going to put a winch in ceiling of my skinning shed.
going have to modify a bit to get the height i need.
only have an 8 foot ceiling. going put me a chute in for height.

my question is how much height do i need ?

would 10 foot be enough .?


thanks

12 minimum for coyotes and you still might have to regrip. Or have a hide roller/hide gate.

Then I'm in trouble because I don't have 12'

I only have 10’ as well. I do have to re-grip once but you get a system and it works. One thing I did was mount the actual winch on the side wall and just put my pulley on the ceiling. That way you can almost winch all the way up to 9’6” instead of the winch taking some of your ceiling height.

Closer you can move your clamps to the floor helps too though the tails are going to be nasty by the time your done.

i have a 10 ft ceiling and have no problems .

wait i also have a vaulted ceiling so never mind

Get yourself a hide roller style skinning machine. I used to make them but now A&J's Skinning Machines have taken over my designs. If I had to start over this is the style I use.

Hey boss that's his main seller now! The roller works amazing, you could skin a coyote in a 6 foot ceiling!

I'm not surprised by that. They were coming on big time a couple years ago when I retired from building skinning machines. I made my first roller type for Nick Curry many years ago, back when he was a kid, wet behind the ears. I bet it skinned a lot of critters since then.

curtisd, I made opening in 8' ceiling to get maximum height. I even skun Deer with this.
Mounted hoist on 2" pipe.


As suggested above to get a bit more height, you could mount hoist to side wall and use eye bolt or pulley at roof peak.
My skun'n base is about 18" high. One could use a shorter base to gain more height.
One could use a shorter gambrel. These two or three things may be all you need for enough skun'n height.

Some friends skun horizonal. curtisd, is that an opinion for you?

I think I'm going to make that roller.

I ended up running mine at an angle after I realized I didn't have enough room. I actually like it this way, and I started flipping the critter, head up and feet down. Keeps the blood out of the way.

Would a foot controlled switch on the electric winch be better than reaching up continuously?

Yes,

Not worth the added money. A decent foot control will cost you $70 and you need to hire an electrician to install them as they are stupidly complected to install, then your warranty is voided on your hoist as well.

People say they are faster but how much time could you save over this? A very few seconds...

I keep saying I need to get a machine. It sure would save on the hands.

It used to be getting close to summer before I'd get all the feeling back in my hands after skinning all season. That is why I designed and built my first skinning machine. I showed it on here for people to make their own and was quickly inundated with requests to build them, thus started my skinning machine business. It certainly saves on your hands. No one ever said they wish they had skinned by hand a few more years before their skinners. They all wished they had done it sooner. The energy saved can be put toward the trapline and thus the skinners pay for themselves over time.

ADC I really appreciate the fact that you shared your version of the hide roller! I will most certainly explore building one as well. I do have a question or two though, 1. Do smooth bars seem to be better (or worse) than rebar? 2. Did you ever notice any exaggerated hair pulling with it?

My winch is set up vertical, but would not be afraid to go horizontally. I’ve seen a couple of guys that use a horizontal skinner and the one thing that really appealed to me was the blood falls away from the hide , not down it.