[skegbudley]

After my 12 year old winch died last month during a recovery where I was pretty well stuck in the mud. The missus and I decided we needed to replace it sooner than later. After a bit of research we decided on the 12,000lb Domin8r winch.
Specs are reasonable expecially considering the price point of the winch. 26m of 9.5mm synthetic rope. 7.2hp motor. Twin lip seals on the body to keep water out. 218:1 gear reduction.

First impression is that its beefy. The freespool clutch is a hell of a lot easier to use than my old one.
Love the winch controler. You can unplug the control cable, push a button on it and it becomes wireless. There is a transponder that plugs into the solinoid pack for wireless use. If the battery goes flat then just plug the cable in.
At this stage I won't be using the supplied fairlead due to the front of TJM T15 bar being 50mm forward of the front face of the winch cradle. Fairlead needs to be around 60mm thick so the rope doesn't rub on the bar when pulling at a sharp angle.
I'm open to suggestions if anyone has found a suitable fairlead for this application.
This is the only one I have found so far.

The only thing im not 100% sure of is the isolator on the main power feed. Would love to know other people's opinions on them.

ZD30 rules the road.

 

[skegbudley]

Thankfully things have improved from when I bought my first winch. The Domin8r is controled by a single solinoid pack. I opened the case and gave the terminals the usual spray with Inox before putting it back on. Haven't decided how I'm going to mount it yet. Hopefully it fits inside the C section of the bullbar like the previous upgraded one.

Still need to remove the old winch and solinoid pack. Hopefully I can get it out without removing the bullbar. The bullbar is a bit bent due to a couple of trees and stumps that jumped out in front of the Patrol. It really doesn't want to part ways with the car.

ZD30 rules the road.

 

[Muddytrip]

A roller fairlead may give you the clearance.

 

[skegbudley]

A roller fairlead may give you the clearance.

I have a roller fairlead on there now. I want a Hawse with the synthetic rope after finding the perfect angle of recovery that enabled the wire to get caught between the side and bottom rollers last month. If my winch hadn't died 5 minutes later I would still of had to replace the wire. Rope would have snapped in a second in that situation. I know a roller fairlead can work but I'm not taking the risk this time.

ZD30 rules the road.

 

[Benny Jahmin]

I have been eyeing off these too. For the price they seem pretty hard to beat. Last winch i got was a second hand (but looked new) warn XP which was nothing but trouble. Constant water ingress and a couple of times it just kept winching in!!!! Even swapped the solenoid out and still did it.

Anyway what I'm interested in is the free spool. The warn was always terrible even after cleaning it out and oiling the right parts instead of loading it with grease.
Every 4wd action video they use these winches and i have never seen them pull the rope by hand. It is always WINCHED out.
Interested to see how the freespool goes after a bit of use..

 

[Overboard]

Every 4wd action video they use these winches and i have never seen them pull the rope by hand. It is always WINCHED out.

It is always good practice to winch out rather than free spool, particularly with wire rope. If you free spool you will almost always get some over run allowing the wire left on the drum to become loose. When you start to winch the tight line then slips between the loose layers of wire and can get jammed. It can also pull one loose coil between other ones causing the wire to kink. I know winching out is slower but the only time I'd consider free spooling is when the car is more than about 700mm deep in water and I want to get out as soon as possible.

 

[Benny Jahmin]

Well there you go. I always thought winching out overheated the brake and cooked the rope.
Ive never pulled out a rope thats over run. Its normally too stiff to pull out by hand hence the winch out option

 

[Yeti's Beast]

My warn winch that nissan supplied will over run when you pull the cable out as if there isn’t a brake
Then it leaves a birds nest inside


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[Overboard]

My warn winch that nissan supplied will over run when you pull the cable out as if there isn’t a brake
Then it leaves a birds nest inside

This is completely normal and why I prefer to winch out rather than free spool.

 

[skegbudley]

The next bit required for this install arrived today. A rather solid ally hawse fairlead and extension block from autopartsco.com.au. This place was the cheapest by a hell of a lot. More than $100 cheaper than some stores. I ordered it late Monday night and it arrived this morning. Got to be happy with service like that.
Made by Roadsafe. Its part number is SB007S. There is also a black version available. SBOO7B. Cost was $169.95.
Bullbar will need a slight trim to fit as the hole in the T15 is 265x115. Fairlead is 289x114. I doubt that TJM was contemplating people running fibre when they designed the bar.

I like shiny stuff

 

[Yeti's Beast]

Is your bar the same as the Genuine Nissan bar? I think they were also made by TJM, just thinking aloud Incase I one day change my winch


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[skegbudley]

Is your bar the same as the Genuine Nissan bar? I think they were also made by TJM, just thinking aloud Incase I one day change my winch


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No. The genuine Nissan bar was made by ARB. I liked this bar better as it had a better aproach angle than the ARB bar. The fact that the wait for the TJM bar was 2 months less than ARB played a part. IMO the TJM brush bars and steps are better than the ARB ones too.

ZD30 rules the road.

 

[festerGU]

I don't know anyone running that isolator. My Tigers had that and it was the first thing I changed, they look cheap and nasty. Mate of mine did the same thing with his older tigers. Replaced the inline isolator with a proper isolator switch. On my Jeep I also ditched that inline one and was going to buy a proper switch but I was using an Optima battery that had twin terminals, standard round as well as bolt with wing nut so I just ended up using the wing nut terminal for the winch and unbolted the cable when not in use. didn't look as flash but only took a few seconds to hook up and undo. I just left the cable unbolted for day to day use and hooked it up before I started wheeling.

 

[trimixdiver]

Im in the market for a winch are these ok for the money, any problems accruing?

 

[skegbudley]

Haven't had a issue yet. Have several mates with them and none of them have reported issues either.

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