Portable Winch (Freight Car Opener)

This is a Portable Freight Car Winch. It can be used alone or it can slide on a fork truck to extend over a large gap between the building and the freight car. In either case, the winch must be tied down to the opposite end of the railcar to prevent it from sliding. The unit comes with chain and several different hooks to lash onto the car.

The rope is then let out and hooked onto the door. The winch has a 15 foot control cable to operate from a safe distance. With 6000 pounds of pull your operator will pull the bent and damaged doors in a few seconds that before took hours. You will not use this on every car of course, but it sure does the job when needed.

The synthetic rope is rated for 16,500 pounds and will lie down if broken; it has no whiplash, which is because it is a static rope with no stretch. This was our most wonderful find when looking for a better mousetrap.

The winch uses 2 each group 24 NAPA batteries (stowaway) with 500 ca each that are used in series in a 24volt system. This is a deep cycle marine type battery with 140 rcm and 80 ah each. A gel type battery or a group 27 battery can be used upon request. You can replace these at any car parts store. Just ask for group 24.

The winch comes with a “quick charge” (brand name) 24-volt charger that couples to the winch with a SB 175A-600V connector. The recharge from dead takes about 4 hours. As with all smart chargers, this one will drop to a trickle and go into a maintance mode when left on for extended periods.