Word from on deck is that KYB radial piston motors provide strong even power for trawl winches, longline reels, and other commercial fishing applications. “And they’re quiet,” says one deckhand. “Very quiet.”
"We sell to distributors who sell to different companies that manufacture that equipment,” says Frank Harvey, operations manager at KYB Americas Corporation. “We don’t hear much back from the fishermen.” But Harvey notes that that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
“The motors are doing their job,” he says. “These were designed 100 years ago and very little has changed in them. We haven’t tweaked the design in decades, and only if a better material comes along; the basic design is the same. They’re dinosaurs compared to what’s new out there, but they work.”
KYB manufactures its hydraulic motors in Japan and has been selling them through KYB Americas since 1974, according to Harvey. “As far as what makes them so quiet, I can’t say. Good quality seals. As long as you don’t contaminate them or get air in there, they’re going to run quiet.”
Harvey believes RI Engine in Point Judith, Rhode Island, Lindgren Pitman in Florida, and many other companies have been using KYB motors for decades.
"We use KYB motors on a lot of our winches,” says Rob Peterson, at R.I. Engine in Point Judith, Rhode Island. “A lot of guys like the 190 or the 270 because they’re reliable. That’s why a lot of them keep with that motor.”
Peterson points out that R.I. Engine makes winches from scratch. “We don’t buy the frames or drums, we make all that here,” he says. As far as the noise level of the KYB is concerned, Peterson cites the absence of negative feedback. “If they’re not coming in here complaining about the noise, they must be pretty damn quiet.”
Among the other companies using the Japanese KYB motors, Lindgren Pitman in Pompano Beach, Florida, puts them on its 40-inch longline reel. “They’re standard on those reels,” says company engineer, Tim Pickett. “And they have been for at least 40 years. We almost never replace them. I’ve seen more than a few that are 30 years old and going strong.”
According to Pickett, 100 percent of the Hawaii longline fleet uses the company’s 40 by 80-inch reel. “It holds 40 to 60 miles of 3.5 mil mono,” he says. “And the motor we use is the 12-cubic inch, model. We like it because it can haul the gear up, and it won’t cavitate when you stop it.”
Pickett explains that unlike most winches, longline reels are operated continuously for hours. “It’s not pulling hard, all you need is 400 or 500 pounds to haul the line up. If you need to stop it, the fluid inertia on a bigger motor might resist the rapid pressure drop and cause cavitation, but we don’t have that problem with the 12-cubic inch model, the MRH12.”
Pickett notes that the company also equipped most of the U.S. tuna longliners that operated out of the mid-Atlantic. “We sold them reels, and they don’t break, so we don’t hear much from them. It’s a question of do you want to be in the business of selling reliable equipment, or parts and service. We use the KYB because we want to sell equipment.”
