I dont know if anybody caught this but Lucky 8 just released a video for their Defender. It shows it driving the Old Florida Rd which is just a mess of offroading, rock climbing, and mud. At the end of the video, they mention the hidden winch tray is ready for release. When you look at the video, it looks like they cut out the middle portion of the bumper, attached the tray to the crush cans but you have easy access to the winch. The front camera is moved up and the middle sonar sensors are put into the bumper.

check it out

 

Hmmmm... I don't know if Lucky 8 was focused on hawking their new winch tray and so went to it when they didn't need to, or if the 110 really wouldn't get up those two rocks without a winch pull. But they sure didn't look like climbs that would require all that stacking and winching. I guess the lack of articulation is really a bigger deal that you might think.

Also... at the beginning he says the 110 is on 35s; sure don't look like 35s to me, and I didn't know they would fit given the size of wheelwells as well as many other things. Did he misspeak or can you fit 35s on a 110 with a 2" air-suspension rod lift?

I notice the winch tray is not on their site yet that I could see.

 

I have seen it in person they are 35x12.50.

Its been some time since I have done Florida road in my old RRC but there is definitely some spots that I would bet winching would be a safe bet instead of flogging the hell out of it to get up.

 

Hard to tell from a video, but that sure looks like something a Rubicon with 35s and a 2" lift would walk up. I run 37s on my 2-door and 4.56 gears and I feel pretty certain it would be a non-event to get up, even without stacking. But I'm just talking about what it looks like on video. I might sing a different tune if I was looking at it in person.

 

Here’s another one on 35’s with details on the build.
By TFLoffroad featuring Denver Land Rover.

 

Looks to me Lucky8 determined the key to creating a useable, accessible partially hidden winch, is to the make the winch tray shorter transverely than the JLR winch tray, which enables the natural curve of the stock bumper to meet the winch tray in a single plane, thereby allowing a clean look with a nice black cover and making it all look clean.

This necessitates using a non radio control winch (a really good thing in my mind) and we see they accessed the stock access point for the trigger control on top of the winch (so they did not have to mount the control remotely and thereby kept the cost down).

I am really looking forward to see the tray they are selling with their kit -- its very exciting.!

 

Realistically the Wrangler and the Defender are apples and oranges in comparison. They are two very different vehicles, not like years ago.

 

Well yes, I’m aware of that. But I though the gap was close, and that if he managed to get big tires on a Defender, combined with all of it’s electronic magic, it would close the gap even more.

At any rate, it looked to me like the winch line was pulled out well before it needed to be, even for a new Defender.

 

I think if they get to a full front bumper that doesn't hang as low in the front that it will be able to move a bit more aggressively but until than that bumper cover is low hanging fruit for a rock.

 

True, but winching doesn’t appreciably change that. If anything, it makes it worse because it tends to snug a truck down on its front springs, but with air suspension I don’t know if that happens or not — would assume it does.