Thread: hidden winch on D3/4 with standard bumper and NO roo-bar

Originally Posted by dirvine

I have recently purchased a discreet winch bar from UK. I will be fitting it sometime in Nov/Dec. I have no issues, cares or concerns about any mods I do to cars. If they are illegal and I get found out I will deal with them. If not (as has happened with my last vehicle), then I will happily motor along, in the knowledge that I have the equipment attached/onboard that will get me out of the trouble I may lead myself into.

i would REALLY appreciate it if you could keep me in the loop (with pictures!!) of how you go ok? very keen on following a similar path..

Originally Posted by wombathole

DA7537 | Discreet Winch Mount - Land Rover Part DA7537

I paid $405. 301 plus 104 shipping.

12000lb domin8r winch. $350.

$265 for the Ultra hook. Beautiful piece of bling.

Wombathole & others, thanks, you have made it look easy so that I have taken the plunge & now have the same winch mount & Domin8r winch ready to install this weekend.

I'd like to know if anyone has suggestions about what they might have done differently if the did the install again.

Milton477, Make sure you have some good instructions on fitting the winch. If you only bought the cradle with some bolts and brackets for washer bottle and air junction box, then download the instructions for the Devon one (on the webite) and use them as approptriate. About the only tool I had to buy was a trim kit from Jaycar to remove the inner guard trim clips. Otherwise a normal tool box will be all you require along with a hacksaw or angle grinder. For me the hardest parts were trying to determine where I would mount the contol box so I would always have easy access, and having to cut the hole for the fairlead in the bumper bar. Otherwise its fairly straight forward.

Originally Posted by dirvine

Milton477, Make sure you have some good instructions on fitting the winch. If you only bought the cradle with some bolts and brackets for washer bottle and air junction box, then download the instructions for the Devon one (on the webite) and use them as approptriate. About the only tool I had to buy was a trim kit from Jaycar to remove the inner guard trim clips. Otherwise a normal tool box will be all you require along with a hacksaw or angle grinder. For me the hardest parts were trying to determine where I would mount the contol box so I would always have easy access, and having to cut the hole for the fairlead in the bumper bar. Otherwise its fairly straight forward.

Thanks dirvine. The instructions are a bit skimpy with the LR Direct mount so I will look for the Devon ones. I see you put your control box where I have a 2nd dual battery so that will be an issue for me to find a suitable location where it is reasonably accessible. Were you happy with the supplied bolts & lack of washers?

Trickiest part for me was the bolts onto the chassis rails. Instructions mentioned that different d4 models had different sized bolts. I have to drill out the threads which was easy. But getting new nuts aligned and tight was very cramped. Needed 4 hands. If I did it again I would use the nuts with the tabs welded to them.

Re the controller, I moved the horn, pulled the controller electrics out of the plastic box and mounted it where the horn originally lived. I table tied the wireless remote head onto the controller, so access is not required whilst in use.

Lastly, be careful when cutting the plastic bumper. I used a multi tool vibrating cutter which gave good control. It takes a while to work out what is essential to cut and in my opinion, I wanted to cut the least amount as possible. Lots of small cuts and test fittings worked. Just took time.

Enjoy, it’s a satisfying little project.

Thanks guys, I will update the thread when I am done.

Mine all bolted up with no mods at all. I read other posts bothe here and on an overseas website about bolts and drilling but I did not have to do anything. Perhaps this is the difference with the Devon unit. As I mentioned before, sometimes you get what you pay for, and cheap is not always an option. As i said the most stressfull thing for me was cutting the bumper bar on a new car to make the winch fit. In the end I should not have worried as you can hardly see the winch or any cutting that i did.

Well I fitted mine this weekend. Not quite so easy...

• The flanges on the end of the chassis where the winch mount bolts onto are set back 20 mm behind the radiator pack so spacers are needed to bring the winch mount forward to clear the rads. No mention of this in the instructions.
• The captive 10 mm nut plates supplied with the winch mount are not quite the same distance apart as the 8 mm captive nuts in the chassis which have to be drilled out. This required elongating the holed in the chassis.

Anyway, got it done over 2 days & I am pleased with the result. The Domin8tor 12000 lb winch fits, just. I did not need to do change the position of the clutch as there is just enough room to access it through the grill. The relays were removed from their box & mounted behind the grill on a bracket & the controls extended so that the plug is in the engine bay.

A jig saw & multi tool were necessary for modifying the bumper. To fit the fairlead into the bumper, I used a framing square to transfer the vertical position of the bolts off the mount to the floor & horizontally onto the square. I then re-fitted the bumper & transferred the marks to the bumper. Drilled the 2 fairlead holed & attached the fairlead, marked around it & cut it out with the jigsaw.

20180422_142229 (Custom).jpg20180421_212835.jpg20180422_160823 (Custom).jpg

The number plate hides the fairlead. Anyone have any ideas for a hinge arrangement. At present I would have to unscrew the 4 screws to gain access to the winch & then fit the hook.

Cheers
Rory