Related DIY tow builds
System 6.9 is an endless loop: one motor drives a rope around a course, so riders don't wait for a winch to rewind. Plenty of people have built other kinds of DIY tows, and their write-ups are worth reading before you cut anything. These are other people's projects, not ours. We haven't built or tested them, and we're not connected to any of them.
Not certified. These are home builds. Read each builder's own safety notes, and follow the safety rules in our guide.
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Beach wake winches
A winch reels a rider in on one long rope, then has to be walked back out. The drive end is the same problem System 6.9 solves at its capstan: a spool or drum, a chain or belt reduction, and a rope that won't stretch.
- Wake Winch, Cameron Magari: a gas-engine beach winch on a welded steel frame, with a torque converter, #40 chain and Dyneema rope, and notes on shrinking the spool core for more pull.
- DIY Wake Winch Build, Learn How To Kitesurf: a step-by-step winch build with a parts list and rough costs.
- Electric Snow/Skate/Wake Winch, Katie Schutt: an electric winch designed from the forces up, with the motor, gear ratio and reel size worked out before building.
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Electric winch threads on FOIL.zone
Brushless motor and VESC builds sized for pulling a foiler up, with real test notes.
- Ammo Box 6384 Winch Build: a 6384 motor, a Flipsky VESC and a 12S battery in an ammo box, with the speed and torque math and what broke first.
- DIY Winch from Austria: a hub-motor winch for foil, wakeskate and ski, and a thread on using two winches for a back-and-forth endless pull.
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Foil tow boogies
A tow boogie is a small unmanned powered board that tows a foiler up to speed. It's a different machine, but the motor, ESC, waterproofing and kill-switch lessons carry over.
- DIY Tow Boogie Build Guide, PacificMeister: a full build guide drawn from many community builds, with a parts list and test plan (source on GitHub).
- Gildyyy DIY tow boogie build: one builder's specs, and a long look at choosing a propeller.
- Hadou Tow Boogie "Tori-Tow V1": a single-motor bodyboard tow with water-cooled ESC.
Ready to build the endless version? Start with the build guide, price it on the parts list, and see community builds.