Winch bypass

[bpapagni]

I have a motorized winch but how do I crank up the top if the battery is dead. I see the cap on the housing for the grease but I don't see any place to insert a wrench to manually crank.

[kinma13]

Mode n yearl of pup? I have a 2015 hw276 and there is a nut with a gear behind that cap.

[bpapagni]

Mine is a 2007 Rockwood 1640.

[flagst228]

Pull the black cap off and there is a slot for the tool u should have that fits in it behind all the grease.Kinda looks like a flat blade screw driver. Newer ones have a nut behind the cap and don't need to be greased

[flagst228]

1st pic old style. 2nd pic new style

[bpapagni]

The top photo looks like mine. Thanks.

[maccve]

If ever you have to crank it up, be ready to crank and crank and crank...you have to turn it about 30 times just to raise it an inch or less.... A drill comes in very handy for this task, but if you have the kind like in the top picture above you will break the bolt off the top...it comes off very easily. I know all of this because it has happened to me.

FYI...if your battery goes dead and you can't use the winch for that reason, just get some jumper cables and use your tow vehicle battery.

I just recently did a thread where I removed my power winch and installed a manual one after my cable broke...it works very easily and would recommend it! I no longer take 10 minutes for the power winch to raise my roof as it would always cut off because the fuse or something would overheat and cut it off and I would have to sit and wait for it to cool off to run it a few more seconds... Now I just insert the handle and crank it up in a minute or less.

[f5moab]

Originally Posted by maccve

A drill comes in very handy for this task, but if you have the kind like in the top picture above you will break the bolt off the top...it comes off very easily. I know all of this because it has happened to me.

No, that is not really true in all cases. I have done it twice with a power drill and never broke the bolt! And yes, I have the old style.

Can it break, sure, but to say IT WILL BREAK is obviously wrong since I know a few others who have used it successfully.


I do suggest using a ratchet to make sure the bolt is loose. If loose a drill will crank it up without breaking!