Winch ratchet and paw design

[Forhire]

This last season as I wandered around the pits I saw some really interesting winch designs. I figured I'd share the winch we used this year. During the design phase we looked at purchasing and modify a ratchet and pawl from McMaster. I know some teams did this. After some discussion on time we decided to design our own. We opted for a fairly large and open ratchet, similar to what you'd have on a barbed wire ratchet tensioner. Yes, we even thought about modifying on of them.

It turned out to be easy to make and was reliable. The dimensions were estimated by winding our paracord onto a spool and measuring it. I turned the hub at work as lathe tooling at the school is limited. One of only a few parts that weren't done at the school by students.

We used a hex drive gear reduction and the hex bearing for the outboard support.

I'd be interested to see some other designs if you have something to share. Some teams had winch issues so I hope this helps someone.

Here is the design. 3" in diameter and 1.75" inches wide.


Turned blank.


Milling the ratchet. This is a first year student. He setup the job on the mill and ran it.


Hex broaching on the old press in the AG shop... but it's all they have.


Here's the completed winch. For some reason I didn't get any better photos.