winch grease

TiggerToo

TiggerToo

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Is Lewmar approved winch grease any different from "normal" water resistant grease? If yes, does it matter?
 
TiggerToo said:
Is Lewmar approved winch grease any different from "normal" water resistant grease?
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Almost certainly not. Lewmar will not make their own grease but will buy it in, package it as Lewmar, and sell it on at a generous markup. I bought a tub of Raminol (I think I spelt that correctly) white waterproof grease 5 yrs ago when I bought the boat, and use it for all greasing jobs including winches and blakes seacocks. It works fine.
 
If you look at the Lewmar and Harken official greases for the same purpose they show no similarity of colour, texture, smell, anything. Only the price is similar! So I feel quite happy using something else. I've actually got Shell Nautilus which (to me) is indistinguishable from what you get with a Volvo shaft seal. The blue stuff. Shell say it's OK for winches.
 
Raminol (I think I spelt that correctly)

Nearly ! ...... Ramonol :)

I'd not like to comment on its similarity or otherwise to winch grease . Generally it is now sold as the replacement for Duckhams Keenol
 
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I was told by an engineer that I trust, that Ramonol or similar is not suitable for winches as it it not designed for high temperatures.

A single tube of Harken, Selden or whatever will last for many many years. Winch servicing is only every two years on our Andersens and I am still using the tube we got in 2001 and that did a Furlex a few times as well!

Seems a reasonable investment to me.
 
Interesting point about high temperatures. I don't alway use "winch grease" as I figured good waterproof grease would be OK.

However, I don't see how a manual winch would get to a high temperature. Unless high means "very hot summer" (never have to worry about that in Scotland).

Perhaps he was talking about a powered winch or actually meant high pressure. I can imagine that there would be reasonably high pressure between the gear teeth.

I'll switch back to the genuine article if you can confirm the sort of temperatures he was talking about. I have a tube somewhere but couldn't find it when I did my last winch overhaul.

Ramonol has a drop point of 180 deg.C so I thought that would be safe enough for a winch. i.e. It goes liquid at that temp. and may not work properly again after cooling.
 
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I use standard water resistant grease from Morris's of Shrewsbury which seems to perform as well as any. To be honest, you use so little that even a small tube of proper winch grease will last several seasons. By the way only a light coating is required on the bearings and gears and light machine oil sparingly on the pawls.
 
Ramonol seems to go a bit hard after a while. Winch grease to me looks more like silicone grease.

However, like other posters, winch grease lasts for years and that it what I use.
 
I've found grease has to be used very sparingly on my Lewmar winches, or it gums up and the pawls stick.

Personally I just use teflon spray, then again I can go whole seasons without having to use a sheet winch.
 
The club had a talk by a Lewmar design engineer many eons ago. The same question was asked and he went into great details about the requisite properties of the grease. The only one I can remember is very high pressure. He reckoned they could only find one supplier of the relevant spec, from Germany if I recall.
I must admit I've been using Ramonol for the last few years. Agree with very light coating not 'packing'.
 
On my self tailing winches I use Sapphire 2, a blue waterproof grease manufactured by Rocol, Swillington, of Leeds. Available in drums and cartriges. Works a treat. For pawls and spings I use clock oil.
 
A long while ago I had the good fortune to buy a well know mark of 42ft boat. I tried to find some way to demount and service my main winches. I spoke to the builders, who said the the Lewmar 45 st winches were excellent and should not need to be serviced!! Lewmar, on the other hand, said that the best way to apply winch grease to inaccessible places was to mix waterproof grease with light oil. Does this still apply.
 
I serviced our winches (Harken) last year for the first time myself. As someone who takes things apart and then quickly gets fed up of trying to work out where all the bits go I asked a mate (shipwright), to help with the first one.

He ruthlessly took the pliss out of my Harken branded pawl oil !
 
Troubadour said:
From http://www.gruebb.com/whichramonol.php

Ramonol Advanced

a very wide working temperature range with a drop point of 270○ C
suitable alternative to all specialist greases marketed for winches, seacocks, furling gears and grease packed feathering propeller systems, as well as all normal greasing applications
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Thats the one we use for winches.
 
Digbydog said:
A long while ago I had the good fortune to buy a well know mark of 42ft boat. I tried to find some way to demount and service my main winches. I spoke to the builders, who said the the Lewmar 45 st winches were excellent and should not need to be serviced!! Lewmar, on the other hand, said that the best way to apply winch grease to inaccessible places was to mix waterproof grease with light oil. Does this still apply.
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All winches need to be serviced annually I would say. Some types need to be removed from the boat to fully dismantle. This often involves crawling into tight spots or using nimble fingers but I can't imagine a boat where the winches can't be removed. Mixed grease and oil sounds like a devil's brew to me. You're lucky having Lewmar winches - Rolls Royce and good spares availabilty but they'll be better if cleaned and serviced.
 
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