winch to a tree?

[bar2hunter]

I bought one of these after busting my knuckles a few times.

http://www.harborfreight.com/2000-lb-capacity-geared-winch-5798.html

add a pully and you are good to go.

This is free-spool though, right? How do you stop it? Do you have a way of locking gears or handle?

[bar2hunter]

Using a 2 x 6, 2 large eye-bolts and a ratchet strap. Will post pics.
But, I will gladly admit you guys have given me some other great ideas and my idea may need some "tweaking"!

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff23/bar2hunter/SU1HMDA4MTctMjAxMTA4MzEtMTcwOS5qcGc.jpg

[ted_kennedys_liver]

This is free-spool though, right? How do you stop it? Do you have a way of locking gears or handle?

Thats why i didnt buy that one

[jeepntx]

Ya that would be simple.. you could take a piece of all thread and bend it into a u.. that would be cheaper than u bolts.

Bending all-thread makes it VERY weak.

[TX CHICKEN]

This is free-spool though, right? How do you stop it? Do you have a way of locking gears or handle?

Dang I don't know-I bought it a few weeks ago and left it at the deer lease in the box. I thought I found a solution but maybe not...

What a doofus-just read the online manual and yall are right -no locking mechanism. I guess I will copy bar2hunters idea. Thanks to y'all at least I found out before I tried to use it the first time. I would have been a little ticked.

[kmitchl]

I have several of the Harbor Freight winches I use in different applications. Although there is no locking mechanism on these winches they will hold the load in place when you let the handle go. The worm and pinion drive doesn't allow the winch to free spool. This is the up side.

The down side is it takes a lot of turns of the crank to let out or take up wire on the spool. You may want to consider using a battery operated drill in place of the handle. You see these winches used on winch up feeders where letting 300# of corn free spool to the ground would not be good.

[bar2hunter]

Broke out the welder and tried something a little different. I think I like this better than the wood!


Here's the wood one...

[Concho Man]

Looks like you are on the right track. We weld an extender arm to a plate that we lag bolt to the tree. These feeders have been in place for over 6 years with zero problems.

[kmitchl]

This is an old thred but I found the photo of the winch mount I made for our lease. The tree is approximately 18" in diameter. There are two bands ot 1" X 3/16" flat bar that go around the tree with 1/2" allthread couplers welded to the ends. We used all thread through the outboard holes to the allthread couplers and nuts to strap it to the tree. One winch goes up to the snatch block to lift the animal. The second can be used to pull the hide off.

[horns100]

easy way take chainsaw notch out spot for handle to turn. bolt to tree with lag bolts.