elbekko

Yeah, that looks like it'd work perfectly. Agreed, but:

Maybe, but that would take a lot of strength away in the line between the winch bolt holes and the chassis bolt holes. So I'd prefer not to.

180° because that's how far the lever needs to turn to operate the ring gear. That's a nice design, should definitely work (if you can keep the crud out of it)! Looks like a job for a 3D print. If only I got along with mine... Probably not, no. And worst case I can operate it by reaching into the back of the bumper (will be harder once the skid plate is on). But preferably not...

Mostly because we bodged it together instead of using a proper Bowden cable kit, no? Yup, plenty of room behind the winch, with the gearbox clocked back in the "normal" position.

Yes, but can you have them go around 180 degrees? That would be the easiest way to adapt this without modifying the gearbox a lot, I think.

Literal back-of-the-envelope sketch of how the current system could be adapted. Bowden cable wrapped around a pulley, with a spring pulling around the pulley in the other direction for the return. Would need a locking mechanism though, or a second cable to do the other direction.

Indeed. I wonder if I can come up with some other way of doing that linear motion on the ring gear. Because it feels sort of silly to go linear -> rotary -> linear. Maybe just some sort of push/pull bowden cable that peeks out of the grille somewhere. Damn feature creep, I don't have time for this!

No, this one moves the ring gear with an offset pin on the end that goes in a groove on the ring gear.

Interesting proposition. How easy is that to do with the type that needs to turn 180°? Worth looking into...

Started on the build yesterday evening. First dry fit on the floor: As you can see, a few minor issues The hole for the freespool lever is too far forward - entirely my modelling (and measuring) error. The winch was a pig to measure, and it shows The cradle is a few mm too short, so the top and bottom plates touch the winch body. A 1.5mm washer each side seems to solve that, so will just weld it up with a bit of a gap, no biggie. Bigger issue is the freespool lever housing, that sticks up more than I thought, and is an issue for getting the winch in place. May have to tickle it with the grinder somehow... Either way, nothing a grinder and a welder can't solve. Carrying on with some fit-up on the car: Looking pretty decent. Took a little trimming around some weld seams on the chassis, and a notch out of the top plate to clear the washer reservoir. The inner wings will need some trimming for tyre clearance. The ends are also hanging low since they're not supported yet. And the body will need pulling straight, as the bumper is square but the body isn't After these pictures were taken, we drilled the holes in the cradle for mounting the winch, and fit that up. Forgot to take pictures of that part. Need to go buy some bolts too. More to come later on @Escape was kind enough to lend me a car to get home with, so I can take my time finishing this up. Something interesting I noted: the cradle feels light. Not sure if that's due to the S355 steel, or what, but for a huge chunk of 5mm plate it feels surprisingly light.

That hurts to see

I'd have to double check the DXFs, but I'm sure they were modelled as cut out. I guess they just forgot to select those lines as lines to cut. The slot for the rope was modelled in the same sketch and was cut out...

... and now with unloading noticed they didn't cut out the mounting holes for the winch and fairlead No huge deal to drill out myself, but too bad.

Picked up some goodies today

I should book things too...

I have the same issue in my GLE, turns out the back seat does fold flat if you take out the bottom cushion of the rear seat. Maybe something similar can be done in the Grenadier? It's a faff though...

"But wouldn't it look great with little pockets in the walls here and there?" Probably shouldn't give her any ideas...

For the manuals, you just need RAVE. The Microcat parts manual has been pretty much webified by Land Rover themselves: https://parts.jaguarlandroverclassic.com/

Wasn't it a 4.0 GEMS? Sure looks like it in this picture:

I think I'd survive it. I have a P38, remember? Even crusty ones seem to be going for more than that.

I'll give you £500 for it if you're sick of it?

I'd need to check, but I think overall around 34kg? The other place I got a quote from always counts full plates, and could only do S235. They quoted €1.89/kg for 3mm and €1.82/kg for 5mm plate. The place I ordered from now is probably so cheap because it's an offcut. Not sure how he deals with it, but I'm guessing the 3mm stuff was all from the same plate, as the price barely increased when I added the skidplate that I had forgotten to send in at first. And that price increase was for the extra bend I think

Indeed. He had some leftover 5mm S355 that he can cut it out of, that helps with the price I'm guessing.

Order is in with the local lasering guy. The 5mm bits will be S355, the 3mm bits S235. Cradle and skidplate bent by the lasering guy, the curved plate I'll attempt to do myself. €280 ex VAT, can't complain about that. Now hope it fits

Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone. For the bumper build I decided to stick with Fusion 360, and trying to learn the tips & tricks. It looks like it takes a bit of a different approach, but once you get that approach down it isn't too bad. It seems much more reliant on defining lots of planes and separate components. I'm still annoyed that you can create a lofted sheetmetal part, but it just throws errors when you try to create a flat pattern... I signed up for the Solidworks trial, and played around with it for a few minutes. The sketching is a million times better, as I remember it. But assemblies are just as much of a mess, really. And it was running in an online VM, so not quite the same user experience as having it locally. Yeah, the joints in Fusion are powerful, but a right pain to set up (for me, anyway). It always tries to do exactly the opposite of what I want it to do, for some reason...