At last a capable winch!

The superwinch capstan I got the other is sweet but it is for a 200tdi or earlier engine. The only way to fit the drive coupling to my 300tdi would be to mod the drive shaft by shortening, boring out the pulley dog to allow the bigger 300tdi crank bolt and possibly need to raise the radiator! It would have been a shame to cut up the rare shaft and ruin the re-sale value so I held off a few weeks to see if I could obtain an alternative before committing to modifying.

Looked at buying a new electric winch, maybe a 12000lb and winch bumper. But the more I research the more I felt electric winches are quite expensive for the limited performance.
Having an extra bank of a quality battery with split charge system is essential and adds to the cost and installation hassle. Electric winches require a large amount of power (300-400amp) under load that no alternator can supply so it down to a battery that can take a deep cycle hit like that. A battery will only supply a large hit for a minute or so at a time before requiring a recharge.
Under load an electric winch gets hot with the risk of cooking motor and burning solenoids so again only intermittent use is possible.
The high power requirments and low duty cycle combined with not being able to run under water and needing a strip down every time it sees water/mud did not bode well with me even if they do provide recovery with a dead engine.

An hydraulic winch was the alternative. Milemaker selling a kit for around £1000 which powered of the steering pump (not ideal, but cheapest option). It would have been a few month before being in a position to blow a grand on such a winch. I could see that 2nd hand hydraulic winches where going to be hard to find in good working order, complete and suitable for a 300tdi.

Next option was to seek out a PTO driven mechanical winch from a 300tdi. These expensive (when new) professional winches crop up time to time when commercial landrover fleets come up for sale - electricity board, home office, enviroment agency etc. These winches are high rated and reliable and will preform their duty all day long as long as the engine is running. Lucky enough I found such a place that buys these ex-fleet trucks and they had exactly what I was looking for.

So spent best part of day refurb and fitting a SuperWinch H14 PTO driven Winch to the Defender. This winch is a beast. 73 foot 12mm steel cable and 8000lb rated pull on first layer.

Used a pair of trolley jacks and a platform to line up and support the weight of the winch and bumper. Solo fitting was a breeze though I had an assistant line up the sliding joint on the drive shaft while winch was pushed into position.

Lucky I previously fitted those Heavy Duty front suspension springs as HD upgrade are a requirement for this winch. Before and after fitting measurements of ride height show that the winch has made no difference at all! Will have to see what the road handling is now like.

So up for sale soon will be a Capstan winch/bumper suitable for a 200tdi or earlier engine (except V8), A redundant heavy duty military bumper and a 3.5tonne Tifor hoist winch.