Ironman bullbars and winches

Twinkles,

A mate just purchased an Ironman 12,000lb electric winch. We fitted it one night to his '02 100 series ARB Bullbar. We initially mounted it 'feet down' to the mounting plate within the bar, but after rotating the gearbox it allowed it to be mounted feet first to the vertical plane of the bullbar for a possibly more secure mount. A bracket had to be fabricated for the control box so it could be mounted on top of the bullbar.

Two weeks ago we headed out to a very gradual and gentle slope to spool the cable in under load. After spooling on about two and a half wraps we got the dredded 'click', 'click, 'click'. Coiled the cable and cable tied it to the bullbar and back to my place to removed the cable. Mate went straight back to the shop and demonstrated the problem. After it began to work it then continuously spooled in and was unable to be stopped! Luckily we had the cable off or it may have damaged the bullbar. The sales person rang Ironman and they said they had never seen it before and to give my mate a new control box which they did without fuss (good service).

The new Ironman do not have standard solenoids but a solid state 'switcher' inside the box.

When we went to spool the cable in again after re-fitting it - no problems at all. Powered straight in and the motor only got luke warm. It wasn't a big, steep hill, just enought to put some load on everything and it work perfectly. I would say the first failure was a bad unit - hopefully a small percentage of failures. There has been no problem since with this winch, although only used a couple of times since.


Tim

Why not ask Mr Scrooby? Isn't he the "expert" on those things?

I asked about iron man bullbars, this was the reply I got. Not on this forum. Regards Steve M

Steve I fitted an ironman stainless bar on my 120 series in Feb this year when I picked it up. It was lighter than the ARB by about 40kg and I didn't like the look of any of the alloy bars and the ironman in alloy was not available. The only downside was there was no bash plate between the bottom of the bar and the front Toyota guard which would allow sticks to puncture the radiator, but I made one up out of aluminium I had lying around.

Seems to be a good bar for knocking aside brush etc but it is lightweight compared to a steel ARB or TJM bar so don't go chasing bulls or roos.
I would guess about as robust as an alloy bar.

I have a Team Poly bar on my 90 series and would have fitted one to the 120 if available, these are fabulous for the limited duty off road I do. Out bush might be a different issue though.

On the fitting it cost about $140 I think on top of the $1300 the bar cost.