Altron SM-30 Mast Goodwinch electric winch installation and wire rope replacement

My Altron mast has accompanied me for quite a few years, almost as long as I've had my Amateur radio license , its now almost 40 years old and apart from cable and manual winch replacement its been working just fine. These galvanized slimline masts just keep on going. The original installation had the post mount embedded into the cubic meter of concrete , when I moved I bought a sleeve into which the post mount fitted..so much easier. You can just see the sleeve sticking out of the concrete in the photo above.

Preparation

Installation of the tower winch can be done in a few hours if you have all the drills , nuts and bolts and half decent weather.

Safety first.

Get a pair of working gloves that fit , if you`ve went to the trouble of buying a new winch then buy a decent pair of gloves. I`m fed up hearing the same old "oh I cant work with gloves on" , normally its because its a pair which is far too big and you are not used to manual work . If your not used to working with tools and dont wear gloves then expect to get cuts in your hands and no skin left on your knuckles.

Safety glasses , but I don't wear glasses I hear some of you say , well working with wire rope can be extremely dangerous especially with the old rope. The wire rope being removed is covered in short sharp broken wires and being tightly wrapped at the end can spring around your hands,  it is greasy (you did grease your old rope when in use?) will slip from your hands and aim directly for your eyes..ouch!

A pair of overalls or gardening clothes to save your Sunday best.

In Industry its common practice to do a risk assessment before starting any work , its common sense stuff like moving anything you will eventually trip over or asking the kids to play somewhere else while you work . Look around and think before you start

So you now have the tools ready , you`ve done a risk assessment  and are wearing your PPE (Personnel protective equipment)

Seems obvious but before you tilt the mast ensure you have the SAFETY PIN inserted to prevent the inner round section of mast telescoping out of the square outer.

Rest the top of the mast on a sturdy support , never ever  at any time support the mast solely with the wire rope. 

If you have the head unit fitted you may find the inner section may not telescope out the bottom enough so it may be prudent to remove it now before proceeding.

Remove the old winch and steel rope

First the manual winch and wire rope must be removed.

Its time to change the winch when the teeth start to get quite worn ; this is when the edges of the teeth start to round off and eventually lose their grip and may even slip.

The wire rope is made of individual wires wrapped together and its time to change the rope when it starts to get worn: the individual strands start to break and the rope loses its smoothness and the rope itself will stretch and the diameter appear thinner. 

Carefully unwrap the old steel wire from the winch and pull clear , taking care to watch it does not spring towards your face.

Pull it out of the pulley sleeves until it is lying coiled on the ground at the top of the outer mast section.

The wire rope is attached to the bottom of the inner section , it probably has a wire thimble fitted on the end which is an eye that hooks on to a small post at the bottom.

You will be unable to pull the old wire out from the bottom to the top because of the thimble so you will need to pull it all through from top to bottom.

It is at this point you should attach a draw wire or rope to the old steel rope at the top to aid pulling in the new wire rope, the draw wire should be tied off at the top so you do not pull it all the way through.

Now down to the bottom of the mast there is couple of things you must do before you can attach the new wire rope.

You must loosen the bolt which the inner section rests on at the bottom of the outer section .

The RETAINING BAR which keeps the tower upright must also be removed shown here unbolted and sitting inside the square section.( This fits on the outside just to be clear ) Once removed this will allow the inner section to telescope out the bottom .

This is the only time you can remove the SAFETY PIN to allow the inner section to move.

You can now pull the inner section out the bottom to give you access to the rope post , unhook the old rope from the post and pull through until the draw wire/rope appears, you can now attach the new wire rope to the draw wire/rope( a bit of electrical tape will suffice )

Perhaps its time to scrape off all the old hardened grease bottom and top while you have access.

Once you`ve cleaned things up a bit you should be able to attach the new wire rope to the draw wire and pull it through from the top. A bit of spray grease on the last 5 meters or so of the new steel rope just now will ensure this mostly hidden and hard to reach bit is lubricated. Attach the thimble to the post and push the inner section back in, also pull the rope from the top to remove the slack.

Push the inner section in enough that you can refit the bottom bolt that the inner section will rest on. Lining up the holes and refitting the SAFETY PIN now will help to keep the inner section from sliding back out whilst you redo the bolt.

The upright RETAINING BAR can now also be refitted to the outside and this will complete the work at the bottom of the mast.

For the moment you can keep the rest of the new rope coiled up out the way a the top of the mast while you refit the head unit.

If you are only changing the wire rope feed it through the pulleys and attach to the pulley.

Check everything has been cleaned tightened and lubricated and this should complete the job,

Removing the old winch and refitting the Goodwinch

                                    ATV 4000 winch and accessories as provided by Goodwinch

You may have previously changed the wire rope so now is the time to change the winch.

The existing  manual winch on my Altron mast has been changed before , the winch is secured by two bolts , you can see the top one in the photo below , the bottom bolt is obscured from view.

The old wire rope has been removed so it's just a case of unbolting the winch which will leave you with the mounting post ready for the new electric winch.

The mounting holes on the mounting post do not line up with holes on the electric winch so you will need to drill another in the correct position ( try and be more accurate than I was)

If you make your holes slightly oversized you will have a bit of play.

Goodwinch supply three bolts that suit the winch but you can only fit two on to your mounting post . Your new electric winch is much wider than the old manual one.

As you mount the winch with just two bolts then when you operate the winch to tighten up the wire rope , the winch will shift off the horizontal and take up the play of the oversized holes so you will be required to drill another hole but this time I drilled straight through the post mount.

An alternative could be to make up some brackets and attach them to the mounting post and then attach the winch to that.

The ATV 4000 winch has guide rollers which are also secured by bolts which protrude slightly in the direction of the mounting post so if you try to bolt directly onto the post it will foul at the back so you will need to pack out the back of the winch by about 10mm or so.

You will need to cut and drill an appropriate back plate to allow the winch to fit squarely against the post

A word about bolt types, but note I`m no expert here

Not every bolt is made the same , some bolts are specifically made to hold heavy stuff or are under a lot of stress when used , others are light duty and consequently made of softer material .

The common bolt packs you buy from your local DIY store will generally have no marking on the head of the bolt or perhaps just a manufactures mark and be a low yield bolt which means it will deform relatively easy sometimes known as plastic steel !

If the bolt head has a marking of 5.8 or 8.8  etc. then we have a high tensile bolt, so the higher the number the higher the tensile strength.

So look for the higher tensile type of bolt here, automotive stores will be a better bet to purchase.

Mount the winch with new backplate and ensure its sits flush , your mounting position should have the lower pulley wheel in line with the middle of the rope drum.

The winch should be fitted at a right angle to the mounting post, so if your mounting post is vertical then your winch should sit horizontal ( use a spirit level here).

If your winch is not horizontal then the wire rope will bunch up at one side of the rope drum and will wrap itself unevenly.

Once secured to the post now is the time to connect a battery to the winch and just check it moves in both directions before you attach the wire rope. Make sure the drum has the wire slot at the front for easy access

It's time to wind the wire rope on to the drum, there is a small slot in to which you push the end of the wire rope into and secure by a small hex grub screw after you have fed it from the bottom through the gap between rollers.

Once you have secured the wire rope pull the wire rope taught to take up the slack with your still gloved hand, wrap the wire on to the drum by using the control ( perhaps you may need another person here). By keeping a bit of tension on the wire rope it should wind on evenly.

Spray grease may now be used on the wire rope on the drum just to keep it lubricated.

Give everything a once over,  make sure nothing is near the wire rope drum  its time to luff the mast back up.

Make sure the safety pin is fitted

The wee risk assessment you took at the start is worth another thought , nothing to trip you up , no spanners going to fall of the mast ? No one standing near the mast ?

Use the full length of the control cable , stand back and use the control to wind in the wire rope. Make sure no one will walk under the mast while winding it up as it may fall back down ! The mast will whiz up quite fast (pity there is no speed control) .

When the mast is nearly at the vertical you will need to stop winding in the wire rope before it hits the stop , you need to remember its not an instant stop and the mast will bounce on the wire rope.  When you luff it back down you will need to stop about 1 metre before it hits the mast stand, it takes practice.

The battery recommended is the leisure type used in caravans because of the deep discharge properties, the supplied leads fit the terminals.

Mount this on to a sack trolley so you can wheel it out when required.

So there you have it , new wire rope , new electric winch .

Notes 

I wish is that the winch was a little slower, when raising the mast up in height the speed is about right but when luffing half speed would be nice, sadly its one speed.

A bit of practice with a very lightly loaded head unit will give you confidence.

Wire rope supplied by Goodwinch is 6mm and is perfectly adequate for the size of mast here.

The 45mm od pulley sheaves on the Altron mast are one piece aluminum and are showing signs of wear. There are three in total , two are easy to change but one at the top is particularly problematic, it has two metal plates it sits between which I have still to find a suitable replacement because its so narrow. I`m still looking .

Update MM0CUG can supply 45mm pulley wheels which fit 6mm wire rope , I have purchased some and they should at least be a replacement for two now just waiting for decent weather.

https://www.mm0cug.co.uk/shop/winches-pulleys/