FV270 Horizon 600 windlass slow/stopping

04FV270riverrat

So my boat is an 04 with only 200 hours and the windlass is acting up. It releases the anchor fine, but when it's time to pull up, once the anchor is broke loose, it won't pull the rope weight, let alone when the slack is gone and it's actually pulling the anchor/chain weight up. Me and my pops took the windlass off and took the motor apart and cleaned it all up (was not very dirty). All gears look to be fine and plenty of grease on them. After re-installing the windlass we had let a bunch of line out and tried to pull it back in. The motor started pulling fast for a few seconds, then speed was slowed to a crawl until the main breaker in the battery switch panel popped. We pushed the breaker back in and continued the snails pace until it popped again. We did this about 5 times until we finally got all the anchor back up to the pulpit. The breaker next to switch never popped. He was holding the power wires to the windlass the whole time and noted that they just barely got warm toward the end.

Could the big nut on the gipsy be too tight and causing this?

Could a faulty switch/solenoid be causing this? I'm want to try to exhaust all options before replacing the whole windlass due to price obviously. I plan to test the solenoid switch and breaker this weekend with a ohm meter.

Just seeing if anyone has experienced this problem before.

thanks,
Brad

Liberty44140

Are you making your poor little windlass pull your boat forward? You are not supposed to use the windlass to pull your boat to the anchor. You should be using the motor to bring your boat forward while holding the UP button to bring in the line in to the windlass. this way there is not much pressure on the windlass. Once the line is straight down then the boat is in neutral and you use the force of the windlass to pull the anchor straight up. 

04FV270riverrat

Liberty44140 said:

Are you making your poor little windlass pull your boat forward? You are not supposed to use the windlass to pull your boat to the anchor. You should be using the motor to bring your boat forward while holding the UP button to bring in the line in to the windlass. this way there is not much pressure on the windlass. Once the line is straight down then the boat is in neutral and you use the force of the windlass to pull the anchor straight up. 

Your response is off topic, but I don't do that.

The windlass operation described in my OP was done in my slip with the anchor not set, just dropped straight below the boat in 6 ft of water. The windlass barely pulled the loose, dangling rope before popping the breaker. I edited the OP to hopefully remove that confusion. 

It's not a case of pulling the whole boat while anchor is set. It is pulling up a free hanging anchor with no resistance other than the weight of the anchor/rode/chain.

Liberty44140

Overloading the windlass, like using it to pull the boat forward, will blow the breaker. That is the topic. Best of luck with your issue. 

reneechris14

Sounds like a loose connection with the wires going to have to use a amp meter see if the windless is pulling to much amps or not getting enough to work its best.

randy56

here is the manual below. probly no help, would not hurt to read,  having trouble with mine also, since I only anchor about twice a year, gave up and pull in by hand.  Question is, what is the life expectancy of a windless, when to replace it? 

https://www.p2marine.com/anchoring-docking/simpson-lawrence/simpson-lawrence-horizon-600.pdf