HME Game Hoist Kit with Winch Gambrel, 400 Pound Capacity, Adjustable Height, Black – 360 Degree Swivel, Support Stand Foot for Hanging Hunting Game

Package arrived in good time and in excellent condition. All parts were there and it was easy assembly. There are many uses for something like this. As you can see I welded a hitch receiver onto my log splitter so I could mount this hoist to it and pick up large logs so my back doesn't have to. If I need to, I can remove the hoist and attach it to my ATV or truck for other uses. Excellent product and good quality. Weighs about 50 pounds.

I used this to load a 150lb hog and large buck onto my tailgate this Dec with no help at all. It really worked well. Up to this point it is always a struggle to load alone and I am a mess when finished. No more. Easy and my clothes stayed cleaner.All the people who say you can't put the tailgate down are incorrect. The trick is to hoist the animal. Unlock the swivel. Swing the animal enough for the tailgate to clear the handle. Drop the tailgate and proceed.The bonus with this is field dressing. No more trying to do this on the ground. Lift the animal by the head and field dressing becomes much easier. No more bending over and struggling with floppy legs.

Bought this for my son, and he loves it. Works so effortlessly and is of such great quality. He loves the fact it can go anywhere with him, and is so versatile.As previous reviews mentioned, the cable was tricky to insert, but that was already known. Definitely recommend to more than just someone hunting.

Will it work as a hoist? Absolutely. This thing had no problem picking up my kids, even two at a time. (Never mind that it also picks up hogs and more just fine, too.) The winch can be set to ratchet in both up and down directions, as well as free spin. The pivot looks works just fine under load, and definitely swivels 360 degrees....but there is some weirdness here, and I’m not sure how avoidable it all is. First, my truck gate won’t flip down all the way unless the gambrel is swiveled at least 90 degrees. The tailgate actually hits the winch otherwise. On the one side, that’s a pain in the butt. On the other hand, you wouldn’t be able to swing your meat all the way onto the truck otherwise.The whole machine is broken up into a number of clever pieces, meaning that the box you receive (or store it in) can be significantly smaller than the assembled structure. ...but you might not want to do that. See, the pulleys that the cable and hook go over are too small for the hook that holds the gambrel, which means that you have to set up the cable by passing it winch-end first through everything. That’s not a big deal. ...but if you want to take it apart then you kinda need to take that cable back off in its entirety or risk a kinked up rats’ nest when you want to put it all back together. The cable is 25-30’ long, which is WAY longer than it needs to be and just takes a long time to wind or unwind.The foot isn’t just one sliding foot that inserts into the mounting arm that goes in your trailer hitch. There’s an intermediate piece. This allows you to easily fit it from any standard height up to a lifted truck. (It’s like a telescopic arm you pin to the height you need.) That’s a clever touch, even if it makes things a bit more fidgety. Unfortunately, mine seems to only fit in one way and can get stuck if I put it in the wrong way. I don’t know if one or both pipes aren’t true somehow or if the tolerance is just a funny gap that allows it to twist just enough. Either way, it only seems to happen one direction.Shipping large, heavy chunks of metal isn’t easy, and they do a pretty good job of having everything zip tied nice and snug when you get the hoist so it isn’t all banged up. ...but as you can see from my pictures, not only was it banged up and missing some sizeable chunks of enamel, but actually *rusted* in spots. Now, I don’t expect that to cause a huge problem for me, because the rust isn’t in places that seem critical, but it shows that the hoist isn’t exactly treated with kid gloves at any point in its journey.In the interest of fairness, I should point out that I picked this up because I thought about building a trailer hitch gambrel hoist myself but couldn’t have done it as inexpensively as this one. Could I have made it better? Maybe. Could I have done it without it being all beat up before I got to use it? Definitely.I’d still recommend the hoist, but I think it’s important to at least know where you’re cutting corners when you buy the cheapest trailer hitch gambrel hoist on Amazon.

This product is relatively easy to assemble, but the instructions were a little confusing the first read through, so read them carefully. In use, the hoist worked perfectly and easily. It breaks down for easy transport. I used it for antelope hunting the week after I received it mounted on my truck's receiver hitch. There is plenty of cable to reach an animal that isn't directly under the hoist. The winch was more than strong enough for the doe I shot. The feature that prevents the animal from spinning around while working on it was great. I have used other hoists that do not do that, which can be kind of like working on a moving target. The support foot that goes down to the ground isn't really necessary for an animal as light as a Pronghorn, but I will use it for an upcoming late season cow elk hunt should I get lucky and harvest one. I will see then if the hoist is tall enough to at least get most of the animal off the ground, and it looks like the winch will be strong enough at least for the weight of a field dressed cow. I have been big game hunting for 50 years, and anything like this hoist that makes it easier as I get older is much appreciated.

During the summer, I bought a side-by-side to replace my old ATV. I quickly discovered that it's a little tougher to get a large game animal in the back of a SxS than it is to get one over the rack of a four-wheeler. My first deer was a large one for our area, and after struggling to get him loaded into a bed that's well above waist height for me, I was looking for an easier solution.I found it with this hoist. It's pretty simple to assemble, and you can easily break it down into two pieces to fit in the bed of the truck or the SxS. I got another deer a few days after receiving this, and the load was much easier, minus some user error on my part to begin.This hoist is rock solid, and the ball bearing makes it swivel easily, even under a couple hundred pounds. I recommend setting it to maximum height to make it easier to swing the animal. Winch it up, pull the pin and rotate. You're loaded.It comes with a gambrel that will come in very handy for off-season hog hunts where I have to clean them in the field.My only complaint is that it's a bit awkward and bulky to transport. It only weighs about 50 pounds, but it's an awkward 50 pounds. It's not as easy as having a buddy help you throw one up in the bed, but if you're out by yourself, it's a handy tool and well worth the money.