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Ok guys, here's is on I've never seen! I'am trying to rig up my pickup with a winch to hopefully be able to winch an elk up into the bed with a winch! I'm not sure of the size I need or some of the little tricks that you guys gave learned over the years ! Many thanks, Slider
I think a 3500 lb. winch would be sufficient to the task. I think I would build a mount in order to get it up off the bed bottom though. Shouldn't be too difficult. A plywood ramp and you would be in business.
Went on a great hunt last Fall, trucks were rigged up with winches on the headache rack like this. Drug the elk up into the bed on a couple 2x12's attached together - very slick. Amazing where those guys will drive a truck to get an elk.
I'm thinking you could fab something up that would attach one at your rear hitch and run the cable up through a pulley in the bed so you don't have the winch permanently mounted in the bed? Just a thought. That one on the rack is pretty sweet though.
Getting an elk is somewhat low odds deal to begin with. getting one where you can drive to is an even loftier goal. It does happen to some people who aren't me though. Best of luck to you.
I think even as low as a 2k winch would work with plenty of safety factor, but if it's not much more money to go 3-4k there wouldn't be any reason not to. If this is the only thing you might use this for, a good come-along would probably be a lot cheaper and easier to set up. just a thought.
How many elk to you seriously expect to drive up to and load whole? Seriously having hunted elk all my lofe and in all my time we have only been able to load a handful whole out of many elk! The only way I would figure the investment worth the cost is I when I had thousands of acres of sage wintering ground and late season cow tags. For the most part between the nature of elk and the legalities of driving off-road such a setup is not very interesting to me!
I have winches on every 4x4 I own, but never have been able to reach an animals to pull it up.
If you wanted to go cheap, use a couple come alongside one each side of bed wrench one up, then snug second, and flip back and forth!
Or another option, get a winch and winch bumper for front of vehicle with a bar on top, then a head ache rack high enough to keep cable off the body and simply run the wich over top to the headache rack! This way you have a recovery winch for when you slide off in a hole!
What coelker said. A cable come along would likely do it if you had a good anchor point like REAL lumber racks (not kayak racks or some other yuppy rack that will haul a couple 2x4s) or a real "roll bar" in the truck. They make 2 ton, 4 ton, etc. Should be more than enough. Handy for other stuff as well.
Pulling up to an elk with your truck is likely a private ranch type of thing. Of those I have no experience. Must be nice.
Any "winch" you are going to need some angles and be able to mount it high and solid. Once you get the head up the rest could be coaxed, disconnect the tailgate cables and lower it for a smoother transition.
Ever seen a guy use their winch and then need a jump because their battery was near dead? =D My last one was a guy standing up a framed out wall with a big front bumper mounted winch and thought he had plenty of battery. Wall got up, but had to beg for a jump start....
Have you considered a chainsaw winch model, it's portable & should work pretty slick if you really have elk that close to roads.
ElkNut1
Well-Strung's Link
This guy has it all figured out.
Https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=I8TBvkcSeFk
Well-Strung's Link