Larger deer, longer distances and rougher terrain necessitated a carcass recovery solution over and above the standard 'drag to 4WD access' solution I have hitherto employed.

Quad was too expensive, too wide, too dangerous too nickable.

Hand power too difficult as I am mainly single handed and the slopes can be very steep.

Here is the buck truck on a recent testing:-



The main unit is a 4WD power barrow utilising a 2.5HP Honda with 1 reverse and 4 forward geers. Full load is 250kg so even allowing for the rather heavy sled the largest woodland stag is within tolerance. Top gear at full power is a good walking pace - It's not designed for the open hill! Unladen it will climb into the back of a large 4WD without a ramp. Unlike a quad it would also fit in a double cab pick up cargo bed.

After extended conversation with a local fitter we fabricated a sled with hand winch (ebay)which fitted utilising the existing mounting points.

It works well. Benefits over a quad are the narrow track and the ease of loading the carcass together with greatly increased safety on steep slopes. For a Southern Stalker it's a great solution.

Cost using ex demo muck truck was about a third to a quarter the cost of a new quad. A new muck truck would make it about half the cost of a new quad.

This is a cheaper version of the Scandinavian 'Iron Horse' which is tracked. Tracks offer increased obstacle ability but massively massively increased cost, mechanical complexity and potential unreliability.

Amazing! This must be the most advanced DIY game recovery device I hve ever come across. I'm suitably impressed!
- mike

Well impressed

Could be a good solution for me as well, carrying beast = all the kit over a km is no fun..
All we need to do now is rig up some lights, camera and remote control, go home, have a whiskey and get the kids to log on and the beast can follow us home later

Regards

Mark

1894,

I have seen a few varitions on this theme now...The chap who produces videos as "The Warrener" uses something very similar, but its a tracked power barrow..By all accounts they work very well if the going is not too tough...

I've also seen a few FC vehicles with capstan (sp?) winches fitted...By using these your cable length is not limited by the drum capacity of the winch...They carried a couple of very long coils of rope which they would feed out to the beast...changes of direction were effected by using a strop and pully around a tree or what have you, but in reality you really need a pretty straight pull for it to work well....

Interestingly, recovery was still a two person job as one was needed on the winch and one to walk back with the carcass to ensure it didn't snag ect...Its main use would seem to be getting beasts out of steep sided gulleys ect...

Regards,

Pete

quote:

Originally posted by Pete E:
1894,
I've also seen a few FC vehicles with capstan (sp?) winches fitted...

We will also have one of these (modified from a marine anchor capstan winch and same honda engine) which will be used on really tough extractions. As you say unless you are willing to do it lots of short little bites it's a two man job.

Without the sled this thing goes just about anywhere and can be used to drag to where the sled can be put on.

I like it! Would you mind dropping it in an envelope and mailing it to me for my Colorado elk hunt next week?

A.
good bit of kit, if the doors on the chill had been a little wider you could of driven it straight in!

regards
griff

fantastic bit of kit
my brain is now working overtime!
great to see something very useful for a change
regards scirroco

Couldn't open picture sent(not very good with computers!)but have first hand experience of muck trucks from an arborical point of view.Great workhorses but have found that they struggle in soft ground(mud ,snow etc)I also use mine for driving out my fox bait to my shooting grounds(pig guts,roadkill deer etc)

I can no longer see the pics either..I suspect the site 1894 is using to host the pics is either down or is limiting the number of views to it...

I can see the photos. Work big brother denies access to most storage sites but this one is accessible and allows me to see the picture too!