Winches - These winches are available for use on flagpoles with a butt diameter of 6" or larger. These gearless winches utilize cast bronze internal brakes which release when a winch handle is inserted and rotational pressure is applied. The winch is locked at any position by removing the handle which engages the brake system. The small size is generally used on flagpoles up to 45', the large size is used on 50' through 80' and x-large size is used on flagpoles higher than 80'. The winch is mounted to the inside of the flagpole with two 15/16"-18NC stainless steel bolts with mounting centers being 3 1/2". Recommended diameters of stainless steel cable are 1/8" or 5/32".

Outer Dimensions

Small Stainless Steel Winch: 4-1/4" (Height) x 4-1/4" (Width) x 3" (Length)
Large Stainless Steel Winch: 4-1/4" (Height) x 4-1/4" (Width) x 3.5" (Length)
Extra Large Stainless Steel Winch: 4-1/4" (Height) x 4-1/4" (Width) x 6-1/4" (Length)

Proper Care and Maintenance

A few tricks can lengthen the life of your winch for your internal cable system. The first and most important is how you use the mechanism.

Raise the flag in an even manor not to go too fast as this can cause many problems from the cable twisting and becoming tangled in the winch or the even worse, the cable breaking.

Open the access door and keep an eye on the winding pattern, making sure the cable is even and there are no significant gaps. Also, the cable is not bunching to one side or another.

Once a year, take a lubricant, preferably (oil free) spray, and apply the lubricant to the winch in both the crank opening and gears (accessible from the door). With the winch slightly unwound, rock the winch back and forth allowing the lubricant to work it's way into the gears.

If the winch freezes up, or if you can tell the winch is freezing up, you can replace the winch without going to the top of the flagpole. Remove the cable from the cable form the winch carefully. Manually lower the flag until the flag is down, and you have the cable end from the inside of the flagpole. From here you can remove the winch, reattach the cable, and affix the winch to the flagpole. Give us a call and we can walk you through your options.