Wireless Windlass Remote Control

One easy project we completed during the winter of 2021 was adding a wireless remote control to the windlass. Wildthing had a 12 volt, 1500 watt Lofrans Tigres windlass.  It is powered from our house bank. We never installed deck switches so the only way to operate it was to go find the remote and connect that to the electrical connection on the bullworks near the windlass. This is not always convenient so I took to the Internet to find some wireless remote options.

Lofrans has their own remote which costs well over $300 dollars.  I am always looking for a way to do things on the cheap so I kept looking. Trusty Amazon.com had several that were listed for use with winches attached to ATV, 4 wheelers for quads.  The contactors are the same and I found several models to choose from that would work on our 12 volt windlass.

I found this model which has two remote controls for only $20. It is a cheap Chinese made remote but for the price I could buy 10 of them compared to the Lofrans model.

Installation

The control box has to be connected to the windlass contactor which controls the raising and lowering of the windlass. Our contactor is located in the chain locker under the windlass. Two wires are needed for power, the other two wires connect to contacts that control the raising and lowering of the windlass. These were located on either side of the Imtra contactor. The blue wire is the wireless antenna.

The unit came with two wireless remotes. One can be easily attached to your key chain and the other is more rugged and some what water resistant. 

The installation could not have been easier and the price of the unit makes this a no brainer to add to any windlass. There was no need to run wires from the helm all the way through the boat to the windlass.  This wireless remote makes it easy to single hand and drop the anchor right from the helm station.  This wireless remote is my new favorite toy!

~~~ Sail On /) ~~~

Mark