everywhere. We talked about what it would be like to convert them to electric... if he it is not him, I bet he would be another client for you.
 
ecycler said:
Very cool project. I have been toying with the idea of buying a gas powered winch and selling the wakeboat, but this would be even better! I also may know who your client might be. He brought two of his jetboards out on the boat with me and can ride the heck out of them and brings them with him everywhere. We talked about what it would be like to convert them to electric... if he it is not him, I bet he would be another client for you.

Does his name start with an "A"? Is this in Florida?

The work I did for this client was convert a wake-board to electric and build one of these winches.

Matt
 
Hey Guys,

I just wanted to let you all know the winch has been running great all winter and I am offering it up for sale. I am selling it for $3,500 (which is only a touch more than I have invested in it, not including my design and labor time). I plan on building another one (my 13 year old son would kill me if I got rid of this without building another one). But, for now, this one is being sold to fund another awesome project I am not talking about just yet. :wink:

PM me with any inquiries.

Matt
 
Interested. How many deep water starts on a wakeskate or wakeboard do you think it will average per kwh with a 200lbs adult?
 
Well, let's do some math;

20ah at 44 volts is around 600wh of actual usable energy. A deep water start will consume about 220 amps for 6 seconds for a deep start. Then it will consume about 70 amps for the remaining 20 seconds or so in that run.

I would say around 30 runs (with a deep water start) minimum on a charge, probably closer to 45 or 50 runs.

Matt
 
That is helpful. I guess a big factor depends on whether we are talking about experienced riders who have the technique down for popping up or a rook who is still trying to figure it out and fighting the rope.
My biggest gripe with owning a wakeboat is that when I want to ride (board, skate, surf, etc) I am always worried about my wife or the friend operating the machine AND they generally do a bad job giving me good pulls.

Are there any safeguards to keep it from overwinding or if someone lets go at high load to keep the handle from flying back at the operator?
 
Not sure what you mean by overwinding. But, there are no specific safeguards like that. The winch is operated by a RC car transmitter. The operator would need to be ready to let off the trigger if the rope is dropped.

Matt
 
I just replaced the 6 turn Delta motor on the winch with a brand new 3 turn Wye motor. This is a faster and more powerful motor. I think I have this design pretty well maxed out at this point. :mrgreen:
 
Did you sell your e-winch last year? What type of winch did you build in the meanwhile?
 
Hello guys :) ... please correct me if I am wrong: imagine this winch installed on the bridge across the river. Surfer will pull the rope with help of the river stream while the batteries will be charged with regenerative energy.
I assume that the energy needed to pull the surfer upstream is lower then the amount of energy generated because the resistance is much lower while surfing then during "sitting" in the water going downstream with the board directing perpendicularly to the stream.
See this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vh7qLcpjoFc&t=111s about bungee surfing where the potential energy while going downstream is stored in the bungee and reused for the pull again and again.
 
This is a cool one, love the concept.

On a technical side, what was the turn count of the 3220 Astro Flight motor? You said you ordered it custom, so did you change that from the stock 3 turns?
 
Hello,

I am currently looking at creating a similar electric winch system. How did you determine the force required by the rope to pull your rider? From this, I can calculate a torque that my spool will need, and then a torque required by my motor, as well as an RPM. I am currently stuck with picking a certain motor, and being able to power it with a specific battery system that isnt above 2kW.
 
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