Winch - 16/10/04

Whilst looking through the forum's on the Rhino Riders website I noticed that one of the members was selling a 6000lb winch at a pretty good price. Unfortunately I missed out on buying it by about 5 minutes! However, then I'd got it into my head to get a winch so I really went looking.

I checked out all the different winch companies websites and everything available on eBay and decided that a KEW winch was probably for me. The better known winch companies talk about how much higher quality their winches are but when they're trying to sell me a 5000lb winch for £700 that I can get the equivalent of for £250 then I'm afraid it's a 'cheap Japanese copy' for me any day! Hey it's a Japanese car anyway so it'll feel at home!

I decided to go for a 5000lb winch from www.c-n-buy.com which at £265 I thought was a really good deal. They sell from their own website and also through eBay. The winch arrived a few days later in a very strong box and I think the delivery driver probably put his back out! I didn't realise quite how heavy this was going to be, it's a good job I've got those heavy duty springs!

Ah the weekend at last and time to fit it! Oh, it doesn't fit. The feet are hanging off the edge of the bumper! Hmm...

Well time for some adjustments to the front of my truck then! I decided to take the radiator grill off to see what could be done.

Ah man that looks kinda scary! Well I've decided to chop now so I'll chop! The metal bar that runs along the bottom of the grill will have to come out. Now where's that sabre saw?

Now that's even scarier! Notice the nice bit of rust on the remaining left bar. I'll have to sort that out some time if we ever get a dry day!

That's much better, the winch feet are sitting squarely on the bumper and there's more space in front for the fairlead to fit. Feeling more confident about things now!

Now let's get those final bits of strut off. There's no way these screws are ever going to budge regardless of how much WD40 I put on there! Much easier to just drill them out because I don't want them.

My dad kindly routed the electrics for me while I was bolting the winch on. The cables run along with the ones I installed for the spotlights. Anywhere there was a chance of them rubbing and wearing through they're covered in tape for protection. I don't particularly want it shorting out! I definitely need to get a big fuse holder for it though which is the one thing they don't provide.

I carefully cut the grille with a small hacksaw so that it fits snugly around the winch and then screwed it back into place. I'm really happy with the way it looks, quite professional I reckon! Still a bit bare without the fairlead though.

The roller fairlead needed to be mounted to a strong plate to bring it up to the right height. Fortunately I have a big piece of 10mm steel which I ... um ... aquired somewhere along the way. There's no way that's going to bend whatever you do to it! I had to cut it with the sabre saw which took a fair while but wasn't too bad. Drilling the bolt holes did eat a few drill bits though! I decided to paint it black to match with the fairlead.

And here's the finished product! I think it looks great and really finishes off the front of the truck. I made a webbing strap up for pulling the hook out because I've seen it on the expensive winches and think it's a good idea. That must be where the extra £500 goes then!

I just can't wait to have to use it for real. Somebody fetch me a huge hole full of gloopy mud!