[Abbas]

Introduction:

I have been into Motorsports / Offroad community for over a decade now and my previous builds includes a Rally Prep`ed Gypsy (Preparing a Gypsy For the RAID!) and owning a MM550. This thread is about installing a winch on my Pajero (SFX). Now, Installing a winch is a fairly easy job if you have an Offroad / Metal bumper. But you will soon know why this installation is of a different kind.

What is a Winch?

(From Google) A hauling or lifting device consisting of a rope or chain winding round a horizontal rotating drum, turned typically by a crank or by motor.

In offroad parlance, it is used as an recovery device to pull yourself out from a stuck situation. You can pull the rope and tie it to an anchor point (A tree or another vehicle) and run the motor. The rope will spoolin and pulls out the vehicle from the obstacle.

Now, how to do winch recovery and various techinques involved is a different topic altogether which warrants a separate thread. So, we will stick to the installation part only for now.

Why is this installation Different:

Well, the most common and popular way to install a winch is to replace your existing stock front bumper with an offroad (metal) bumper. An offroad bumper generally has a mounting point for a winch. So all you have to do it is bolt it to the base and do the wiring. This is a very easy straight forward setup.

However, by first installing a metal bumper and then a winch on it, you are putting on some serious weight on the front end of the car (Approx. 140 kgs +). This may hamper your braking and handlng of the car. Also, since the winch is exposed, it is open to nature (rain/ mud/etc) and will require more frequent service.

What i have attempted to do is to mount the winch by fabricating a base plate and mounting the winch on it. The objective here is to have a concealed setup so that the winch is integrated inside the stock bumper itself. The target is to complete the installation under 40 kgs. Advantages of doing so is obvious. I have saved the cost of a metal bumper and also saved adding almost a 100 kgs to the car. And since its a concealed setup, it is protected from nature.

Buying the Winch

Buying the winch is the easy part. There a many in the market and the one i have gone for is from Dr. Nano. Its a 12,000 lbs (5.5 tons) with synthetic rope.


Its comes with a 26 mtrs lenght Synthetic Rope, Aluminium Fair lead, 1 control box, 1 wired controller and 1 remote.

Base Plate Fabrication:
The most important part of this installation is fabricating the base plate. Now, i have searched around and took help from known people in the offroad circle. Came to know that for Mitsubishi Pajero, there are standard base plate available in Australia. But i wasn`t sure of the sizing and they costed a bomb. Almost the price of the winch itself. Hence, i decided to build it on my own. The manufacturer recommends that the plate should be of minimum 6 mm thickness. To be on a safer side, (and after some weight calculations) i figured that i can go ahead with a 10 mm thickness plate.

Installation:

First the car needs to be completely stripped from the front. That means taking out the front bumper and exposing the chassis.


Once the front is stripped, you will find that there is a 6 inch wide space between the ac condensor and the stock bumper bracket.


Bolt on Setup is the best way to go about it. So we will use a 10 mm mild steel plate to make a Base Plate and bolt it to the above holes in the chassis.


Taking measurements and checking clearance by putting it on a wooden plank.


Bending a 10 mm plate using a hydraulic press to form a bracket. This part is critical, welding should be avoided.


Drilling holes on a bench drill 14mm size.


After the winch has been placed on the base plate. Its time to figure out how to manage operating the (Freespool clutch).


This is a winch clutch. Basically, you put it in UNLOCK position to manually pull the rope out (known as freespool). Once you have enough rope, you engage LOCK and use the motor power to Winch IN/OUT.

This clutch needed a slight modification. By machining a solid rod, we extended the rod and took the clutch onto the bumper for easy operation.


Here`s how it has come out.

Next up, was the control box. The control box was placed next to the radiator via a bracket.


Control Box Mounting (Sorry for the Blur Photo)



The socket for the wired controller was extended and taken to the bumper as well just like the clutch. You don`t want to everytime open the bonnet and connect the controller and operate the clutch right? Imagine how inconvinient it would be. Hence, these 2 things needed to be out.

lastly, installing the Fairlead. Fairlead basically guides the rope in when you spool in. Without the Fairlead, the bumper will break/crack if the rope in tension comes in contact with it. With the synthetic rope, you get a flat Fairlead, whereas with a wire rope, you get a Steel Roller type failead.


A simple bolt on setup clamped to the base plate.

So, this completes the winch install. The only thing Visible from outside is the Fairlead. Otherwise, its a complete sleeper look. I am still working on covering the fairlead behind the numberplate so that no one can make out there`s a monter hiding behind the bumper. Lets see how that works out. Also, will be testing the winch setup in a couple of days and will be posing about it here soon.

Hope you liked reading about it. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Abbas.

[jono213]

Great writeup and a very creative install i must say. Looks pretty clean from upfront.
How's the Pajero doing otherwise? in terms of maintenance and parts?
Are you having difficulty sourcing them or is it smooth sailing?

[Sandman689]

Hello Abbas,

Love what you've done here. Would it be possible to have a photo here showing the entire front of the Pajero?

Secondly, do you agree that installing an offroad bumper would attract unwanted attention so you find this sleeper look superior?

Lastly, Have you used this brand of winch before? Is is reliable enough for you?


Warm Regards,
Sandman

[sharan_si]

Creative stuff, this reminds me of God must be crazy movie .

[Abbas]

Originally Posted by jono213

Great writeup and a very creative install i must say. Looks pretty clean from upfront.
How's the Pajero doing otherwise? in terms of maintenance and parts?
Are you having difficulty sourcing them or is it smooth sailing?

Its been serving me pretty well. Parts are really not an issue. Some sellers are located in Delhi and Mumbai and they stock almost everything.

Originally Posted by Sandman689

Hello Abbas,

Love what you've done here. Would it be possible to have a photo here showing the entire front of the Pajero?

Sure. I am trying to share more info soon regarding testing the winch setup. It will have it.

Originally Posted by Sandman689

Secondly, do you agree that installing an offroad bumper would attract unwanted attention so you find this sleeper look superior?

Warm Regards,
Sandman

Not really. The only reason not to go for an offroad bumper was to save weight. Also, the front suspension and torsion bar might have to be tweaked if you are putting close to 140 kgs at the front.

I not only saved money, but also saved doing any tweaking to the front suspension (something i didnt want to mess with). My target of keeping the weight under 40 was achieved. Infact the total weight that got added was as below:

1. Winch with Control Box 24 kgs
2. Base Plate - 8 kgs
3. Nut & Bolts - 2 kgs

So a total of 34 kgs was added to the front. Which is not a problem for the stock suspension.

Originally Posted by Sandman689

Lastly, Have you used this brand of winch before? Is is reliable enough for you?

Dr. Nano is quite popular in the offroad circle. They have a lot of other products such as suspension lift kits, torsion bars, leaf springs, coils etc. I will post a detailed review of winch soon.

[Jaggu]

One of the cleanest / stealth install I have seen. Very nice, how is the performance of Dr Nano winch? Have you tried it yet? Looking forward to a review of the same.

[SulemanP]

Excellent write up, clean execution and a must have item for hardcore off-roaders, quite crucial to get out from "got stuck" situations. A steel wired winch would have had more strength upfront but that would have added a few more kilos in the front which you wanted to avoid...

Hope we would see a demo video of your setup soon...

[Tejas@perioimpl]

Nice write up Abbas. I like the way you have fabricated the winch plate.

The only issue I see is that you have no access to the winch drum to see if the cable is nesting up and if it does you will damage the cable by rubbing against the condenser and you will not have any way of sorting it out without removing the bumper.

Consider adding an openable window to the top of the bumper.

@suleman: steel cables are not necessarily stronger and have more disadvantages than advantages.

[Abbas]

Just to add that while I had this idea for a long time, I couldn`t find anyone who could take up this job untill i met Mr. Mandeep Bhai Kalsy from Valsad (Gujarat). He is also a member here Handle: @epicenter.rulez

We use to keep in touch quite regularly because we both are owners of a Pajero SFX. I was facing some suspension issues and i dscussed it with Mandeep Bhai. He asked me to come over to his place and get his spare shocks installed into my car. I casually discussed the idea with him and he was game for it. He knew he could pull of something like this and wanted his team to take it up. His confidense inspired me to take the plunge and i ordered the winch right then and there itself and got it delivered to him in the next few days. The rest as they say his history.

Cant` thank this man enough. He not only helped me with the winch install but also let me have his suspension part which he had lying around without any cost. In this day and age, you find very few people like him.

Thank you Mandeep Bhai from the bottom of my heart.

[epicenter.rulez]

Originally Posted by Abbas

Just to add that while I had this idea for a long time, I couldn`t find anyone who could take up this job untill i met Mr. Mandeep Bhai Kalsy from Valsad (Gujarat). He is also a member here Handle: @epicenter.rulez

We use to keep in touch quite regularly because we both are owners of a Pajero SFX. I was facing some suspension issues and i dscussed it with Mandeep Bhai. He asked me to come over to his place and get his spare shocks installed into my car. I casually discussed the idea with him and he was game for it. He knew he could pull of something like this and wanted his team to take it up. His confidense inspired me to take the plunge and i ordered the winch right then and there itself and got it delivered to him in the next few days. The rest as they say his history.

Cant` thank this man enough. He not only helped me with the winch install but also let me have his suspension part which he had lying around without any cost. In this day and age, you find very few people like him.

Thank you Mandeep Bhai from the bottom of my heart.

The objective was for the job to be done properly and without spending obscene amounts of money at the same time maintain functionality and stealth.
I guess both of us got what we wanted. You got the winch and I got to install the winch.
About the suspension parts, I will not comment. If you are happy I am happy.
Glad to have facilitated this. We will finetune the access on the fly.
I guess I am a sucker for odd jobs and challenges, and always love to get my hands dirty.
Have fun and drive safe.
You owe me a test drive on the trails in monsoon and a dishful of mutton.

[Abbas]

Originally Posted by Jaggu

One of the cleanest / stealth install I have seen. Very nice, how is the performance of Dr Nano winch? Have you tried it yet? Looking forward to a review of the same.

Yes i have. The winch quality is top notch. I will post a detailed review soon.

Originally Posted by SulemanP

Excellent write up, clean execution and a must have item for hardcore off-roaders, quite crucial to get out from "got stuck" situations. A steel wired winch would have had more strength upfront but that would have added a few more kilos in the front which you wanted to avoid...

Hope we would see a demo video of your setup soon...

These days most winches come with Synthetic rope as standard. Wire Rope is old tech. Heavy and tough to Handle. Ofcourse it has its advantages in industrial applicatons, however for offroad applications synthetic is preferred.

Originally Posted by Tejas@perioimpl

Nice write up Abbas. I like the way you have fabricated the winch plate.

The only issue I see is that you have no access to the winch drum to see if the cable is nesting up and if it does you will damage the cable by rubbing against the condenser and you will not have any way of sorting it out without removing the bumper.

Consider adding an openable window to the top of the bumper.

Thank you Tejas!

It has approx about 2 inch space untill it hits the condenser. But before that the Bar on top of the winch will not allow it to nest. We just have to make sure it is spread evenly while spooling in.

And Yes, it is going to be difficult to access the whole winch but if you maintain in well, chances are remote of a complete breakdown. Keeping it concealed in the first place is to make sure dust / mud/ etc does not go inside.

The upcoming monsoon season will tell how it fairs up.

[Tejas@perioimpl]

Originally Posted by Abbas

But before that the Bar on top of the winch will not allow it to nest.

The bars are to hold the assembly in place. It's not an anti nesting device. Nesting will still happen if spooled in incorrectly.

We just have to make sure it is spread evenly while spooling in.

Yes. Very important. Make sure your pulls are always 90° to the drum or within a 4° tolerance either way. Any more and it will nest without you knowing about it.

EDIT

Wire Rope is old tech. Heavy and tough to Handle. Ofcourse it has its advantages in industrial applications

Not really. Wire rope is still option of choice in:

Desert applications where the sand will other wise enter the synthetic strands and cut the rope from inside

Winter. A synthetic rope holds water. You park your vehicle with a moisture laden winch cable overnight in sub zero and next day you have a block of ice on your winch with an unusable winch cable.

[Abbas]

Originally Posted by Tejas@perioimpl

Not really. Wire rope is still option of choice in:

Desert applications where the sand will other wise enter the synthetic strands and cut the rope from inside

Winter. A synthetic rope holds water. You park your vehicle with a moisture laden winch cable overnight in sub zero and next day you have a block of ice on your winch with an unusable winch cable.

Interesting Info. Learned something new today. Thanks for sharing. Your knowledge on the subject is unparalleled.

[shashanka]

Originally Posted by Abbas

Introduction:

I have been into Motorsports / Offroad community for over a decade now and my previous builds includes.........

A great install, Abbas - innovation, improvisation and presentable. Look forward to your next post on the subject.

[Abbas]

Originally Posted by Sandman689

Hello Abbas,

Love what you've done here. Would it be possible to have a photo here showing the entire front of the Pajero?

Here you go. This is how the final look of the car is. I am also trying to hide the fairlead behind the numberplate by making some hinges on the plate. So that when i have to use it, all i have to do is lift the number plate and pull the rope.