On my Buckstop the access is nice and large , there's a latch in front and some welded on interlocking fingers in the rear, it has to be fully removed , the cover probably weighs 5 lb by itself ,if using the winch I`d probably put it on the floor in the backseat area of the truck so it didn't get left on the trail
I'm looking forward to installing a winch in my bumper, the only hard part looks like lifting 125- 150 lbs up though the under side of the bumper and into its home - floor jack time
Probably makes it harder to steal though