Adding some info here from private message about winch power because I just got a similar question:
Hi, I have a question about your Winch. Are you happy with it and does the motor have enough power? I have a 25l board with foil and weigh 85kg with neo. Thanks already
I’m happy with the winch, but I think for my purposes I should have done a tow boogie instead using an inflatable SUP. It would just result in longer runs, and more general fun out at sea. That said, depending on your area a winch might be the right choice and I’m pretty sure it will work for you. It’s also great for some general surf towing fun for kids and our girlfriends that are significantly smaller than us.
Latest data:
- We weight 80-95 KGs.
- We can foil a 51L Skywalker board (smallest we have), with a 1500cm Takuma Kujira Helium foil at 13-14km/h with duty set to 50% with a 12s pack (would be 100% if using a 6s)
- We can drag ourselves (just our bodies) through the water at a few km/h.
- The batteries we have last quite some time. I estimated around 5km of towing on a 12s 5ah based on our last session, but this may vary depending on what percent of the time you are on foil (we suck and spend a lot of time displacing water while trying to stand up).
Question:
Do you plan on starting on your knees on the board with the board submerged, or more of a wakeboard style start? If the former, I think it will be fine. If the latter, I’m not sure how well it will work pulling you over the top of your board. I can test with a kiteboard if it is possible with our current setup next time we are out.
Suggestions:
- Depending on the top speed you want to achieve, I would recommend changing the gearing for more torque. In our situation, we could have doubled it. I’m considering dropping our small sprocket from 13 to 10 adding about 30% more torque and reducing top speed (which we don’t come close to anyway) by a proportional amount for a better non-foiling surf fun. This is because for heavy riders on regular surfboards our limiting factor is the motor current (torque) rather than RPM.
- I don’t know how long it takes you to get up on such a small board, but consider that given the winch line has a finite length. Unless, you have something like our setup, where if you are good, you can slingshot yourself into some waves heading away from the winch and circle indefinitely.
Happy foiling!
Thank you for your detailed answer. I always start on my knees. What kind of motor current do you have for the 6384 and how warm does the 75100 get? i’m thinking about using the 75200. but as i’m now using two motors, it will be even more expensive.
The 6384 is a Flipsky 140kv.
Neither the motor nor VESC have any heat issues, and I live in a hot climate. Even a touch test right after a few pulls was only mildly warm. This is probably because they are being used less than 50% of the time. After each run, you need to return to your start point allowing everything a rest. So, the 75100 should be just fine. Mine is also a Flipsky.
May I ask why you are going to use two motors? Are you building a super double motor winch like the rewinch, or making two winches? One 6384 motor is plenty for foiling. You can refer to the rough math on pulling power I have in my first post which seems to hold up. Also, at full torque, one 6384 motor is enough to start temporarily deforming my ammo box when the lid isn’t closed. I saw it in videos I was making when trying to figure out why my chain falls. If you are going for two motors in one winch, then I would make sure your construction is super sturdy.
i actually wanted to build a winch with 2 motors, because i bought you in such a way that the power is quite tight. but now i will try it with one motor first. I wanted to use a belt drive now. If the forces become too high, I would switch to roller chains. how much did you pay for your chain drive and where can you get one cheaply?
I live out in Asia so parts are hard to come buy and I generally see what’s available online. The 25H chain sprockets were all I could find that fit my motor shaft, and after some googling I determined the strength of the chain was sufficient. The cost was about 25 USD for the chain and the two sprockets here. Check out “25H sprockets” on Amazon to get a sense of what’s available to ship to you and prices if you don’t have a local online store alternative. I would have preferred belt drive, but I could only find belts aimed for e-skateboards which seemed too weak based on some esk8 forum research. Also, related to this, I could not find any sprockets that worked with the motor keyway, but a dog point set screw has been working well.
