OK so I got a harbor freight 220/440lb winch. I fastened it to the floor of the fur shed, fastened a pipe in the rafters and hung a pulley to pull from. Then I welded up a frame outa angle iron, I think it was ann 18" square on 12" legs. I welded 3/8" rebar pieces to the gripping portion to hold the fur. I used two pairs of vice grips.

So tonight I had a coyote to try and skin and hooked her up. Problem one, the coyote seemd awful low to start skinning, but when I got done it was just hardly high enough to finish the yote. Problem number 2 one of the legs on the coyote kept pulling apart. It would pull off at the vice grip and Id have to get another bite, by the time I was done it looked like the yote only had three legs LOL. So do I need another grip to hold onto the tail? If I do hook one onto the tail I figure its got to be hooked to the tail base and not the tail itself so I dont pull the tail off?

Any help would sure be appreciated. The rig did work, and I think has a lot of potential, I was just kinda dissapointed in its first run. Thanks in advance.

on mine I welded 2 rebar on bottem jaw and one on top for more area of contact to grab (wider area)rebar pieces approx 3"long

also I just have a ring mounted to floor with strap running through with vice grips tied to it,,,been working great for me

Get rid of the vise grips and make a nose out of cable and some double ferruals a cable stop. Put some type of hook on the tag end so you can hook It up to the floor or your bench.

. Make It big enough so you can slip the hide through the loop. cinch It up over the tail and skirt area, hook up the noose and start pulling. I have never had the noose slip or tear the fur.If you don't have enough head room just slack off on the winch and re hook the noose and start again.

nw il - I set up my vice grips just like you explained. Two 3" peices of rebar on bottom and one on top.

Beav, I never though about that. So you just put a small loop in one end of the cable, then run the length of the cable threw the loop making a sort of relaxing noose? So long as things r tight the noose grips? It shouldnt pull any gaurd hairs of do fur damage as you are pulling the leather. Hmmmmm I might have to give this a try. Make two or the in different lenghts for different critters.

10' is min for yotes. The best (only) skinning machines pull both up and down!!! That will keep your skinning (knife) area within 10"!!! I skin 200 beaver a yr, and I wouldnt be without it!!

my good frend and trapping competitor has a rig something like yours, its a bit short for yotes as he built it for coon, he has the vise grips as you described, the rafter pole, harbor freight winch, etc, for one he uses 3 pairs of grips, and yes one is at the base of the tail, for two he has heavy springs attached to the vise grips so a bumping motion canbe used to prevent the legs comin off, and for 3 he only pulls part way from the legs, then he wraps a chain arouind the yotes belly and finishes his pull, except for the ist few days of the season i skin in the feild so it would do me little good, but he really rocks on with his.

A friend of mine welded pieces of files onto the vice grips...no slipage...Tom

I still don't get It on this fixation with all the vise grips and welding and using files and rebar.
Take a piece of 1/8" cable get a double ferruale and a cable stop. Run the cable through the double ferrale and then smash on the cable stop to one end. Now you have a slip noose. On the tag end of the loop I just ran It through a MB swivel and smashed on another stop. I place the hide through the loop all the way up to and over the flanks and cinch It up tight drop the swivel into a slot and start pulling. On coon you can't tear the hide the body will pull In half first. On coyotes you have to go slow and I always cut off the front legs up high this helps.The shoulder area is the critical area.
The cable never slips and will not cause any fur damage. I make similer slip nooses for the legs. No more worries about tearing out the tendons.
I will try and get some pics.
I have also built a skinner where the hide Is pulled off and rolls up on a shaft so the carcass never moves and Is always In the knife zone. With this system you can skin a coyote on 5' long bench or In areas with less then 7' foot ceilings.
Or If you have a 12 volt winch you can skin a coyote on your tail gate.

Beav, the reason I do it is, it works great. I don't have time to screw around with no cable. They get nasty after you use them a while. You also have to put the cable around whatever you are putting it on. With my typ of device, it is a matter of a second or two and your on and off with the carcass and hide into the clamp. I hook through the tendon area, and no I never tear a tendon nor do I cut one, clamp the leg flaps in the vise and hit up. It is just about as fast as it took me to typ this sentence.

I have a block and tackle hooked high under the carport {8 feet high},I use the visegrip method,two 1/4 rod on one jaw,one on the other.the two are connected by chain,then I use the winch on my 4-wheeler winch connected to the chain to pull the hide.The height is not a problem as the animal stretches out on about 36-1/2 degree angle.I'm in the process of building a fur shed so this will change,to some kind of inside rig.

Beav, I think I get what u are saying, some pics would be awsome though, really help me get it figured out. From what you are saying, I get that you loop the cable through a double ferrule and then add a cable stop to one end past the ferrule making a sort of P now the bottom of the P is anchored to the ground, floor, in some fashion (swivel, loop, chain, etc.) Now the top of the P is actually a slip noose where the size of the loop can be opened to pull the started hide through and then the loop is pulled shut when the cable is pulled tight and anchored off. Now while skinning if you are running outa head room you can let the critter down a little, open up your P loop, pull through a little more hide and start again.

Do I have this right Beav? Im trying to work this out in my tiny little brain, and sometimes the wheels need greesed LOL. Thanks for all the help fellars.

Don wolf, thanks for the picture! I like that setup as well, looks like by spreading the gripping portion out over a larger area like that you wouldnt have as much a chance of something tearing.

Hey Don I would like to have a race with you sometime LOl
I like to open 10 or so coon slip on the noosses and then skin on the machine. I hook up both hind legs with one loop It's faster then doing each leg separate.So I now I have the lead on ya LOL
The nice thing about the noose, Is that on coyotes you can re hook and keep the coyote In the knife zone.
I have my line pulled for deer season but soon as i get some coon I'll put up some pictures.
Kansasbert you got It. Some times I have problems explaining things through the key board.
I would have had a 100 coon skinned In the time It took to type this. LOL

I also knurled the rods.

With that machine, can the carcase be spun?

The young man that took pitty on me and built me a skinner, Welded pieces of a course wood file the width of the top and bottom jaws of each pair of vice grips. No problems with that set up.

I hold the tail unitil the machine gets the hide moving good. And yes hold at the base, not on the tail. I have been thinking of a noose on the floor to get another bite on long coyotes. Tom

Never had a problem with loop memory. You make It so It opens to 6" and It always opens to that size. The only trouble Is that after 5 or 600 coon the cable will tear through the feruals and you will have to re build the loop. But that only happens to the noose that I use on the hind feet. I loop up both feet togeather.
My skinner Is horizontal and the coon lays on a moveable table. Both nooses are attached so the animal can be turned. But If you hook It up right there Is no need to turn them.
The first pull Is right to the ears,cut thru the ear butts and then pull to the eyes.If you lopp off the front legs you don't have to mess with cutting the leg fur.Once the eyes are cut you can just pull till the nose comes off no need to cut at this point.On coyotes you will have to do more knife work but coons are a piece of cake.
The thing I like about It Is that i can open or have my partner open all the coon and slip on the loops as he opens them then I just lay them on the skinner and pull It's very fast and effient.

Tex you have no Idea how long It took me to type that response LOL

This is how I "roll"

Mounted the winch on an old feed bunk. Have 600 lbs of tractor weights holding that baby down.



I can open coon on the feed bunk "table" and grab the gambrel and put him on there.



Then I roll the tail and rear end/back area of the coon, and the winch does the rest up to the arms, and pull them out with a dowel, then to the ears/eyes/nose. BAM!



I took this idea from k9, who has a similiar rig mounted on a 55 gallon drum of solid concrete.