Classic beach winch restoration September 29, 2022 – Posted in: Blog

We were asked if we would like a classic beach winch to restore for project funds; not one to miss an opportunity, Lloyd gratefully accepted, without looking at the winch first we think!

Collection day came, so armed with a large board, a couple of scaffold poles and some rope, four of us hit the beach. Turned out that the winch was located 100yrds from the nearest car park! Not phased we took on the challenge of part lifting and pulling the deadweight across the pebbles back to the van. Then with a lot of effort we managed to lift the winch into the van. Easy part completed, although we didn’t know it yet!

Back to the workshop where we manoeuvred the winch back out of the van and on to a pallet, thankfully no broken bones or hernias. On closer initial inspection of the winch, a few of us were thinking WHY?!

However, always up for a challenge, the team agreed that we should at least dismantle it a little to see how salvageable the winch really was.

Out came the release fluids, gas torches, sledgehammer and finally the grinder!

Now with the winch drum secured on two axel stands and the rest of the parts spread around, we agreed that actually we could and should rebuild this old classic to give someone another fifty years of good service.

So, side plate rot cut off and new plate welded, cogs cleaned and re-dressed, shafts cleaned and re-dressed, new tie bars, winch drum cleaned and re-dressed, broken tooth rebuilt and dressed. New parts fabricated, new brake strop fitted to the cleaned and re-dressed brake band. Then all painted, greased and reassembled to achieve this ‘AS NEW’ behemoth of a winch we have now.

All credit to our engineering team and volunteers for completing another fantastic job.

We hope this large classic beach winch can now be sold on to raise much needed funds for the greater project.