1976 Cotta Gearbox on Freezer Shrimp Boat

Craig Wallace owns a shrimping business out of Palacios, TX, which is located 120 miles South of Galveston off the Gulf of Mexico. Approximately 20 years ago Craig purchased a 22 ft. wide x 80 ft. long 1978 freezer shrimp boat from a friend of his. Craig’s crew takes the boat out into the ocean for 45-50 days at at time to collect shrimp, which are deheaded and frozen immediately on the boat. The shrimp are then packed up in Louisiana before being sent out to brokers throughout the Midwest and Northeastern part of the United States.

The freezer shrimp boat has a 3-71 GM engine driving the original Cotta gearbox that was put on the boat back in 1978.  The PTO clutch recently started slipping and gear oil was leaking, which prompted Craig to look into the issue.  Craig contacted Cotta about a replacement seal, and was able to put it in right away, as well as a replacement clutch.  Craig stated, “The  gearbox looked great, the bearings in the gearbox looked good, as well as the pilot bearing on the end of the PTO. This means the gearbox is running true.”

In this application, the gearbox drives a PTO that drives a main winch that hooks up to the rigs. The pully on the end of the gearbox is attached to a line shaft that drives the chain driven winch, and can pull up approximately 20,000 lbs.  Craig stated, “The other boats in our fleet are not designed this way, so it sure is nice to have this type of set up.  We normally drive the PTO from a main engine, so if a failure occurs during dragging, we are not able to pick up the rig.  Having a separate motor for your rig is a really good feature.  If we lose power with this boat, we can still pick up the rigs, and avoid having $20,000 stuck at the bottom of the ocean.”

Speed Reducer:

Model #: SR700E-111

Ratio: 1.67 to 1

Engine Rotation