Ok I'm building a hanging feeder with a winch/pulley system.

We have cows, lots of pigs and tons of coons. I don't mind the hogs... Pork tastes great. Cows are tearing up my tripods. I've fenced them in useing trees and tposts, staking down the corners...one cow performs acrobats and lands right on top of the fence and gets in every time.

Building the feeder out of a 30 gallon drum with a locking lid.

I got a solar timer so I don't have to change the battery to often.

I'll be attaching some angle iron to the bottom of the 30 gallon barrel for legs and To protect the timer when I bring it down.

Also adding rabbit cage to bottom around the circumference of the barrel to keep the coons out. They are bad in southeast Texas.

I'm thinking I'm gonna hang the feeder about 10' off the ground from the bottom of the feeder so no cows can mess with it. Using the boat winch on another tree with a pulley above it and a pulley above the feeder on another tree.

But what do you guys use to attach the wire rope to the barrel?

Threaded rod with 4nuts, 4 washers, 4 rubber washers going through the center at the top? Or bolt on some brackets to the outside? 2nd option seems like it would cause the barrel to bow?

They make a barrel attachment for that purpose.

You need three pieces of angle iron, two pieces about two feet long and one piece about four inches longer than the diameter of the barrel. Any size angle iron will do (one inch by one inch, 1-1/4" X 1-1/4", etc.). Bolt the two-foot pieces to each side of the barrel with half of their length extending above the top of the barrel. On the bolts holding the angle iron to the barrel, add a nut between the barrel and the angle iron so the angle iron is not flat against the side of the barrel. You need a bit of space between the barrel and the upright angle irons when removing the barrel's cover. Bolt the third piece of angle iron across the top of the two upright angle irons and attach the lifting bridle at those corners.

Do yourself a BIG favor by not skimping on the winch. Spend the money for a break winch. (http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200595335_200595335). A regular boat winch without a break is dangerous with a heavy lifting load. Sooner or later it will get away from you, spin the handle around, and break a hand or some fingers.

Now hat sounds a hell of a lot better than my idea. Glad I asked.

Much appreciated!!

I have a 2000lb winch but it doesn't have a brake. I may go grab one from the store tomorrow. That sounds like it would be needed.

Again thanks

It's a lot more fun to build it yourself and see the outcome. Plus I'm a penny pincher. I go spending and that may give my wife a green light to go shopping too lol

You steal ideas from those who have done the R&D already.

Ain't nothin wrong with that lol

You're welcome. I'm cheap frugal myself, and enjoy those kind of do-it-yourself projects.

dern it, I'm always a post late and a dollar short. Was just gonna post if anyone knew of a cheap hanging feeder setup. Now I'm gonna make it!!!!

I had this same issue last year on a lease. I have a 30 gallon moultrie. i moved the ring that holds the legs up and used 550 para-cord to connect it to the pulley. I used a 2/1 pulley system until i decided a 4/1 is much better. I didnt have a winch. when you lower it you put 4 feet of legs on it and the barrel top is just above waist height.

I converted a tripod feeder to a hanging feeder this year. It was a 30gal poly barrel feeder. It has a ring around the barrel that the tripod legs were supposed to slip into. I removed the legs and loosened the bolts holding the ring together. Then I slid the ring to the upper part of the barrel and retightened. Note that there are 2 ribs around the barrel for the ring to rest on. Once secured, I took 3/16" cable with cable clamps and made 3 cables to go through the holes that the legs went through. I put loops on the tops of each cable and used a heavy duty carabineer to attach the 3 cables. Run the winch cable through a pulley and connect it to the carabineer to lift. Easy as punch.

Note sure how your metal barrel feeder is set up, but this worked well for me. A couple of points for you to consider.

1. I agree with the brake winch. I bought mine at Harbor Freight for $20.
2. It will take you a long time to winch up the feeder. The gear ratio on these winches requires a lot of turns.
3. Make a note of how the wire feeds onto the winch. It was almost an issue for me and I had to rig something up to allow it to clear.
4. I attached my winch to a tree, but it was a PITA. Not sure I had any other option.
5. Measure your feeder barrel length along with the bracket system that you will use. It always seems to hang lower than you think it will.
6. Use pulleys. If you don't, the cable will bind up.

Good luck to you. I love my hanging feeder. Very glad I did it.

Is there a way you could rig it to work with a cordless drill? I've thought about this but haven't tested the logistics. with a winch geared that low and possibly a pulley system it seems like that would be the way to go.

I thought about using a drill, but I didn't really have a good way to do connect it. It's only burdensome the first time cause you have so much cable. When you lower it 4-5 ft to fill it, it isn't much of a hassle.

We have a mix of boat winch and break winch style crank ups.

Gotta be careful with the non break ones, but I feel they have there plusses. Simpler, cheaper, and requires less effort to crank, but have to crank more turns. Break winches are safer and require fewer turns but are somewhat more difficult to crank.

Our break winches sometimes get hung up when the feeders are empty and don't want to crank the feeders down, not a huge issue, but it can be anoying.

Easiest away we've found that seems to work very well are two prices of chain link about 18 inches long and one piece of square tubing about two ft long. Bolt the chain to the barrel in two spots evenly on the sides. Then take your square tubing and drill three holes and put I bolts in them. The center one facing up and the two on the sides upside down. Then just connect the chains to the two I bolts and your winch to the center one and you're good to go. We like this one because it's easy to get the lid off, too. Hope that wasn't too confusing.

I like this idea also

I may go with this. Thanks a lot