S
SIR
Guest
After burning through my second Ace Line Hauler motor (having already chewed through 3 Ezzy Pullers) I finally decided to follow the advice of some fellow board members and upgrade my puller to a stronger motor. The stock pullers are okay in fair weather with light traps but if you are pulling heavy traps in any type of wind they just don't have much longevity. We are out year round in fairly ugly weather so seem to have been eating up pullers.
I've put about 15,000 feet of line thru the puller so far and am very happy with it. It pulls a steady 70' per minute but does so at pretty much any load. I hooked into a friends line who uses a hydraulic puller and pulled up the end of his string with concrete cinder blocks and four big traps with NO slowdown on the motor.
What follows are some photos of the converted puller as well as some "How To" notes.
As recommended by others I bought a T1500 Superwinch from Crappy Tire for $250. I looked at the Champion $70 "made in China" winch next to it but I've had so many problems with made in China tools recently that I decided to go with the N/A product.
Disassemble the winch getting rid of the cable and the housing saving just the winch and the spool. Mill the inside of the spool to make the inside edges flat as opposed to beveled so that the high density plastic pillow block will be a tight fit on the inside of the spool hence not wear out. (You could probably skip this step but I think the edges of the plastic block would wear fairly quickly making the fit sloppy over time) To make the pillow block take a square of high density plastic or teflon and bore out the center to the inner dimensions of your spool. Cut the block in half and drill out mounting holes. A good option is to drill out a grease fitting hole into the pillow block so you can keep it lubricated.
Next step is to drill out the plate of the Ace puller so the spool can go through the wall. Drill holes so you can mount the wheel to the end of the spool and drill the holes to mount the pillow block to the Ace plate. At this point you have the pillow block/spool and wheel all installed.
Last step is to make an angle bracket to hold the motor in the correct position. I bolted the bracket thru the square tube to leave me some play for alignment but there is no reason you couldn't weld the plate in place. I needed a small spacer plate to get the motor to line up with the spool. You may or may not need this plate depending on the thickness of the material you use for your mounting bracket. Two more bolts to attach the motor to the mounting plates and it's on to electrical.
I couldn't find a water tight 20amp switch so I made one as per the photos. I bought a 20 amp switch from NAPA and a water proof box from the hardware store. I PVC cemented closed the openings I didn't need in the box then drilled the cover plate to mount the switch thru. I bedded the switch in silcone when installing it and silconed around the wires. Only thing to watch is that you get the wires connected right. The winch will run backwards if you get them wrong so test them before soldering or crimping them down.
I stayed with my Scotty plug as I didn't want to start making mounting plates for the new style connectors which are only designed for thru-plate mounting.
Good luck!!!
I've put about 15,000 feet of line thru the puller so far and am very happy with it. It pulls a steady 70' per minute but does so at pretty much any load. I hooked into a friends line who uses a hydraulic puller and pulled up the end of his string with concrete cinder blocks and four big traps with NO slowdown on the motor.
What follows are some photos of the converted puller as well as some "How To" notes.
As recommended by others I bought a T1500 Superwinch from Crappy Tire for $250. I looked at the Champion $70 "made in China" winch next to it but I've had so many problems with made in China tools recently that I decided to go with the N/A product.
Disassemble the winch getting rid of the cable and the housing saving just the winch and the spool. Mill the inside of the spool to make the inside edges flat as opposed to beveled so that the high density plastic pillow block will be a tight fit on the inside of the spool hence not wear out. (You could probably skip this step but I think the edges of the plastic block would wear fairly quickly making the fit sloppy over time) To make the pillow block take a square of high density plastic or teflon and bore out the center to the inner dimensions of your spool. Cut the block in half and drill out mounting holes. A good option is to drill out a grease fitting hole into the pillow block so you can keep it lubricated.
Next step is to drill out the plate of the Ace puller so the spool can go through the wall. Drill holes so you can mount the wheel to the end of the spool and drill the holes to mount the pillow block to the Ace plate. At this point you have the pillow block/spool and wheel all installed.
Last step is to make an angle bracket to hold the motor in the correct position. I bolted the bracket thru the square tube to leave me some play for alignment but there is no reason you couldn't weld the plate in place. I needed a small spacer plate to get the motor to line up with the spool. You may or may not need this plate depending on the thickness of the material you use for your mounting bracket. Two more bolts to attach the motor to the mounting plates and it's on to electrical.
I couldn't find a water tight 20amp switch so I made one as per the photos. I bought a 20 amp switch from NAPA and a water proof box from the hardware store. I PVC cemented closed the openings I didn't need in the box then drilled the cover plate to mount the switch thru. I bedded the switch in silcone when installing it and silconed around the wires. Only thing to watch is that you get the wires connected right. The winch will run backwards if you get them wrong so test them before soldering or crimping them down.
I stayed with my Scotty plug as I didn't want to start making mounting plates for the new style connectors which are only designed for thru-plate mounting.
Good luck!!!
