Originally Posted by GrouseK9

What wheels you plan on putting under there?

Originally Posted by NoGaBiker

Amazon find with the right specs. But it’s not known yet whether it will fit around the small rear brakes. Will be testing Wednesday. Rim is not out of round in first pic — just a camera angle thing.










If those don’t fit in the rear with the new brakes (I only have one so no biggie), I’ll go with these: (OEM steelies painted black, a la Trek Edition.)

Originally Posted by TrioLRowner

4x4Dave and Gurka01:

This winch is out of a supplier in the EU -- it just came on the market and no one on this forum has shared their experience with it, to my recollection.

There are a couple of things I would confirm before considering it:

1) depth of the winch tray -- it looks a bit less deep than the OEM and Lucky8 trays, and may be designed for a specific EU winch. The Warn OEM winch just fit into the depth of the OEM tray (which was designed for the Warn?). Also check the mounting hole locations to ensure your winch will fit. The width looks similar to the Lucky8 tray, so may also not accomodate the wi-fi winch (which I think is an unnecessary complication, but others may feel otherwise).

2) I suspect this install may not work with the V8 or potentially the P400, as both (may?) have a pusher cooling fan mounted in front of the primary radiator (not behind it). Something important to check on. (I suspect, looking at the picture, there is not enough room).

3) The mounting to the vehicle, width, location and overall approach is very similar to the Lucky8 winch tray. I am looking forward to hearing from a Lucky8 user how low is cut the front of that tray - this EU version being flat at the bottom is an interesting (and maybe less stiff -- for good or ill) approach?

What we need is someone in the EU to purchase this one and share their experience, hopefully.

-----------------------------------

The question was asked earlier as to why the bumper is just not replaced with an ARB one and the winch moved to it -- similar to on a Toyota Forerunner, etc.

Sarek has successfully tackled the task and the picture on this new EU winch installation is very helpful to show the challenges of trying to replicate what the OEM bumper accomplishes:

1) light weight -- Sarek's first bumper was Steel, their second Aluminum. As noted in other comments the weight may make a difference in how the sporty, zoom-zoom Defender drives.

2) Only one hard point for mounting anything up front, which is not even actually at the front of the vehicle. You can see the only structural point of contact able to carry a metal bumper or a winch or anything else which is not plastic -- it is the eight bolts (3 visible in the photo) back into the vehicle -- basically > foot away from the OEM front of the vehicle. NOT similar to a CJ - derived Jeep, certainly.

3) Electronic functioning -- the OEM bumper houses in specific locations all the cameras and sensors. A very compelling reason to keep the OEM bumper.

4) Carry-throughs which consume the bumper planform area -- the license plate; fog lamps; cooling for brakes for zoom-zoom driving (you see it on the left of the photo); cooling for up to two added, substantial radiators (you see this Defender has one on the right of the photo -- mine has two, one on each side); and the headlights, which as a % of the front planform are quite greedy of space.

5) Aesthetics - the curviness of the bumper as it approaches aft towards the front wheels and suspension closes down the useable space behind it (drastically) in service of supporting the look of the vehicle -- unlike many truck frame 4x4s. My look at the comparative compactness of suspensions suggests the idea that the very creative design of the front suspensions (very very compact) helps the designers get away from the flat-front look of previous Off-road capable vehicles -- which loses for us the dead space normally available for customization.

Enjoy !