The diesel engine driven towing winch is a device to be used for towing operations on boat and ship, it is driven by a diesel engine hydraulic pump unit. It is mainly composed of diesel HPU, hydraulic motor, hydraulic normally closed brake with multiple disc, gearbox, clutch, drum, support shaft, frame and so on.
The control manifold can be set inside the gearbox to save the space and it can be protected from the harsh marine environment, such as heavy wind, storm, and excessive moisture. Compared with electric towing winch, hydraulic winch generally has larger load capacity and it is usually used on large vessels as needed.
Tips on Using Hydraulic Towing Winch
The rated load of hydraulic towing winch is large especially when it is used to tow heavy ship. How to tow a boat with a hydraulic towing winch? The attention is needed to paid to the several steps as follows:
- Keep distance from another ship and avoid coming alongside it while throwing the tow line to another ship to reduce the risks;
- Bow eye is a good place to attach the tow line to the towed ship, so if it’s possible, just attach the tow line to the bow eye on the ship;
- It’s advised to use plenty of line for towing operations, which is a safe measure to tow a ship because the towed ship has no ways of slowing down when it’s in the process of towing;
- Watch and pay out the line slowly after throwing it to make sure that the line is not twist or wrap;
- The tug ship and the towed ship should stay in constant touch during the towing operations and solve the problems in time, for example, if the towed ship begins to sink or something like that happens, the tug ship must take immediate measure to deal with it;
- Keep directional stability of the towed ship to make sure it moves smoothly without turning to one side or the other.
