Super Winch Makes Sledding 100% More Fun






[via Neatorama]

22 thoughts on “Super Winch Makes Sledding 100% More Fun

  1. About a hundred years ago a device like this was called a Steam Donkey. It was a steam-powered winch which was often hooked up to a tree or other item to either drag stuff toward itself or to drag itself toward the tree.

  2. I was thinking just the other day how something like this would be great to have. I don’t live where it snows right now but when I do, I am going to build one of these. When I was a kid we always used to get tired out dragging the old wooden toboggan up the hill at my grandmothers.

  3. “Super winch makes sledding 100% more fun”

    Super winch makes sledding 100% more deadly.

    There is a reason we (mostly) stopped using mules and horses in logging. Same concept. At least dead mans switch it.

  4. “The various wires you see zip-tied to the frame are run three separate electrical kill switches that actually stopped the rider fairly quickly.” Need more detail on this.

  5. @CutThroughStuffGuy:

    Why such a big focus on safety? Life with risks is fun!

    Here’s how I break it down; if it’s a device that would only injure your dumbass self using it, then I don’t care. If it’s something that can cause serious harm to others, THEN safety is a concern.

  6. See, I draw the line at if it could cause ME serious injury then that’s a concern. That’s already above and beyond concern for others.

    If the potential to cause harm or death is high (and I think you will agree that the POTENTIAL is here) then steps need to be taken to minimize that risk. Not eliminate it, that’s not possible. But minimize it. Life without significant, glaring risks is just as fun.

  7. Ahhh Hack a Day, if it moves its deadly and if it flys its illegal…you’re the fearful anal retentive parents I never had.

    Seriously though, this is the same thing as a rope tow you see at any ski area. It has redundant kill switches and you can let go if anything goes wrong.
    Only difference is that is portable, hand built and thus cooler.

  8. @CutThroughStuffGuy
    could you explain more in depth why this is dangerous
    i was gonna make a tow rope for a group of snowboarders that made a diy terrain park, but now i don’t know…

    also, does anyone know some nice plans on the net for diy towropes

  9. @CutThroughStuffGuy: I see the LOWEST of potential for harm with this; like to the degree that you’d have to be a complete retard to get hurt. Perhaps you think it’s turbocharged or something?

  10. I had a LONG sled run in Vermont, and would have loved this. With proper snowfall, we used to jump a 2 lane road and the 4′ barbed wire fence on the downhill side to add the run down the cow pasture to the river.

    Getting hurt from a winch? I can say with cetainty that the risk of injury is MUCH greater sledding down the trails, headfirst at speed. But oh so much fun.

  11. If you snag on something then your limbs are the only thing connecting said snag to this 8 hp machine. That goes from “helpfully pulling you up the hill” to “ripping your limbs off”. In about 500 milliseconds. That’s the issue I have with this.

  12. @CutThroughStuffGuy: I can understand your concern, however, perhaps it could simply be configured so that you have to consciously hold on, that way you could easily let go. It didn’t look like much of a risk to get snagged on the hill in the video anyway.

  13. I hate to say it but CutThroughStuffGuy has thought of a nonobvious hazard which is very real. An inability to let go or an unexpected erganomics crisis could make this a finger eating machine at the least.

    Overdramatic in light of rope tows present in recreational snow parks? Perhaps, but those are generally manned by an operator who can kill the power.

    The hack is brilliant and delivers on a fantasy from my youth. The safety concerns make room for minor improvement in the form of a slip clutch or breakaway straps.

    If you’re not paying attention, by the time you feel your hand getting pulled in to a pulley, it’s already too late. The only protection at that point is slack rope tension, rope stretch or a stalled motor, and 8hp isn’t going to slow down over fingers.

  14. Sometime in the pas either popular science or popular mechanics had a project similar to this.. Knowing a man who was horribly injured when he got entangled in a captain winch in the oil field, my first thought was what means was employed here to prevent a similar accident. Anyway if I where faced with a 35-45 hike back up a hill I wouldn’t say no hooking on the line

  15. Ummm, as noted above, the act of going down seems more dangerous than the cable. A friend of mine broke his spine on a ski slope, it’s a minor miracle that he’s able to walk today. The security built into this is good enough for me.

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