I have this winch mounted in my attic and the cable runs down through the sheetrock. Those metal brackets on the top aren't good for much because they are small. The mounting holes are metric nuts welded into place. I bought four big bolts and ran them through two- eight foot 4x4's and mounted it in the attic. I made a little "picture frame" to trim off the sheetrock where the cables comes down. It does what I need.