Freelander 1 Winch bracket

Had been posting on the Modified Hippo thread but think this deserves its own thread now.
Have got the prototype winch bracket powder coated & mounted, tested it by pulling my old manual Freelander ( which hasnt moved since I broke my leg 3 years ago ), out of the ruts it has made in the front grass !!, brakes were siezed on but the winch & winch bumber coped ok.
Heres a few pictures below, got a couple of days work left but it alls coming together nicely.







This was the first test with bumper removed

A few pics with the bumper refited, still got a couple of days work to tidy up the installation.

Looks awesome John, top work.

awesome

Perfect fit :jaw: . Just a little bit trimming of bumper edges and looks like O.E.M .

Very good job.
That set will be "in shops" before christmas ?

very nice I was going to fit one to my old freelander, but I swapped to my newer freelander, and with my back I do not feel like doing all the hard work that you have done, it looks great:clap2:

wooow that's nice. are you building it yourself? or is it bought?

Zejmjien said:

wooow that's nice. are you building it yourself? or is it bought?

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I did the drawing & made a cardboard mockup, took that to a local fab shop who cut, bent & welded the pieces , had it powder coated locally.
To my knowledge no one is producing winch bumpers for the Freelander 1.
If I could get enough interest I would have a small batch of 6 - 10 made.

What sort of money would you be looking at for one??

Looks great that, as you say, just needs finishing touches or maybe a surround for the bumper then it'll be sorted!

Would it fit the pre-facelift? i seem to think the bumper was a little bigger on the post facelift models?

nbrooks said:

Would it fit the pre-facelift? i seem to think the bumper was a little bigger on the post facelift models?

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Only if you fit the bumper from a pre-face lift V6. The face lift bumper sticks out 50mm further than early models except the V6 bumper.

I would deffo be interested, but then again depending on the price too

Nodge68 said:

Only if you fit the bumper from a pre-face lift V6. The face lift bumper sticks out 50mm further than early models except the V6 bumper.

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Also you could put it deeper between rails like Gjudge made , or put some A-Bar protection to pre-facelift to hide it

The design is modular, the two end pieces are seperate & are fixed in the same places as the Mantec front reciever hitch bracket, ie they have a piece that drops down to the strong point under the front which spreads the load & stops the whole thing from twisting if pulling at an angle vertically. The centre piece could be modified to accept any reasonable size winch, I used a short drum winch but I can see that a normal winch would have fitted just as well. The centre section could also be moved back at least 4 cms possibly more.
The price if its finished in Black powder coat will be around the 300 quids mark. That might sound a lot but its comparable to similarly designed Defender & Disco bumpers.

matacaibo said:

The price if its finished in Black powder coat will be around the 300 quids mark. That might sound a lot but its comparable to similarly designed Defender & Disco bumpers.

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Sounds good for me . Did you know weight of it? I'm wondering about transport costs...
Or maybe you could provide unwelded panels if shipping it will be a problem (weight or size) ?

Winu said:

Sounds good for me . Did you know weight of it? I'm wondering about transport costs...
Or maybe you could provide unwelded panels if shipping it will be a problem (weight or size) ?

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I must admit I didn't weigh it before putting it on, this one is made from 6mm sheet which is more than is necessary, "production" models will be 5mm sheet, the strength is more in the shape rather than the material thickness. It will be coming off again in a few days so I will weigh it then, shouldn't think shipping will be a problem, you are in Poland I think.

Winu said:

Also you could put it deeper between rails like Gjudge made , or put some A-Bar protection to pre-facelift to hide it

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I was thinking of a nudge bar....

looks good mate.

matacaibo said:

I must admit I didn't weigh it before putting it on, this one is made from 6mm sheet which is more than is necessary, "production" models will be 5mm sheet, the strength is more in the shape rather than the material thickness. It will be coming off again in a few days so I will weigh it then, shouldn't think shipping will be a problem, you are in Poland I think.

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:cool2: Good. Wait with impatience for "production" model . Winch is "whipped cream and the cherry" for my project