Why don't you just DRIVE the quads up the ramp...?

 

1. The Winch is basically an atv winch and for $40 on black friday it was well worth it with the wireless remote
2. The quad has stidded tires in the winter and it gets kinda sketchy driving it up the ramp. also my buddy wants to do the same thing and he has a tri-fold cover so pretty much once the quad is up the ramps you have to stop really fast or you smash the cover (it will smash we proved that)

So basically I would use it for loading my jetski, and he would use it for his quad. Defenitely not a "need" but more of a cool thing to hook up to save my back from horsing the jetski in the bed myself, and to save my buddies tonneau cover. Thanks again for the input

Any thoughts on bracing for the back? I was thinking of using uni-strut or maybe a metal plate or something

 

I wouldn't ever use a winch from harbor freight on my truck besides pulling lightweight stuff(<1klbs)

You will have to hook as high as possible on your machine. If you mount the winch to the floor of the bed up front, the line will rub along the edge of your tailgate if you hook down low, especially if your *** end is up high and the ramps are sorta steep. Maybe driving the quad and parking it so the front tires are already up on the ramps and the nose is in the air. That would solve that problem.

As far as brackets, If you got a 1/4" steel plate that is a little larger than the mounting plate of the winch itslef, you'll be good to go. You could just use the mounting bolts to hold it in place underneath the bed.

 

I do NOT want to mount the thing to the "floor" of the truck for the reason that Dirty stated. I want to mount it on the rear VERTICAL part of the bed.

And I have a had a harbor freight 3000lb winch mounted in my 19' enclosed trailer for the last 3 years and it works great everytime. It has pulled many skis up the ramp into the trailer.......If It were a winch for my truck......Warn all the way, but I dont need anything that great.

 

Alright.......I ended up making the winch very removable. I didn't want to commit to having it mounted in there permently since I am not going to use it too often. Here is what I did. It pulls the quad or the jetski in with no problem. Winch is plenty strong and the board shows no signs of bowing or anything due to the strut on the backside. Take a look:

http://butch151981.shutterfly.com/871

 

Looks nice, what did you end up paying? And are you worried about that wood bending and snapping?

 

I hav had the winch laying around for years. I paid less than $50 at harbor. My buddy has the same one, but with the wireless remote.

The 2x8 is reinforced with 2 pieces of 1 5/8" Unistrut. I tested it multiple times, it is really solid. All I am going to do is pull up quads and jetskis......