Lucky 8 Stealth Mount here as well.

 

Very nice! Nice looking truck.

 

The Landrover Winch is over $4000 and the WARN winch by itself is a little over $2000. Is there a huge advantage to the LR version of the winch? I know the harness is dedicated but I imagine that you can hookup without that.

Also the dimensions for the 10S and 12S are similar, I see some use the 10 and some use the 12. Any disadvantage of the 12? Not much different in price.

 

Thank you I am liking how it is coming along.

 

The 12S is considerably slower than the 10S. It may not seem like much of an issue but makes a real difference.

It also draws almost 15% more amps

 

I put a 12S on mine. Couple random thoughts as to why -- of course, I agonized over this decision. A Jedi I know told me "get the most powerful winch with a short rope and you'll be good for anything"

Winch speed -- The winch speed is an interesting comment that got me thinking. I have not encountered a situation where winch spool speed (in or out) has actually been an issue. That said I've only owned one winch and this is it. Maybe when cleaning or respolling the rope in my driveway and sitting there holding the button and wishing it went faster, but that's not a recovery situation. In fact, usually the winch spools in a bit too fast -- ie, I'm pressing / releasing / pressing / releasing the winch controller to slow it down rather than keep it running continuously in certain recovery situations.

Amps-- Warn 12S Zeon is 469 amps max pull. (I believe, pulled this from online). Other 12K winches seem to be in the 380 - 500 range amp range, some are over 500. But 12S is / should be fine w/ a 500amp fuse in the auxiliary box in the L663. Which is what it's rated for and what I think the JLR wiring kit comes with -- I think (I might be wrong, ps correct me if so, I thought I saw a reference to a 450amp fuse awhile back?)

10,000 vs 12,000 winch -- I'd also consider these factors:

-- # of spools on your winch drum. Winches get full pulling power *only* on that first spool. So on a 10K or 12K winch, you're only getting 10 or 12k on that first or second spool. The # of times you're wrapped around REALLY affects pulling power and the reality is, usually, you're 3-4-5 spools deep. So that 10K winch quickly turns into a 5K winch with a long rope. Of course same thing with a 12K reducing but .. the margin is a god thing to have. And reduced pulling power is very real.

-- So -- to help with above, I keep the winch rope short (40 or 50' instead of the 80 / 90 / 100' most winches seem to come with). And use a longer strap or extension line attached to the winch rope. That said, in certain situations, I see the flip side -- a longer winch rope is less connections, more convenient, more likely to have a failure point as it's continuous, etc. So it's a balance.

-- You may think you never need a 12,000 winch for a 7,000 GVWR L663, but if you're buried in mud, or axle deep, or on certain slopes/terrain -- ** IF *** you do the checklist and/or math properly, GWVR multipliers really start to add up. Mire resistance, slope resistance, safety margin of 25% etc. You can always figure this out with rigging to multiply force, but, having a higher base pulling power # is helpful in situations where it's "close" .

In other words, I'd say max pulling power outweighs drum speed and amps if the truck can support it, which the L663 can support the 12,000lb winch.

 

Installed a hidden winch. Winch is a Red Winch from the UK with air spooling and the winch mounting plate from ruel sports in Belgium. Shipping to the US ended up being less than the credit you get from VAT.

Took about a week of work on and off but it was not overly difficult

 

Looks very nice. The Ruel Mount is very clean looking for sure. I do like how it retains the OEM bumper. I see you added some extra fog lights and the vision x light bar. Can you share more info on those items? Is the light bar a kit or did you fab it up yourself? Which lights did you use for the fogs? Again looking good nice work.

 

The fogs are Baja S2 Pros and the light bar is a Vision XPL from Reul as well. They modified it slightly (cut a few fins in the back) and had mounting instructions which made the modifications easier. You do need to cut the front grill to fit it.

 

Man that looks clean. Which red winch did you get and did you have any problems installing that winch tray and the factory skid plate? Where did you order from?