Dutton-Lainson Company WG1500HD 1500 lbs Worm Gear Winch with Hex Drive

Works well with crank handle or an impact wrench with socket. Not a cheap priced wench.

This winch is specifically intended to carry a load. Other "pulling" type winches are not rated for a suspended load and are intended only for pulling. This winch will hold a suspended load and is self braking. I use a drill and a socket to speed up the process, I highly recommend to anyone wishing to suspend a load, gambrel, deer feeders, etc. in my opinion, it's by far the safest and most reliable manual lifting method for these applications. USA Made is also a plus.

We use this to hoist our Jeep top and it works perfectly and feels very safe.

Upgraded to save my shoulder when raising & lowering Martin houses. 4 winches on 4 poles; operating 1-2 x week. Housing doesn’t weigh over 10-20#. So far so good.

I use this to raise/lower 30ft of 1-1/2” galvanized steel pipe that’s home to a couple weather arrays. I needed something that would not jerk the arrays around so it had to be very smooth operating. I also needed something that would lock without slipping even a tiny bit while locking/unlocking. Lastly, I needed something I could operate by hand or by power.This winch is rock solid, is smooth as silk in operation, and stays put expectations where I put it without messing around with locks and ratchets.It’s a bit pricey and doesn’t come with any steel rope. But installing the rope was a breeze and took only about 10 minutes.I highly recommend!

This winch is made far better than others of the same capacity to which I compare it. I needed a worm drive winch, rather than a simple spur gear boat winch because of this design’s inherent self-locking capacity. The winch comes with a hefty 5/8” drive socket welded nicely to a heavy duty handle. I use that handle as a backup, and a cordless drill and socket as the primary means of providing torque to the winch. Yes, a couple of cycles and the battery is depleted, but no more than if the drill were used for several hundred screws, and the battery is easily re-charged.

Too high, or too low???? Not sure, but it takes forever to winch anything up. I use it to winch up a train table. There is no way I could do it with the manual crank. It isn't difficult to do, just takes sooooo many cranks. I use an impact wrench with a bit. It does the job, but I need to stop to make sure i don't burn out the motor.

Got this to hoist my Jeep hard top up for storage and down for installing on the vehicle - in my pole barn with 12' ceilings. Replaced the cheap come along that comes with the top hoist kits you buy from Quadratec and other places. 1000% better. Much better and safer control with this - turn the crank and the load goes up and down - stop at any point and it just stops in place going up or down - no ratchet levers to flip - no wondering if the brake is going to hold - since pulling on the load end of the rope won't make the worm gear turn. The removable handle and hex drive let's you automate the lifting by using a socket on a cordless drill or impact wrench. Going to replace my kayak & canoe hoists with the split reel model.