Adding winch to bed for hunting

I'm looking for advice on the best way to mount a winch to the bed. I'm elk hunting alone and need a way to get an elk into my truck bed. Had anyone set up a system like this?

 

Quartering it out is not an option?

 

Something mounted on your trailer hitch, nothing on the bed would support much weight

 

Yeah, that's what I'm doing now. Where I hunt we have a gambrel where I can hang it. I'm just trying to get it there before working on it

 

This should work? But you'll need to add a steel.plate under the bed for support.

Harbor Freight

 

Small ATV winch just for game?

A bed cage like the long travel guys use would be ideal, but you could drill through the bed and use a backing plate - but remember it's a composite bed and could crack if you over-do it.

 

Ok, that's what I was worried about

 

This 3rd gen thread has some ideas.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/winch-mount-in-the-bed-of-the-truck.758459/

 

There's no good way to do this without major modification/fab/bed cage. The most cost-effective route in my opinion is find a good used utility trailer somewhere, maybe even throw a winch on the front of it. Outside of those ideas, maybe find a flatbed somewhere and modify it with a crane. A 5-800 lb elk is no light task to be winched into a plastic bed.

 

Are you using a chainsaw winch to get it to the truck? Couldn’t you use that to hoist and back the truck under?

If no I wanna know where all you guys are hunting that you can drive to them lol. Archery elk season in my neighborhood usually consists of double digit miles per day and quartering out is the only option.

 

I hunt on a friend's private land. 360 acres with off-road trails in southern Colorado. We walk in but if we get a bull we drive in to get it. I've been gutless cleaning and quartering all of my elk when I'm by myself. I would like to field dress them, pull them into my truck, hang them at the gambrel, skin them and drain them before quartering them. I haven't figured out an easy method yet but hopefully I can design something before next season

 

That’s a sweet deal and makes sense. If you’re set on packing out whole, like others, I’d advise against using the bed as a winch point. Personally I’d look into a chainsaw winch. Winch it to the road. Use the winch to hoist it. Back under. Then Drive to where you’re going to do your processing. I’ve never used one personally, we’ve quartered everyone in the field but I know several old timers who have similar setups as you and your buddy, They pack out whole and swear by them.

 

I'm starting to think the best way is a flatbed trailer with a winch mounted to the hitch. Anyone have any input on hitch mounted winches?

 

10 years of butchery here. Depending on the setup and environment you could use a chain-fall hoist on a tree to lever the animal into your bed.
Your best route is a utility trailer with a winch, or quartering.
Former is better, because cutting on the trail, no offense here, by a non-professional leads to a significant amount of loss and debris on meat - but do what you have to do.

 

I put an ATV winch in the bed of mine to help load motorcycles. Got a cheap Harbor Freight (2000lb i think) winch with a wireless remote control. Bolted it thru the floor at the front/center of the box, next to the cab, and cut/welded some old angle steel(scrap bed frames) to make a support tying it into the frame rail bolts, so it didn't yank itself out through the composite. Kept it low and took up as little bed space as possible.

Worked fantastic until I broke it doing something stupid that I didn't design it for, like trying to drag a heavy car onto an off-center trailer. Wound the cable off the side of the spool and it broke the shaft and frame of the winch itself before I caught it, but the mounting was solid.

 

That is a cool custom setup.