Looking to convert my hand crank feeders into a electric winch. Anyone have spics one a good way to do this...

Seems like I heard someone discussing how they had simply removed the hand crank and would use a cordless impact wrench.

One option is to remove the existing hand winch and replace with a hex drive worm gear winch. Those I use can be drive by a 5/8" socket on a chordless drill or impact driver. They also come with a handle as a backup.

Or, you can put a 12V winch on which runs on either a 12V battery or your vehicle. You can purchase a 2K lb'er at Harbor Freight or Northern Tool fairly cheap.

Cast has it, Ill send him a link to this thread.

Before -



And after -



Unfortunately, it's not easy or cheap. You can't change winches by disconnecting the old winch cable and attaching it to the new winch, so you have to lay the feeder down and remove the hand winch to mount the electric winch. I used a cheap Warn 2K winch and immediately ran into issues with winch cable length. It has 30' of cable and my feeder poles are 17' tall. I had to mock it all up horizontally and figure how high to mount the winch so my feeder could reach the ground. Remember, the cable runs the length 3 times, up through the pulley, down through the bottom pulley and back up to the anchor point. You need 2 swing open pulleys for the tripod top and barrel hoist connection to thread the cable. Once done you stand the tripod up and tee post ties to the ground while you work on the wiring. You can go full tilt solar as I did but after the first dead battery, I pulled it and just let the winch wires hang. I use a cheap dedicated to the Gator pair of jumper cables to power my winch now from Gator battery.

Here's what I learned when the battery went out...

You can't get the feeder lowered. The winch has no manual control. I'm not sure there is a winch with a manual control for over ride, but that will figure in on my next build.
I would recommend looking for a real good gear driven manual winch with at least forty feet of cable and an optional hex drive for a battery powered drill for a motor. With this you have a plan B.

That feeder is in my back forty so it'll run like it stands. Here I have a plan B FEL.

Seems very unnecessary with today's low rider feeders

I simply bought a 2500lbs. winch from Harbor Freight for $69.99 and switched out the hand-crank. Bolted the electric winch about 4ftto 5ft off the ground and onto one of the feeder legs. It uses a 12v battery and has a hand controlled switch to raise and lower the bucket. Because we have cattle, I do not leave the winch connected - cows love wires of all kinds!

You will have to lay the feeder down in order to thread the cable wire; unwind the cable from the electric winch and use the winch hook to secure the cable to pulley assembly. I also changed the feeder legs to 14ft legs - some of the cattle could just barely reach the bottom of the feeder with their tongues!

This setup has been working fine for 4 years now! Oh yeah, make sure your battery is charged up before connecting the winch! (voice of experience)

Could it just plug into the truck trailer light socket for raising and lowing the feeder?...Also will the Harbor Freight winch hold Continuous weight?

The trailer wiring is not big enough for the current used. Yeah my cheap Warn has been hanging/holding for a couple of years.