What is the best way to acquire winches?

[adciv]

Lesson Learned: After our 2013 Practice Robot came crashing down during practice, be sure your winch can't be back driven. Ensure that when the match ends, there is something which autonomously will stop it using method which doesn't require operator intervention. The poor robots drive train was never straight again after that.

[Collin Stiers]

we used a window motor directly to two hubs that we used a spools, then we made a box to support the shaft that the hubs were on at both ends

[mshafer1]

If building one, throw a wrench in the system (literally). A ratcheting wrench can provide the ability for the motor to wind then stop (without stalling) and the wrench would take the load - would require a shifter though. We used this in 2014 for winding and releasing our shooter that year.