[EricH]

Got a better idea for you, depending on your winch setup. 1 drum, 2 sections, running the outbound cord off one side and the inbound off the other one. I've been on a team that did 3 steel cables off one drum, powered by 2 Fisher-Price motors with KOP gearboxes, for lifting a robot.

Setup: the F-P motors are mounted as described in other threads. Each powered one end of the drum through an adapter. The drum itself was lathed into 3 sections--center was the "incoming" cable and the sides were both "outgoing" during a lift. The incoming cable and the outgoing cables were wound in opposite directions.

What I'd do these days, given that that adapter is no longer in the KOP: make an octagon for a FP-keyed shaft interface, and make something similar for a drum of the appropriate size. Or find a source for it.