This is the first in our three part series on winching, with this part dealing with how to choose a winch for your Land Rover. Winches are useful additions to get you out of the most sticky of situations. If you're thinking you want to add a winch to your Land Rover, there are a few questions you first need to ask yourself....
With my first Land Rover, I had the unenviable experience of having my radiator burst on the motorway. The week before I had been wading through muddy water at a pay and play site, clogging the radiator fins. I had attempted to clean them out afterwards, but now it was the hottest day of the year at 30 degrees, as I pushed towards 70mph on the motorway. On this bright, blue sky day, the windscreen started accumulating water drops...
An expedition Land Rover needn't be an overly expensive beast. The stock version of the Defender performs very well in harsh environments, but a few select additions can turn the well designed Defender into a more reliable and useful vehicle. You could go all the way with modifications to make sure there is a piece of equipment added for every eventuality, but if you're on a budget (as most of us are), what are the most important additions to your Land Rover to get the most from your expedition?...
There are three options available to you to fit a Winch depending on your skill and budget involved. This article brushes across the first two options, as this is primarily a guide for doing it yourself....
Winching is a fairly technical discipline, and takes from practise to work effectively. If you don't do it right, you could end up damaging the vehicle or yourself. This article is a rough guide to Winching techniques....
My choice of tyres were 235/85 R16 BF Goodrich All Terrains. I've had experience of using these in Ghana. They have a good reputation and a lot of people use them on expedition. They're more versatile than mud terrains, being good on surfaced road (as the vast majority of my time spent I will be driving these)...
I've already talked about the essential modifications to your Land Rover for going on expedition, so i'm going to list a few things that I see as the next step up in the process of modification...
I've just bought a spare Wolf wheel, so called because of their usage on the Army 'Wolf' Land Rovers. They are technically Land Rover's Heavy Duty (XD) OEM steel wheel, fitted to Defender 130's and as an option on other Defenders. I regard them as an important addition to an expedition Land Rover for their strength and durability....
