I have a 16 x 44 Go Devil boat with a 23hp GDLT. I'm looking at putting a winch on it. And I was wondering if the metal in front would be strong enough or if it would need beefing up in someway? Go Devil's web site says the metal is .100" 5052 H32, would that be strong enough to weld some type of bracket on to hold the winch?

Let me know what you think or what yall have done. Any ideals would be great.

I think as long as you tie the bracket into the gunwales you should be ok. I would suggest using c plate or channel plate. 3/16. I asked my local welder for that 3 times, but when I came by to pick it up I had plane 3/16 sheet welded to the gunwales and the bow.

I ended up drilling through the 3/16 and the deck to attach the winch with grade 8 hardware. A few weeks ago I used that winch to pull my submerged boat completely up and out of a flooded river and have not seen any issues with the set up.

When you mount it, put a piece of plate on the underside as well to distribute the force that will be on the 4 bolts more evenly. You wont yank it out if you do that.

I spoke with Warren @ Go Devil. And he gave me the design that he has used for many years, and it sounds good. So I think I'm going to use it. What he says do is you take a 1/4" allum plate about 7" wide and how ever long in needs to be to reach both sides of the boat, start it just behind the front running light, weld it on all sides and tie it in to the gunnel. Then take a 4" piece of channel about 5 or 6 inches long and weld it in the middle of your plate. To bolt the winch up you want to use 1 - 5/8" bolt, you are going to want to bolt it up about 1/4" from dead center on the spool, put a plastic washer between the winch plate and the boat mount, and now you can pull from any angle.
Sounds good to me, what do yall think?

No offense, but why would you want to fork up a good boat by welding that big plate across the front? Just chain it to the bow or stearn eyes depending on which way you want to pull it.

Anybody had good luck with the

portable wiches ???

how much u want for dat skim board

Got the boat back last night here are some pics. Now I going to bolt the winch in the middle of that channel with just one 5/8 bolt. That way the winch will turn and pull in just about any position.


Next boat project clean and prep for paint.

holy shit. lol

need to get sum NDT & mag particle testin' on dem welds

I would like to see the magnet they use for the mag particle on aluminum, would be good to drink a few beers watcing that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think that is NDT level 8 certs

8000 lb Warn