I'll say it. The Ineos built in winch is a poor excuse for a winch, but it's the best they could do to have an integrated winch with crash tests and all that. Good on them for giving it a go, but the final result telegraphs it was an afterthought - late in the game - perhaps a request/requirement by the top shelf that the vehicle "had" to have one and this was the best they could do given the existing parameters. Not worth $4,000+.
Just to clsrify this further, the winch is excellent, one the best made and is of very high quality backed by a resposive and knowledgeable company.
But, having less than 12M of usable rope makes the winch very restrictive (IMO).
It will be fine to pull the vehicle out of situations where the wheels have lost traction.
Pulling it in a straight line (all ahead captain) and there is an anchor point (capable of bearing 4500kg) less than 10M away ....
But, as soon as you need a change of direction or the car is sitting on its axles (up to its oxters) in mud or you need to move more than a few meters you will need an extension to utilise any mechanical advantage gained from pulleys or you will be running in, running out, changing anchor, rigging lines, in short faffing ...
Pulling logs out of a wood, pulling your mate out of a ditch, pulling anything you will need to do in 8M bits .... the winch is very capable over this distance (about the width of your front room) and all the time being really close to the action isn't what 'I' want from a winch or where I (or my car) wants to be when winching.
If space allows, an Explorer2 Adventure winch with the XL drum would be perfect. It would need to sit in front of the car so I could see the 63M of line spooling equally off and on.
Currently I have a Goldfish, Bowmotor 2 winch with 40M of 11mm dyneema and I still need the occasional extension when rigging 2 snatch block to a static anchor which most often is not right next to me or the load.
I've gone off my point a bit, which is, that the Red Winch is a really high quality thing, an excellent winch and an excellent British company with a good grounding in mechanical engineering.
The Ineos application is somewhat pants, there is possibly a lot of constraints that I don't understand.
Health and Safety and other rules written and dictated by people in an office with little to no practical experience, people who feel the need to get thier nails done, use mens skincare products or beard shampoo and tie thier hair up in a bun ..... people who, with all the best intentions, have ruined a really good idea and fitted a winch out of sight with the shortest most impratical winch rope ever ...
