I'm thinking about different ways to crank up the wheels on a wheel house that already has hand crank winches. I've seen threads on adding electric winches or hydraulics but would like to save the money and multi-task with tools that you may already have or can justify . Remember these are just ideas.

With the improved technology and torque in cordless impact wrenches, has anyone ever tried to see if a cordless impact wrench is strong enough to raise a fishhouse off the ice? You could weld a nut where the winch handle attaches and make it the same size as the lug nuts holding the tires on. Keep the handle attached, just in case. Then use a 6 inch extension and a socket. They are reversible so it would work on both sides of the house and the drop hitch. Might be nice for the old timers or those with shoulder problems.

Trying to multitask here, I wonder if a cordless impact wrench would work on Strikemaster's slushmaster, with an adapter of course, don't want slushmaster to fall off the wrench and down the hole. Might be too fast but I guess they are variable speed. Again I'm just trying to multi-task equipment.

Here's my goal: 1. Use it to raise fish house. 2. Clean holes with slushmaster. 3. Fix flats. 4. Actually rotate tires when they need it. 5. Wake your buddy up when his rattle reel goes.

Thoughts?

Im betting a good one would lift a shack, I know my buddy has one that would.

Depends on your gear ratio, T.O.W. Think back to your school science days and the "Pulley Ratios"....same thing. I know cordless drills work great with ice augers, (my cousin uses one)no reason why your idea shouldn't work. (Which I think IS a good idea!)The only problem I would forsee is stepping the ratio down to handle weight=slower transfer speed. But it would beat hand crankin'...which just LED me to think of the auto boat winches that pull my boat on my trailer in under 40 seconds or so...Hmmm !!!

Some of them impact drivers are rated at 1000+ ftlbs of torque im fairly sure it would work.

I would say going UP may work if the torque was high enough, but dont know if I want the hammering part of it on my winches when it is 20 below. All you need is jerking on a cable and then it snaps when its that cold.

Also dont think it would work going down...

The hammering might be the issue. I found some useful info on some of the tool web sites and looks like I need to find out how many foot pounds it takes to crank up the house. Another option would be to change the gear ratio like RebelSS says. 2-speed winches might be the way to go and the auto brake would be a nice feature to have.

I use that exact setup on my fishhouse. Except I don't have cables I put flat bottom hand crank jacks (like on a boat trailer jack with out the wheel flat bottom) cut the handle off and welded on a couple nuts. I use a Dewalt 18v impact works great.

So your 18 volt Dewalt is plenty strong? Does it hammer much or just when the extra torque is needed? Any pictures of your system by chance?

Kind of on the same subject. Has anyone made a cable system similar to a fold down camper, so that you can lower both sides at the same time? I would think that if you could engineer something like that and use a boat trailer electric winch that would make it easier too. I would think that with the cold, that you could mount the winch inside under a seat or something and have a remote switch by the door that you could access easily. Just thinking out loud.