Foers Winch

Not content with building his own four wheel drive, the Ibex based on Land Rover mechanical components, John Foers has come up with a most ingenious winch mounting system.

The winch, in this case a Warn electric winch, is mounted under the floor, between the main chassis rails and immediately behind the front seats, i.e. in the centre of the vehicle, and facing to the rear. This is the optimum position for a low polar moment - that is to say it does not give the 4WD's springs a hard time.

The winch cable leads out to the rear of the vehicle, around a snatch-block which is normally embedded in the rear chassis cross-member, around a second pulley and then into a tube inside the left-hand chassis rail whence it emerges from the front of the chassis (below).

The arrangement allows the vehicle to be winched forward. It also allows the vehicle to be winched backwards by removing the snatch-block from the rear chassis cross-member (thanks to a quick-release locating pin) and attaching it to a convenient tree etc. The front swage and hook hold the free end of the winch cable so there is no need to re-thread the winch cable to change from front to rear winching or vice versa. Neat, isn't it?

An interesting side effect of the Foers' winch mount is that if a snatch block is used on the front portion of the winch cable, and if the rear snatch block is also in use off the vehicle, then the 4WD can drive along the cable: as the front portion shortens so the rear portion lengthens by exactly the same amount. It does require the use of a front snatch block so that front and rear cables both operate at 2:1 ratios.

This effect can be used to prevent sliding down a side-slope or to spin the 4WD on the spot by pulling the front to one side and the rear to the other side.

While centre mounted winches are previously known, for example on Forward Control 2A/2B and 101 Land Rovers, the complete Foers system with easy front and rear winching is novel and a patent is pending [7/98].

To see how well it works, read [this].

Left: the man and his machine. As of July 1998 Ibexes numbers 43 and 44 are under construction at the Yorkshire factory.

© L_A11ison.

Go to the Foers and Offroad Winch pages