Thread: Fitting ARB Bar and Warn 9.5XP to a Defender

Hi all, here's a few shots of me fitting a ARB Bar and a Warn 9.5 XP to my new Defender.

This is what I used:

One of these -



and one of these -



and one of these -



And if like me you have no mates you'll probably want to use one of these



I measured the height to the front wheel arch because I wanted to see how much difference there would be in the ride hight after I finished. Once I had the bar and winch on I fitted some OME 761 springs and nitro charger shocks, the ride hight came out to be 40mm higher than standard. Which seems to level the vehicle out nicely, it's now about 5mm higher in the front with about 100kgs of tools in the back. I might look at changing the rear springs when funds permit.

Righto, back to the project.... First thing you have to do is pull out the side rollers and drill some holes in your nice new roller fairlead. You just need to hold it up to the winch bar to mark out where to drill the holes.



Then I pulled the motor casing and stator off the winch to pull the silicon plug out of what will be the drain hole when the winch is mounted "feet forward", and plug up the original drain hole.





Then its time to start bolting everything together. It pays to use liberal amounts of this stuff:



Its eaiser if you put these in place before you lift the bar on top of the winch.



Then lay the bar on top of the winch, (again), which needs to be sitting on something to raise it up a bit, the instructions reccomend a 44 gallon drum.





Because it's a 9.5xp winch you need to fit 2 packers between the feet on each side of the winch and the bar.



Then place the roller fairlead in place and bolt the winch on.



Finally refit the side rollers with the bolts supplied.



I used this stuff to lubricate/protect the bolts, (it's also food grade!).



All done and ready to go onto the vehicle.



Well not quite, those sharp eyed people out there will have noticed I put the winch on upside down

Right ready to go again.



Right, time to fit it to the vehicle, (again), grill and factory bumper off and all ready...



Get the forklift and...



Put 4 bolts through the original fixing points for the bumper, this is a real b@stard getting the nuts to line up!



Now bolt the bottom mounting points on through where the factoy "crash" bar is attached. I had to strech the bolt holes on the drivers side a bit, this was also a real b@stard!



Finally you need to drill holes throught your nice new defender for the top mounting bolts. All I have to do now is wire the winch up, after you pull the winch off again to connect the longer ground cable, (supplied with the winch bar).

All done.... (Well appart from fitting the new springs and shocks, sorry no pics as my phone went flat).



Cheers,

Tim

Hi Gery, the winch is going very well thanks and I'm very impressed with its performance. I havn't had to use it to recover myself yet, but I have recovered about 6 other vehicles on seperate ocasions. I also used it quite a bit when I was a marshal at a 4wd comp. I'm very happy with the power of the winch, I havn't had to use a snatch block yet and I've done some pretty heavy pulls, (Patrool that was on its axles in wet sand and a Disco 3 over logs with all its wheels off the ground, for example).
I'll be stripping the winch shortly to inspect/re-lube it as I have some dynamica rope to fit to it. I'll post the results on this site.
The only thing I'd do differently is spend a bit more on the shocks, (ie some bilstines), the OME's are Ok, but not outstanding. I'd also like to be able to adjust the shocks to suit the vehicle and my driving. I have since ditched the OME springs, they were far too stiff and the front of the vehicle rode to high, (too much angle on the front prop shaft). I ended up fitting some "rangie pink" springs from Les Richmond Automotive, they were very helpfull and knew their stuff.
I am also going to remount the winch bar at some stage. It sits too far forward, it would not be difficult to move it back about 100mm. I also need to get some 5W lamps for the indicators to stop the "trailer connected" light on the dash flashing.

Cheers,

Tim