I decided it would be nice to have a wireless remote control for the windlass, so I could raise and lower the anchor from anywhere on the boat. This is really helpful now that my motor is down and I need to be in the cockpit to handle the lines as I sail off the anchor.
A quick search on Google for a remote windlass control by the manufacturer gave me pricing between $250 and $300. Not going to happen for something that isn’t a necessity.
I then thought back to our offroad days, realizing a windlass is just a winch like you’d find on a jeep. We used to use cheap remote contollers for those.
On Amazon I found some remote winch controls for $20 each. I wired one in today and it works perfect. I’ll buy a couple extras as their cheap Chinese parts. Even with the extras I’m saving 75%.
I still have the hard wired windlass controls at the foredeck so there isnt a safety issue.
I have the same and love it. Be shore to turn off power as many of these units run on the same frequency. You don’t want somebody else in the Anchorage inadverntly raising your anchor when you aren’t onboard.
Yea, I’ve had shorts in a windlass cause it to feed out chain. So the breaker is only on when I’m going to raise or lower the anchor.
I love it! Thank you so much. Until now I thought even a boat winch would be too expensive (and it would be) but I hadn’t thought of using a cheap 4WD one.