mounting winch with gearbox on drivers side

[jsttry]

Just got a new XROX bar from Opposite Lock and went to mount winch onto bar tonight before fitting on the car.

There is a cutout on the drivers side of the bar to allow for access to the free spool. Problem is the Warn XD9000 and the Superwinch I have are both setup with the gearbox on the passenger side when mounted feet first.

Its not an easy case of rotating the gearbox to get the lever on top as the drum spools from the top down (when bar is designed to spool from bottom up like all other bars) and mounting in this manner would also mean motor drain hole would be on top rather than on bottom.

Has anyone mounted a winch to these bars or seen a Warn mounted with gearbox on drivers side of the car?

[the gun]

has the cable been spooled on backwards from the factory? Either way spool it the other way and just run the winch in reverse?

[jsttry]

Nope cable spools the way that is shown on the arrow. Looking on the warn site their 9000 series ranges have gearbox mounted on the passenger side and their 12000 and 15000 are mounted on the drivers side.

Wouldn't simply respooling the other way then mean its working against the brake?

Also doesn't address the issue of the motor drain holes

[the gun]

Sorry forgot about the drain hole. Do the low mount warns have a brake?

[jsttry]

yep, within the drum.

[jsttry]

This is bar looking from rear (note cutout on drivers side for freespool handle)



And this is winch setup for feet forward mounting so drains and everything are aligned correctly. Note arrow showing direction of spool onto drum. Buggered if I can see a way to get this to suit the above bar mounting where the free spool handle is on the drivers side.

[macneil]

take the plate with the free spool off and turn it around? to suit..

[jsttry]

maybe I'm not explaining myself. Yes that would mean the handle is at the top and accessable through the hole but then there are two other issues that rotating the gearbox will not fix;

1. motor drain holes aren't at the bottom
2. spool onto drum is working against the brake.


From what I can see, the warn 12000 and 15000 are setup the opposite with it designed to have gearbox on drivers side.

[ludacris]

Sell the winch and buy another.

Free spool is not always a good thing to use with steel cable anyhow. You should be able to remove the motor and rotate it to get the drain hole down or block the drain hole and drill a new one.

You should be able to rotate the clutch aswell if the handle is going to get in the way.


Hole saw a hole to get access to the clutch.

Cris

[jsttry]

Called Opposite Lock, they're going to have a chat to the designer on Monday to see as all the winches they have are designed to be mounted with gearbox to passenger side too

[joeblow]

Sell the winch and buy another.

Free spool is not always a good thing to use with steel cable anyhow.

Cris

WTF?.......

the winch is not the problem, the bar is. another winch will be the same. free spool and steel cable not good.........again.......WTF?.

[jsttry]

Problem fixed. Found there to be a recall on first batch of bars as they were made up wrong way round. Phone call to be placed on monday and new centre section should be on the way. just means plans to get it installed today won't happen, oh well.

Thanks for gearhead's help.

[tas80]

Problem fixed. Found there to be a recall on first batch of bars as they were made up wrong way round. Phone call to be placed on monday and new centre section should be on the way. just means plans to get it installed today won't happen, oh well.

Thanks for gearhead's help.

I was planning to redrill drain holes and make mine work but looks like I'll be giving them a call on monday too.

[jsttry]

ah I sent you a PM on the other forum tas, wondered how you managed to get your mounted Even by drilling new drain holes you would have still had a problem with the way the rope spooled onto the drum??

[minnes]

if the winch was wound backwards and used could there be any damage done or wil the brake just not hold?

thanks
matt

[jsttry]

would then be working against the brake as far as I understand it