My New Wireless Winch

Yesterday I completed the installation of my first winch system. I purchased a wirelessly controlled winch from Harbor Freight, and made a few safety precautions of my own for what I feel is a fairly safe self suspension bondage setup.

The winch is secured between four joists in the attic using about a dozen 5/8 inch bolts. The winch is installed in the attic and falls through a light fixture hole that is about 24 feet above our ground floor (it's conveniently located in our main living room which has a loft style second floor.)
The device is rated for 3000 lbs, so even dynamic loads are well within range. The device runs on a 12v battery which is charged with a trickle charger. So if the power goes out, I can still run the device.

I use a full body climbing harness along with a backup belay which allows me to lower myself in the event the winch were to jam or fail for any reason. In the even that the winch jams, I simply need to wait until the release mechanism for my hands and then I can unlock the belay rope and lower myself to the ground.

After two days of designing and building, I finally got to try it out. I tested my static weight first, and double checked my anchor work in the attic. Then I tested my dynamic weight by jumping up and down fairly harshly and confirmed that the winch was not budging from the anchors.
Finally I tried my first test secured in the harness at 1 foot high. The feeling was amazing. Having explored a variety of other self suspension rigs over doors, or on industrial wall hooks, the feeling of being disconnected from any surface like a wall or door is a totally different universe.

After shifting my harness into a more comfortable position I tried a 5 foot test. It has been a long time since I was as hard and as nervous while doing self bondage.
From there I decided to test the limits. After moving our couch underneath the rig, I took the winch up to about 18 feet. I had a little scare around 12 feet when the cable wire shifted in the winch assembly and dropped me about an eigth of an inch. More of a pop than a fall, but enough to bring me to my senses.

At 18 feet I could see our upstairs loft, and look out windows that my wife and I had once thought were unreachable to clean :D

To me there is no better feeling of being trapped than being suspended 15 feet off the ground. After lowering myself back down I ran into another problem. The cheap battery shipped with the wireless transmitter was already running low. Though it was a good test because I found out I was able to wind up the entire line after the first indication of battery depletion.
The best part is that I can simply attach the hook to the ceiling fixture cap, and the device is completely hidden from prying eyes.

My next task is to create a shroud around the hole in the ceiling with some 4" pvc pipe to prevent dust, insulation and drywall from being knocked down through the ceiling hole (and onto me while suspended.)

And I'm still researching ways to safely store the battery in the attic. For now I just take it down after playtime and keep it in our garage, which is significantly cooler. I'm not sure if I just need to place the battery near a vent, or if I need to use a specific battery, but it's completely worth lugging it around for now!

After that it's time to show off my work to my wife, who up to now has no idea what I've done!