On the front of any good 4WD you’ll find a good winch, so there was no doubt that our 74Series needed one too.
There are plenty of winches out there, but there are several factors to consider before purchasing one. These include the weight of your vehicle, the cable material, its operating voltage, pulling power and wether or not you need a PTO, hydrolic or electric winch.
Our landcruiser is 24V so we needed to find a winch that was compatible. We opted for a Runva 11xp (11000Lb) electric winch as it bolted directly onto the IronMan winchbar and comes in either 12v or 24v.
On a side note, before in stalling, always double check that the wiring harness is the correct voltage for your system. We received the correct one with our winch but have heard that other people have not. If you hook a 12v wiring harness to a 24v system you will start a fire.
The Runva comes standard with a steel cable but we had that swapped out with dyneema. Steel if not wound back in perfectly is quick to fray, it also needs to be cleaned more often to keep from breaking down. With the dyneema you have a little more flexibility and ease. It is a fraction of the weight, doesn’t throw kinks, you don’t have to wear gloves and it has the same breaking strength as steel. However, if you aren’t keeping it covered it needs to be inspected on occasion as it will eventually break down due to high UV especially in places like New Zealand. Also if it happens to break while in use it will cause less damage to the vehicle or vehicles than a steel cable.
If switching to dyneema then you also need to swap the fair lead. Dyneema requires the use of a solid fair lead (the one without the rollers). The rollers can catch on the dyneema and cause the rope to fray. Dyneema doesn’t like friction so it needs to be kept off the ground and away from tight spaces. The rollers are only needed if your utilizing the steel cable which is much better if you know your 4wd expeditions will occur in tight spaces.
Wiring up the winch was a breeze thanks to the coloured coded cables and connectors. It took less than 1/2 hour to bolt it on and connect it. A little longer if your finicky about how you run your wiring.
We bought our winch from Spy Performance, and they sent us the steel cable instead of the dyneema which we ordered. Although they did fix the problem and sent us the dyneema they were slow in doing so and we had to follow up several times to make sure that it got shipped. We would give them 5 stars for friendliness but 1 star for efficiency.
Although we may not use the winch on every trip we go on it has definitely lended a hand to the 74Series and is a must for any serious four wheel driving.
For any serious touring, power consumption is always in the back of your mind, this is why we decided to add a 3rd battery for our South Island expedition.
The first thing you will notice is the giant red box bolted to the top of the battery box. This red box is a 24-12V DC-DC smart battery charger made by PowerTech. It steps down the 24V input to a 12V charge from the start battery’s whilst regulating the charging cycle to prolong the lifespan of the 3rd battery.
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and these range from $25 into the hundreds.
After considering durability, practicality and Styling we found that the 
