What are the ramps rated at load wise? How are you planning to guide the Wolverine up the ramps? Did you build something along these lines? TRUCKBOSS Decks - UTV Deck

I have a close friend that runs one of these sled deck bedcover type deals. He rides a 1000 cc 2 person can-am atv. He rides it up the ramps. By the look on his face as he is driving up, I'd guess he doesn't really enjoy it much. He is young and doesn't mind the climbing down part. Yamaha has a 2nd battery install kit that mounts under the drivers seat in front of the rear wheel well. https://www.shopyamaha.com/product/details/second-battery-kit?dealernumber=&nw=yamaha-motor-company

 

I bought a set of 10' Titan HD aluminum UTV loading ramps, rated for 2000 lbs. Guiding the rig won't be difficult, the winch pull is slow and steady and easy to "steer" the front wheels by hand if necessary by making little adjustments as it goes along. None of that is the issue--- its the dang winch and battery situation that has me concerned.

 

Winch with the engine running?

 

Why don't you just drive it up?

 

I had the same question

Do I understand you correctly in that you’ve owned this since October and haven’t taken it out yet???

Don't be afraid of it. Get out, ride that thing, and have some fun!
.

 

I wouldnt worry about it and just do it. You dont even need to run the engine, but if it concerns you, you can let it idle while winching. I winch my 4,000 lb. boat in and out of my carport with my Yamaha Warn 3000 no problem. Post pics of your setup too. I have an 04 Ram 2500 and am looking for something other than trailering my wolverine.

 

Yeah I was planning to let it run while I winch it up, but I kinda don't think the stator puts out enough power at idle to bother letting it run. I dunno, maybe it'll just make me feel better. Guess we'll see how it goes.

Just drive it up? Uh, no. I'm old, I'm fat, and I fully admit that at my age, I no longer have the testicular fortitude to do it. Its a little sketchy.

I'll put up some pics of the rack when I get it painted. It fits nice and it should do the trick, and I think I built it strong enough to hold at least 5 Wolverines (but theres only room for one.)

 

Just drive it up? Uh, no. I'm old, I'm fat, and I fully admit that at my age, I no longer have the testicular fortitude to do it. Its a little sketchy.

I've seen too many youtube videos of people that were unwilling to acknowledge this. I commend you for trying to be safe.

 

Probably not the solution you want but is it possible to get like a badlands winch from harbor freight and a deep cycle marine battery and mount it to rack? Then in worst case scenario you use the winch on the machine if your deep cycle dies. I just looked and you can get like a 5K winch for $180

 

You're overthinking it. Just start it up and let it idle while you're winching it.

 

You've got a Cummins with diesel batteries? Why an extra battery. Run a good set of cables and let that do. You can make up some cheaper cables for this intermittent use out of commercial electrical wire instead of expensive automotive rated wire. I would do that with a cheap HFT winch and have a connection point for the Wolv winch as a backup if something goes wrong. $.02

 

That was my original plan. I even went and bought the HFT 3500# winch, still sitting here in the box. I was gonna use my 20' set of jumper cables to power it from the truck batteries. But, to do this, the winch needs to mounted up on the rack above the truck cab at the winch attachment point. This will make the rack very difficult to load by myself as it will require a considerable amount of framework and extra weight to mount/support it, plus the weight of the winch itself. The other option is to mount the winch down lower on the rack frame, but then that requires a few pulleys to route the winch cable in such a way that it will clear the Wolverine as it loads. Neither of those options are ideal for me. Pulling the cable of the front of the Wolverine and pulling up with it's winch is absolutely the best situation, so long as the battery is up to it. I'm gonna test it tomorrow.

 

I tend to over build and over complicate things, so I know what you mean by all of your figuring and building. Why not just winch and drive at the same time as you load it up? Or would it be difficult to get down once you get it up in place? Or do like I do, and have a flatbed put on your truck and just use a set of ramps to drive it up on the flatbed? A local person I know pulled a 5th wheel and wanted to take his quad also, but did not want a toy hauler. So he built a rather nifty but complicated ramp system and rack that carried the quad over the cab. He had a long system of ramps that took a long time to unfold and set up, and then store in special racks. Sort of like a long answer to a question no one really ever asked. I thought he should just get a toy hauler and call it good. But he enjoyed engineering and building things, so it was quite the thing to see it all in operation! For myself, the flatbed works well. Except when I need to put our 5th wheel and it's not a toy hauler, hmmmm . . . . . . perhaps I need to engineer and build a special carrier over the cab of the truck with special fold away loading ramps?:thinkerg:

 

So FYI, the Wolverine has been winched on and off my truck rack at least 6 times now, and I'm happy to report everything works as well as I hoped it would..... and the Yamaha battery is hanging in just fine! Still shows a solid 12.8 volts with engine off, and about 14v with the engine at idle. My rack has worked perfectly, and the Warn Vantage 3000 pulls the machine up there without issue. So, yay me! ;-)

Thanks all for the help and advice on here.