Posted by Dave (Sussex) UK on July 28, 2002 at 09:49:13:

In Reply to: Re: Re: AIR CONDITIONING - GOT WRONG END OF STICK ! posted by Nicholas Orros on July 26, 2002 at 17:07:50:

Husky is more robust than the Warn, except perhaps for the 8274, but the 8274 is big and heavy.
Last year whilst installing the Milemarker, I took my winch, winch bumper and bull bar off. Marked a line both sides of the vehicle and measured to flat ground surface. Put winch bumper on and bull bar - dropped 15mm (9/16 ins) put winch and cable on dropped another 6mm (1/4 ins) and the Milemarker is very light. I have 1 inch lift springs so my overall lift is only about 4mm NOT 25.4mm. If you put a 8274 on the front and forwards because of it's size you are losing valuable clearance and approach angle. As you guys in the US do a lot of rock crawling, approach angle must be important?
On the subject of winch bumpers, the standard D90 bumper is made from 2.5mm (3/32 ins) thick carbon steel, my winch bumper with recovery eyes for both pulling and holding a snatch block, made by Southdown in the UK is fabricated from 5mm (3/16 ins) carbon steel. If you are self recovering the standard D90 weighs 1800 kg (1.77 imp tons) and if stuck in ruts and uphill you can easily treble the load. If you recover a Rangie they weigh over 2 tons and the numbers get bigger. Winching can be a dangerous occupation and the winch bumper needs to be strong enough to take the dynamic loads. Therefore I think it is false economy to buy a relatively expensive winch and then stick it on a less than adequate platform.
Just my opinion!