Pa-paw’s ATV Game Hoist

BANG!!!!!!!
    A rifle shot penetrated the still, sunny, late winter afternoon of the Alabama hunt club forest. From my shooting stand, I looked keenly down on the fields and woodland, listening intently, hoping the nearby hunter’s report might drive a deer my way.       
    But winter’s dusk came with action only from a scampering squirrel, bird, or two. I unloaded my rifle, lowered my gear on a rope, and climbed down from the shooting box. I kicked off the Yamaha 250 three-wheeler Ike, my host, loaned me, and rode toward his deer stand.
    As the sun set, I found Ike standing over a magnificent ten-point, 200-pound whitetail. The shot I heard was the voice of Ike’s .308; a clean, one-shot kill. I congratulated my companion and moved to help him load his trophy onto his Suzuki Quadrunner 250 4X4’s rack.       
    No problem, right? Here we are, two robust outdoorsmen; all we have to do is pick up our fair share of about 100 pounds each and lift it about three feet. Easy, right? Wrong! Recently deceased deer have no lifting handles attached. The dead weight of an animal carcass behaves like it’s tied to the ground.        Imagine one of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons, about the shape and size of “Rudolph.” Now, instead of filling the balloon with gas, fill it with 200 pounds of BB’s. Now, load THAT on your ATV!       
    Just when we thought we had the deer loaded, its supple joints would allow its head and neck or its leg and hindquarter or some part of its anatomy to flop and slide off the quad. We big boys struggled to the point of mutual hernias loading this meat for the ride to camp.       
    Words can’t describe the difficulty of loading a large animal (even with two men; what if you’re alone?); however, anyone who’s tried this act knows what I’m talking about. Isn’t there a better way?
    Yes! Pa-Paw’s ATV Game Hoist. With this device, an ATV operator can lift an animal up to 300 pounds seven feet high for easy rack loading, or for field dressing; lighter loads can be lifted beyond eight feet. A telescoping boom and support leg attach to a rack-mounted bracket in less than half a minute, permitting the hunter to hand-winch his harvest for loading or processing.       
    The game hoist provided to ATV Connection for evaluation by the manufacturer, Pa-Paw’s ATV Game Hoist of Greenville, MS, consists of three major components:

� A bracket
� An adjustable support leg
� A telescoping boom with hand winch.

                                 

    Solid welds hold the mounting bracket to a universal mounting plate, connected to either the left front or the right rear ATV rack with U-bolts.       Until I saw the mounting plate, I was skeptical about the descriptive adjective, “universal.” This thick steel plate has more slots than a video game arcade; I can’t imagine a rack incompatible with this fixture. Each plate comes with an auxiliary angle brace for use on aftermarket “basket-style” racks.
    The telescoping support leg, with its hinged flat baseplate resting on the ground and its connecting shaft inserted in the bracket, steadies the assembly. Adjusted to the proper ground level, an L-shaped threaded rod serves as a pressure screw, holding the support leg at the correct length under load.        The horizontal boom is welded to a telescoping vertical shaft whose base fits in the bracket. Also welded to the vertical shaft, a ratcheting Fulton Model T 900 boat trailer-style hand winch threads its nylon rope through pulleys to a tie-off point at the boom end. A pulley block with hook connects to the load, doubling the mechanical advantage of the winch.
    The boom can be raised and lowered continuously over an interval of two feet, eight inches, from seven feet to nine feet, eight inches off the ground as mounted on our test vehicle, a Kawasaki Bayou 300 4X4. An L-shaped pressure screw locks the boom at the desired height.        For loading game on the ATV rack, extending the boom isn’t usually necessary. The added height comes in handy for field-dressing and skinning game.        Stowable horizontally in the bracket for travel, the support leg and boom can be set up into hoisting position in less than thirty seconds. The boom and support leg can be aligned with the ATV’s direction of travel, or rotated ninety degrees to the side. Developer Vincent Muzzi says, “Folks ask why we didn’t put the boom in the center of the ATV. A deer is transported across the rack, not in the center; lifting one end of the deer from the side permits swinging the body across the rack for easy loading.
    “Hunters don’t want to field-dress their harvest near their stands. An animal can be loaded on the rack, hauled away a sufficient distance, and then hoisted for convenient dressing and skinning.”
    After hoisting the deer, the hoist dismantles and stows securely in thirty seconds, leaving plenty of room for harvested game on the rack. The bracket takes up little room and can be left in place year round without interfering with rack bags.
    Pa-Paw’s ATV Game Hoist is constructed mostly of heavy-gauge steel hollow square stock. Welds appear ample. Matte’ black paint covers the metal surfaces; even the lifting rope is black.
    Installation of Pa-Paw’s Game Hoist bracket consists only of locating the bracket (left front or right rear rack) and tightening the 7/16″ Ny-Lok nuts onto the U-bolts furnished. Two “large” and two “small” U-bolts come with the kit; the large ones fit the Bayou’s rack tubing; I added a couple more from the hardware store for good measure.
    Setup takes less than half a minute, as mentioned, IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING! Typically ignoring the clear instructions provided, I wandered around at first for awhile like one of Jane Goodall’s chimpanzees working on a twisted-nail Chinese puzzle, until I followed the maxim, “When all else fails, read the instructions!”        Clear line drawings show where each component mounts, whether hoisting with the boom and support leg pointing fore-and-aft, hoisting with the boom and support leg pointing to the side of the ATV, or when stowing the support leg and boom assembly for travel. The total weight of the complete game hoist assembly is 47 pounds. A Six-Wheeler Model is also available.

    While our test and evaluation sample game hoist arrived too soon for the ultimate test, deer season, we simulated loads with volunteer human cargo. Melanie Davis gamely (it IS a “game” hoist, no?) performed as a trapeze artist, demonstrating the system; I also self-hoisted my own tonnage as a test. As near as we can tell, the hoist performs as advertised, easily lifting loads up to its maximum rating (300 lbs. at seven feet, lighter loads beyond eight feet). Unless you get a hunting permit during open season in Jurassic Park, you should be able to evacuate as large a game trophy as you are lucky enough to harvest.
    In summary, Pa-Paw’s ATV Game Hoist appears well engineered, solidly constructed, and effective in operation. With a robust 900-pound winch and a hook and pulley doubling its effective pull, the manufacturer’s 300-pound rating appears conservative. Simple and strong, this hoist works, offering convenience in evacuating and processing big game (not to mention prevention of hernias and back injuries among hunters).        The next time my undeservedly lucky hunting partner harvests a trophy animal, a Pa-Paw’s ATV Game Hoist will help us get that prize to camp!
    Pa-Paw’s ATV Game Hoist is a long-term investment, transferable from ATV to ATV in minutes

For more information, contact:

Pa-Paw’s ATV Game Hoist
819 Hwy. 1 South
Greenville, MS 38701
Telephone: (888) 472-7297
(888) 4PA-PAWS
FAX: (662) 335-9223