Thread: Fitting a winch to a non-winch ARB bar

Would an ARB D1 cradle fit? I hope to get my D2 back this week, so I could look.

Originally Posted by crash

You may have to cut a hole on top of the bar for winch control and access the free spool lever.
The winch compatible bars also have the mounting tabs for the roller fairlead.

I hear you on the free spool clutch access.
95% certain will go synthetic with hawse not roller.
Plan is to put solenoid / control where jack is in battery box.

Originally Posted by johntins

Would an ARB D1 cradle fit? I hope to get my D2 back this week, so I could look.

My understanding is d1 and d2 chassis rails are significantly different at the front.

Originally Posted by ScotchRocks

My understanding is d1 and d2 chassis rails are significantly different at the front.

Wouldn't surprise me, but I don't know.

Read a thread in my winch search where someone asked about putting a d1 winch bar on a d2 and it was pretty quickly discounted by more knowledgable Land roverers than I.

I’ve attached some pics of a winch mount from a bar that has the winch mounted to the chassis rails. The rope just passes straight through the bar. It’s off a 2003 D2 I bought for parts. I’m unsure of the brand, I think it is south African as the car was imported from SA. I think this was installed by the original owner as he had decked it all out for touring.

You could do something frame wise like this and then mount your bar to it. When you look at it, there isn’t really a whole lot to it. I just went through the exercise myself about how to convert my ARB to a winch bar. I ended up getting an xrox. But had I waited this might have been an option. It looks a bit rusty, but it is just surface rust, the guy lived on the ocean.

I’m in bicton if you want to swing past and have a look/measure up etc.



The bar is also for sale 😊 so I could do you a great deal on it 😊 two careful owners, only driven to church on a sunday...


bar 4.jpgbar 3.jpgbar 2.jpgbar 1.jpg

when I compared the inside of my non-winch ARB bar and the xrox, there is substantially more meat behind the front of the bar where the winch mounts up to the bar on the xrox. Plus the side plates that mounted to the chassis rails were somewhat thicker plate. But really that was the only difference.

So I think there would be a bit of reinforcing required to make the ARB bar work. That was really my main concern about converting it. It ended up working form me with the xrox, so I went that way.

On a previous vehicle I had a TJM alloy bullbar. When I installed the winch all I needed was a steel cradle for the winch to mount onto.