Auto Tow Information

Steve Leonard wrote:
I am a bit disappointed to see this thread going the
way the Yahoo Winch design group did. I still watch
there and am interested in what comes of it. It started
off (Or so I thought) with the notion of designing
a simple but reliable winch that a small group of people
could afford to build so a small club could fly. It
rapidly evolved into a multi drum, hundreds of horsepower
machine that would make the small club capable of doing
120+ launches of fully loaded ASH-25s and Duo Discuses
a day. Does a small club really need that much power
and more than one on a drum winch?

It sounds like you are reading too much into the documents in the Winch
Design Group file section. In reality, the practical design discussions
have all been about two drum winches, mounted on (and obtaining power
from) commonly available large pickups or small trucks with 250 to 300
HP turbo diesels. Discussion has slowed for the past few months, as it
is soaring season in the northern hemisphere.

From a mechanical perspective, the main things that are preventing a
couple of groups from "cutting metal" this fall, are the lack of a
source for inexpensive and reliable split-shaft power takeoff units, and
a simple workable design for drum clutches. If you or anyone else has
any ideas, we'd love to hear them...

Marc