Smittybilt XRC Winch

This has been awhile in coming, since our Three Hour Tour, in fact; a winch. Since then I've yet to be in a situation where we've needed planetary gears-not for lack of trying-we've just had better approach angles, more adept at articulating a fly-by-wire throttle, and more prudent lines where we overcame obstacles and terrain without even so much the Hi-Lift or the TREADs. But I keep going back to the Barracks trail, that night we spent, and even though we made it out at some aesthetic cost to the Montero, a winch would've made it a short trip.

It's a Smittybilt 9500 lb. XRC standard winch and it's mounted on a MaxMate Grille Guard with a winch mount. I replaced the N-Fab Grille Guard, reluctantly - I was hoping to get an integrated mount fabricated that would fit behind the stock grille to preserve the approach angle, but to no avail.

The swap adds another 120 pounds to the front end, retarding turn-in and adding a bit of mass to the tendency to oversteer, even though it doesn't. The winch is pretty straight forward. The time will come when the line will be replaced with a synthetic one in an effort to bring the weight down a bit.




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