To or not to? Re winches

No nothing about ECB bull bars........

but I cannot see how fitting a winch or dual battery has anything to do with compromising a warranty.....provided it is fitted correctly that is ......both physically and electrically.

I have had winches and dual batteries on all my toyota's over the years both dealer fitted at purchase new and retro fitted. Have had Warn retro fitted and have the Toyota Superwinch fitted at new purchase etc.

The only hassle that you may (repeat may) experience was if you had an electrical spike that was or was not caused by the add ons then maybe a dealer may try and blame the rerto fitted winch and battery system

...but that is easily over come by ensuring you have adequate spike protection and correctly dual battery system fitted anyway

I'd go ahead and fit the gear, tell the insurance company and head bush!

Allow for a spring upgrade as well. The extra weight up front will make her sag.

I think it may be worth a call, anonomously if you wish, to Toyota and the insurance company and see what they say. I would not say that I will be doing the work myself. Of course all work will be professionally done in a well respected company. I don't trust insurance companies. Their main customers, as for the banks also, are their shareholders. This is why I would try and keep any name out of it. You never know what they are liable to type into your cars profile, with bad grammar, spelling and puctuation and screw, accidently or purposel, your insurance..

Best of luck.

After doing some 4WD courses we elected to not get a winch - $3K is a bit rich. So we have elected to stay away from some wild or extreeme places and got a set of snow chains as a compromise. Its a compromise but we believe we can get to all the places we need with the car as is with locks, chains, good muddies and careful planning. We don't mind taking the easy way but are not scared of and have not been caught by the extreme (moderate) tracks either.

I would like to get a winch one day but I need to win the lottery first I think. Note that I dropped the "we". Hmmm

Merry Christmas

We have a Wxxx winch on our Cruiser, the times I have been bogged was with a friend and I was towed out backwards. In each case (3) if on my own to go foweard using the winch would have got me into deeper trouble. Not saying that I would not have got out if on my own but with a lot of effort.

After these experiences would seriously consider a hand winch (one with the big handle and capacity) in lieu of a front mounted winch. The hand unit could pull me out in reverse. Cheaper and more verstile, but of course more manual effort.

Peter

Considering you can have a winch fitted from new, I doubt if your warranty or insurance would be affected
Although I have an ARB winch bar fitted, I recently removed a Warn Magnum and fitted a Tigerz 12,000 lb winch. It was a straight swap with the same mounting pattern so can see no reason it would not be the same with an ECB bar.
If you go with the Tigerz I would suggest to purchase the one with steel cable and use the money saved to buy decent synthetic rope, as the rope that comes on the Tigerz is very poor quality.

Chris

G'Day fourbies,

Thanks for the posts, i have decided to go for the Tirfir hand winch as i figured might as well wait for the factory tyres to wear out then go for complete off road transformation inc tyres, suspension and the works and that the hand winch can pull me out of any directions as opposed to elect winch.

And that i am still young and single, might as well put some muscle power into the winch before upgrading when i gets old and married LOl.

Merry Xmas!!

Supertramp