So, you’ve chosen the ideal winch for your 4X4 and you’re ready to mount it, but where to begin? Winches are expensive and powerful accessories that are heavy duty and engineered to perfection, but proper and secure installation is vital to ensure safety and correct operation
Mercifully, it’s not a particularly daunting task as long as you have an understanding of your vehicle, what you intend on using the winch for and how to actually use it.
Of course, the easiest options would be to either pay to have it fitted or buy a ready-made winch bumper such as the ARB Sahara bumper, which will simply bolt on in place of your original bumper.
But we mean business here and will be taking you through the task in as much detail as we can over the next 500 words or so.
Step 1 – Tooling up
First, you’ll need to ensure you have the right tools for the job. If you are bold enough to build your own bumper these tools would include a welder, drill and cutting gear. If this all sounds a little intimidating for you already, then we would recommend fitting a purpose built winch bumper – such as the aforementioned ARB Sahara. For those that want to conceal the winch and maintain the stock vehicle look, meanwhile, we’d recommend fitting a stock bumper using a hidden winch mount.
Step 2 – Location, location, location
A good 4X4 winch should always be located either above or between the rails of your vehicle chassis. Getting the location wrong can have an impact on the approach angle of your vehicle, which marks the angle between the tyres, the front of the car and the road.
Step 3 – Fitting the winch
Now, a lot here will depend on the make and model of your winch. We would always recommend going with a respected model such as Warn Winches. Regardless of make and model, however, the winch should always be fitted so that the line of pull runs down the centre of your vehicle’s chassis. This will help ensure the stress is being distributed equally.
The front, meanwhile, will need to be high enough to mount the drum to and also include a gap for the line to pass through. The winch fairlead will also need to be mounted to the chassis on a bracket or bumper designed to hold a winch.
Step 4 – Powering up
Now that your winch is installed, you’re going to need to get some power to it. This is generally done by connecting the winch to your car’s main battery, though you might consider installing a second battery specifically for your winch for optimal results and to avoid discharging the main vehicle battery while winching.
Step 5 – Pre tensioning
Pre tensioning the wire is essentially calibration for the wire attached to your winch. This ensures that the line is tightly and evenly wound around the winch drum, which prevents it from getting caught or trapped between gaps in the underlying layers.
Take your vehicle out to a flat and open area, disengage the clutch lever and unwind the line until there are only around ten wraps left on your drum.
Next, pull the line ahead of your vehicle and hook it onto a solid, immovable object before locking the clutch and engaging the winch. Stop winching when you’re down to around your last few feet of line then disconnect from the object and spool in the last piece of line, making sure to use decent gloves whilst doing so.
