Electric Winch For Getting Dingy On Swim Platform

midexp

Active Member
Oct 5, 2016
423
Harrison Township, Michigan Lake St.Clair
Boat Info
1999 40' Sundancer
Engines
454 merc
Has anybody had any luck mounting an electric winch to their transom to pull their hard bottom dingy onto their davits? I know some have tried, but it still seems they need a second person for help. I'd hate to spend the money to mount one and not be able to bring my dingy up by myself.
 
We have the Hurley H3O system that has a built in trailer hand winch. I understand there is an option for a 12 vdc power unit. Rather than go into a big verbal description here you might look at their website. It’s kind of ungainly for us as we have a very narrow swim platform. Actually more than half the dinghy is cantilevered out over the water.
 
We Installed a davit from thedinghydavit.com and love it, especially that i has an extension and I have access to the platform while the dinghy is up. No crawling over it like before
 

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We Installed a davit from thedinghydavit.com and love it, especially that i has an extension and I have access to the platform while the dinghy is up. No crawling over it like before

That looks to be the easiest and space conscious apparatus I’ve seen yet. What does that arrangement cost? I only see links for requesting a quote.
 
You can find reliable 12V winches on Amazon that can be mounted in your transom locker.

I looked at the davits pictured above, very slick. The one downside I could find was the need for transom supports. That thing is beefy. I also wondered how one would properly secure the aft tube of the dinghy while underway? Depending on how high your platform is off the water that dinghy may well be dragging in the water when coming on/off plane and perhaps even in following seas?
 
We Installed a davit from thedinghydavit.com and love it, especially that i has an extension and I have access to the platform while the dinghy is up. No crawling over it like before
Very nice!
 
Has anybody had any luck mounting an electric winch to their transom to pull their hard bottom dingy onto their davits? I know some have tried, but it still seems they need a second person for help. I'd hate to spend the money to mount one and not be able to bring my dingy up by myself.

yes myself and two friends. Cheap Harbor Freight $60 unit with wireless remote. Mounted in the rope locker to the deck. The 400 has a haus pipe to run the cable out. A cable from the bow eye of the dingy to the stern eye with a loop midship to hooks the winch cable to does the trick.
 
Has anybody had any luck mounting an electric winch to their transom to pull their hard bottom dingy onto their davits? I know some have tried, but it still seems they need a second person for help. I'd hate to spend the money to mount one and not be able to bring my dingy up by myself.
Our previous owner installed the Nautley XL roller davits with a square metal base mounted inside the starboard end of the aft locker. An aluminum post with a hand crank trailer type winch mounted on the top drops into the base. Once the center of gravity is determined and a snap in brindle is made it's easy for one person to retrieve a 10' RBI w/motor. We installed a Hurley davit on a 2005 390DA, but even with lighter soft bottom inflatable it was not easy for two people to drag up. That model of the 390 has a swim platform higher off the water than the Miss Michigan version in the Hurley ad.
 

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