Stationary and Scooter Tow Winches

Please note that at this time, TowMeUp.com is no longer building scooter tows as stocked or custom ordered items. The declining availability of the donor scooters, and the greatly increased performance, safety, and operational flexibility of our hydraulic payout winches has essentially rendered our scooter tows obsolete. Of course, if you have purchased one of our scooter tows, we would be happy to accept it in trade as you upgrade to a far superior hydraulic Payin / Payout system.

With over 22 scooter tows delivered to date, we naturally will continue to support those tow rigs well into the foreseeable future. Naturally we carry line specially made for scooter tows, drogues, bridles, etc., in stock at all times. We're also more than willing to help those who choose to modify their own scooter to a scooter tow unit. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Stationary Scooter Tow. Our scooter tow rigs are based on a very reliable power plant typically salvaged from Honda Elite 250 motorcycles/scooters. Through an arrangement with an insurance consortium, we typically buy lot quantities of these scooters, mostly theft recoveries with under 8000 miles on them. We strip key components off the scooter for use as a powerplant in our winches. All the engines are disassembled by a reputable repair facility for inspection, and then reassembled using new or replacement components where necessary. This powerplant is ideal since it is a 4 stroke engine and is liquid cooled. The transmission incorporates a torque converter which shifts smoothly and automatically through a wide range of torque and power settings. It operates well in all temperature regimes, and has ample power to launch a tandem paraglider at altitudes up to 8500 feet.

Our scooter tows are designed to mount in a 2" receiver hitch attached to a vehicle. They are designed to be able to swivel freely on a swivel mount so that the drum is free to pivot in line with the tow to allow for proper stacking of the line as it is rewound. The swivel mount has several pin holes so the tow rig can be locked in a fixed postion if desired. Most operators use this to lock the winch out of the way on the rear of the tow vehicle as they drive to or from the tow site.

This method of towing is most commonly known as speed controlled towing, in that the tension on the towline, and climbrate obtained by the pilot is dependant upon the speed that the line is rewound on the drum. In typical use a drogue parachute, leader line, and weaklink is attached to the end of the towline. This line is then drug off the line for a distance of 500 - 1000 feet and attached to the release on a pilot. When the pilot is ready to launch a small amount of throttle is applied to supply tension on the towline. After the pilot brings their glider overhead the winch operator smoothly adds enough power to gently lift the pilot off the ground. Once the pilot is safely away from the ground the tow tech manipulates the throttle to control the angle of attack and climb rate of the pilot. To make manipulation of the throttle far easier for the operator, we do not use a twist grip style throttle control, since these controls are far to sensitive to be used safely. Instead, we use a squeeze throttle, with a throttle limiting function limiting the maximum power available to a safe level. If the pilot has difficulty controlling the glider (say because they are not maintaining a course in line with the towline and in danger of locking out) the operator simply reduces power. Since the glider is flying towards the winch, the line tension falls off, the pilot pendulums under the canopy, and the winch operator can reapply power and continue the tow, or allow the pilot to land.

Short flights are easily and quickly obtained, and this is in our opinion one of the best ways to give consistent repetitive training in launches and landings. A skilled operator can easily launch a pilot and fly them across the field at an altitude of 5 - 10 feet and set them down gracefully even if the pilots flare timing is a bit off. As the pilot gains experience they are towed higher, until they have the skills to lay out a couple thousand feet of line and tow up to 700 - 800 feet before releasing.

A few operators use a turn around pulley mounted in a receiver hitch and located a thousand feet or so away from them so they are beside the pilot as they launch. Unfortunately this is most typically done because of a lack of trained assistants to help with the launching process. A key point to remember is that the winch operator must be able to immediately release all tow line tension in the event of a problem. Typically this is done by simply letting off the throttle, but in the event of a malfunction the operator needs to be able to sever the towline with a hooknife, guillotine, etc. Using a turnaround pulley makes this virtually impossible! Imagine having a problem and perhaps a line jam at the turnaround pulley located a thousand feet away from the operator. Severing the line at the winch may not release the line tension if the source of the problem is a jam at the pulley, well out of the operators reach. This is the main reason we do not recommend a turn around pulley system. Our experience has shown that it is very simple for an operator to control the performance of a pilot from up to about 2500 feet quite easily with the help of a launch assistant.

Towline. Our scooter tows are designed to hold 2600 feet of a specially braided 1600 pound test Spectra towline. This line has a circular cross section without a hollow braid. Scooter tows routinely drag the line through the dirt, and this creates a great deal of wear on normal towline. Our line is specially made for us to our exact specifications and has the optimum balance of strength, low stretch and dirt shedding, long wearing qualities.

Our Scooter tows were designed to be an inexpensive method of tow launching pilots and are a very effective tool for training new pilots. Experienced pilots can achieve altitudes of around 1000 feet without difficulty. These winches were never designed or meant to be used for either payout towing, or step towing of paragliders. Attempting to use a Scooter Tow for Payout or Step towing can result in severe injury or death and should not be attempted under any circumstances.