Barlow winches were standard equipment on ODay for quite some time. My primarily winches are Barlow 19's. I know that they went out of business, but heard Hutch Winches (Australia) bought most of the old tooling. Has anyone recently dealt with Hutch on the repair/rebuild parts for these winches? I've seen several threads on this ODay Form of people replacing their winches with Lawmars. Not to many about "rebuilding/servicing" their old winches.
Barlow Winches
- Thread starter dennisv
- Start date
No recent experience, but about 15 years ago we got some replacement parts from the Australian Winch Company, which now seems to be at http://www.arco-winches.com/products/spares. They did a fine job at the time.
Before you do anything.... take your winches apart and service them as JSalem recommends... that'll probably take care of most issues. If it's anything more than pawls and springs (the Lewmar kits will work, so will the Harken pieces).. I just wouldn't mess with it... because a small winch is relatively inexpensive to replace... especially if you stick to a standard (non self tailing) configuration.
I have dealt directly with the Australian folks, and they were extremely helpful. They do still have some parts. If you use the search feature to search my posts and the keyword "winch", you will find an email address for contacting them. IIRC, I talked to a guy named Alan.
Edit - Found it:
Hutton Winches, LLC in Australia. The phone number is +61 2 9623 2448. Alan's email address is
sales@huttonwinches.com.
Edit - Found it:
Hutton Winches, LLC in Australia. The phone number is +61 2 9623 2448. Alan's email address is
sales@huttonwinches.com.
Last edited:
Probably the most commonly bought part from ARCO is the delrin roller bearings mounted in the round delrin cage the the drum rides on. These can be wear items, are fragile, and are uniquely sized to Barlow winches.
Thanks for the great feedback. My Barlow 2 speed winches are 1984 vintage and are not self-tailing. Still work great, but want to upgrade. See my earlier post of a couple of weeks ago "Help me spend my money". PS: I took everyone's advise and I do mean everyone's advise and bought a new set of sails.
I still have a small amount of "leftover budget money" (hope my wife doesn't come to this form). I know, in previous years, West Marine has a BOGO sale on winches in March. If I buy new I go a little+ over budget. If I buy used I can stay within the budget. . I've also been seeing some Barlow "self tailing" winches on the web, fairly inexpensive compared to current manufacturers. Buying used winches, from an out-of-business brand is a gamble. I did not want to consider buying them if service parts, if needed, were not available. Again, my experience with my current Barlow is great, so I know the product itself is good
I still have a small amount of "leftover budget money" (hope my wife doesn't come to this form). I know, in previous years, West Marine has a BOGO sale on winches in March. If I buy new I go a little+ over budget. If I buy used I can stay within the budget. . I've also been seeing some Barlow "self tailing" winches on the web, fairly inexpensive compared to current manufacturers. Buying used winches, from an out-of-business brand is a gamble. I did not want to consider buying them if service parts, if needed, were not available. Again, my experience with my current Barlow is great, so I know the product itself is good
Not only that, but new self-tailers are simply better designs, in particular models that have jaws that automatically adjust to line size. Most older ST winches have fixed jaws, and are designed to grab older lines that was much thicker than modern suggested sizes.
Dennis, New winches are always nice. You will need to do some looking to find good winches on the used market. And if you do you will need to take them completely apart, clean and service them before you can have confidence that they will work when and where you need them. While not a super skilled task it does require time and diligence to keep all the pieces (those pawl springs and C-Clips or Spirolox Retaining Rings have a way of leaping off the table) and put them back in the right places.
If you go for used. check out the more recent ST Barients They are similar to Barlow's and they have a spring actuated adjustment for the self-tailer jaws. Might save a couple of bucks
If you go for used. check out the more recent ST Barients They are similar to Barlow's and they have a spring actuated adjustment for the self-tailer jaws. Might save a couple of bucks
I was able to buy spare bearings for my Barient ST winches from them. They were a little ... brusque? But I got my bearings.
Somewhere on youtube (I think it was) I learned how to make my own pawl springs out of stainless spring wire from McMaster-Carr. Arco-Hutton had one of the two sizes of springs I needed, the others were unavailable anywhere on earth as far as I could find.