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THE EQUALIZERS: Part 1

Story & Photos by Jim Allen

Using ARB and Smittybilt to Make an Unstoppable Toyota

Photo

Here"s most of what we got with the winch. Some of the recovery gear will be tested in Part 2 in the spring when the weather gets better. Along with the X20 winch and ARB bumper is a Smittybilt winch accessory kit, Pro Comp tree protector, Smittybilt receiver hookup with clevis, Smittybilt snatch strap, and Smittybilt ground anchor.

Sooner or later you are going to get stuck. Regardless of how capable you or your rig may be in gutting through the worst terrain, one of you will be overmatched at some point. A winch can be the savior in such situations. In years past, before the advent of lockers, big tires and flexy suspensions, the winch was the “equalizer” and how you got through the radical terrain. The winch can still be used that way but, to most of us, it"s an insurance policy for when we"ve taken one step too far into harm"s way. When the University of Northwestern Ohio"s Off-Road Club acquired a donated "94 Toyota DX pickup, along with their existing built-up Explorer, it became a project. Off-Road Club Faculty Advisor Kiel Dennison tells us the eventual goal is to use the truck in TREC (Trail Racing Endurance Circuit), Class B competition and as a training tool. The road is long in that direction but we are starting them off with the installation of an ARB Toyota Bull Bar, an 8,000 pound Smittybilt X2O winch and an Odyssey AGM battery to power it. In the spring, some other winching and recovery products will be added to this truck and tested, so stay tuned for Part 2. ARB Bull Bar ARB has been in the Bull Bar biz for decades and has never wavered from the Australian aftermarket credo, “Build well, not cheaply.” Functional and stylish, the ARB 341470 Bull Bar fits most "86-95 Toyota trucks and some 4Runners, but there are some variations of this basic bumper to fit other versions of the Toyota pickup from this era, so check the applications guide. Many of ARB Bull Bars are nicely styled like this one and a visual asset to any truck. The bumpers are laser cut from plate steel and folded using a CNC machine. ARB claims to be the first to market this type of bumper. In the old days, bumpers were very vulnerable to being folded back at the ends. The strong structure of the folded plate bumper makes them much more tolerant of trail impacts. Now, of course, everybody does it this way. The powder coat is exceptionally durable and well done. Though ARB bumpers are listed as being most compatible with certain Warn winches, other brands will fit if they are the low profile planetary design. As in our case, minor adaptation might be necessary. Do a thorough inspection, mockup and trial fit before you make any mods to the bumper or you may face “issues” if you need to return or exchange the bumper for any reason. A call to ARB North America could settle a winch fit question quickly. If in doubt and you are buying a new winch to go with the bumper, the safest bet is to buy one that"s listed to fit without mods. Smittybilt X20 Winch In the past few years, the Smittybilt brand has been broadening its product line extensively and well beyond the bumpers, roll bars and skidplates it"s been best known for over the past 50 years. The winch and recovery arena is especially well represented in the new Smittybilt product line and we are taking advantage of a variety of products, including the X20 line of waterproof winches, for our project. Alongside the existing XRC line, the new X20 winches are offered in 8, 10, 12 and 15,000 pound ratings. The X20 first went on sale in 2011 and addresses the need for a winch that won"t be put out of action by a muddy creek crossing or years hanging off a front bumper out in the weather. The IP (Ingress Protection) rating of the X20 is IP68. This is an international engineering standard for the sealing of mechanical devices. The first digit after the letter “IP” is the dust rating and “6” is the highest rating, meaning the winch internals are completely protected against dust. The second indicates the sealing against water and “8” is also the highest rating and indicates the equipment is suitable for long-term immersion beyond a depth of one meter. Our X20-8, 8,000 pound uses a 5.5 hp, series wound motor coupled to a three-stage planetary gearset with a 180:1 ratio, both waterproofed with what Smittybilt calls “amphibious technology.” The gear housing can be clocked to place the clutch lever in any convenient position. The 500-amp solenoid pack also comes in a waterproofed box. The load brake is automatic and located inside the cable drum. Maximum current draw is 440-amps. The standard X20-8 winch comes with 98.5 feet of 5/16-inch aircraft cable and a roller fairlead. The Comp Series version comes with 94 feet of sleeved DSK-75 synthetic rope and an aluminum hawse fairlead. Line speed is a respectable 10.2 fpm (feet per minute) under a full load. A small, but very handy, feature is the magnetic base for the winch control. No more dropping the control on the ground... it just sticks to the body or bumper. Odyssey Battery A winch is only as good as its power source. The battery in the Toyota was pretty well shot and was due for replacement. Perfect timing for an upgrade! Even if it wasn"t, a starting battery is a poor choice for a winch-equipped vehicle. Starting batteries are not designed for repeated deep discharges. A typical deep cycle is rated for a minimum of 300 80-percent discharges. Starting batteries vary but, according to various industry sources, a good average for a starting battery is 10-20 80-percent discharge cycles before it dies for good. Some might do somewhat better and others worse. A deep cycle does just fine as a starting battery, as long as its cold cranking amps match up to the requirements of the vehicle. The battery chosen is from one of the heavy hitters in the high-end battery world, Odyssey. We chose an Odyssey AGM type battery. The AGM, or Absorbed Glass Mat, batteries use electrolyte soaked mats between lead plates rather than liquid electrolyte or electrolyte gel. The mats and plates can be very precisely positioned for maximum efficiency and AGM batteries can be mounted in any position. AGM batteries can absorb and release energy at a very high rate compared to the other types of batteries, which makes them perfect for winch-equipped vehicles. Where a typical wet cell should only be recharged at about 40 percent of its amp-hour capacity, an AGM can typically handle 100 percent or more. AGM batteries are resistant to vibration, so they are perfect for use in the rough-and-tumble wheeling environment. They also self-discharge at a very low rate compared to a standard wet cell, so they do well in a vehicle used seasonally. The Odyssey listed to fit our "94 Toyota was the 25 PC-1400T-A. It has top terminals but this series of battery also comes as a dual terminal (side and top) model. More detailed specs follow, but this unit has 740 cold crank amps and up to 1,150 cranking amps at 80F. Reserve capacity is a substantial 100 minutes at 25 amps and Odyssey rates it for at least 400 80-percent discharge cycles and designed it for a typical service life of 6-7 years (up to 12). It"s a perfect dual use battery for the Off-Road Club Toyota or any other winch equipped vehicle. Installation The pictures cover the details here, but some general tips that include the need for care when lifting the bumper in place. We had a large crew of energetic young men with strong backs. Bear in mind that the bumper weighs 150 pounds and the winch adds another 88 lbs., and you have to install the winch into the bumper before it"s fitted. Depending on the truck and its past life, you may see bumper mounting bolts that don"t line up exactly. If that happens, many times (if not most) it"s a tweaked chassis and not the bumper. Depending on the situation, you may need to modify either the chassis or the bumper for fit. Measure twice, cut once.

1. Step one is to remove the original bumper. In the rust belt, have the PB Blaster (penetrating solvent) can handy and be ready to deal with broken bolts.	2. While the bumper was being removed by some of the team, others were unpacking the products, sorting out all the hardware and reading over the instructions. Doing this can save time and frustration later.
3. A test fit before the winch was installed in the bumper showed all the mounting points were perfectly aligned.	4. Don"t forget to install the captured square nuts in the winch before trying to mount it to the bumper.
5. Four bolts hold the winch in the bumper, but for our installation we only tightened two of them because two also hold the roller fairlead and it needed to be modified for fit.	6. New marker/turn signals are included with the new bumper, as well as the means of splicing them into the original wiring.
7. After drilling two new holes in the roller fairlead to match the winch mounting bolt hole locations in the bumper, the fairlead was mounted. The hole in the bumper through which the cable runs also requires some clearance to make sure the cable doesn"t contact the bumper. This will vary from winch to winch.	8. Mounting the solenoid box required some thought and careful planning. Because of the way the ARB bumper is designed, the X20 solenoid box cannot mount on the winch. A suitable spot was found within reach of the cables and four mounting holes were drilled. Unfortunately, it covers one of the driving light mounting holes. Mounting the solenoid box is mostly an individual choice, but unless you want to install longer cables, your choices are limited to what will reach.
9. If you tried to connect a winch to this, the winch would probably try to run away. Corrosion, low-rent terminals and a broken ground wire all show the need for renovation. Even in new condition, this starting battery wouldn"t last long in a frequent winching situation.	10. Odyssey to the rescue! The 25-PC1400 powerhouse, along with milspec terminals (rated for 800 amps) plus copper terminals are what"s needed to upgrade the electrical system for a winch.
11. The mangled and corroded ends of the Toyota"s battery connections were cut off and copper terminal eyes were crimped onto the cable. Shrink tubing was then applied to seal the connection from moisture. Along the way, the battery tray area was cleaned up.
12. The milspec terminals have a big 3/8-in. stud to which all the connections are bolted. This Odyssey battery is now set to give and receive copious amounts of amps. The eagle-eyes among you may note that there are two negative terminals, which was due to a parts foulup. Rather than delay for a parts run, the inside of the negative terminal was enlarged to match the larger positive terminal.	13. It"s wise to put a charge on the battery before use. Since we were going winching in short order, it seemed unlikely the battery could be fully topped off by the alternator in a short period of running. Turned out the battery was sitting at 13.1 volts! An advantage to AGM batteries is that they don"t set discharge much, so a battery that has been sitting on a store shelf is likely to be ready to go.
14. One of the most important things you can do for your new winch is to respool the cable under a load. Smittybilt wants you to fully unspool the cable and respool under at least a 500 pound load. As delivered, the cable is not tightly wound and if you put a load on it before it"s been respooled properly, your brand-new cable can be ruined if it slips between lose wraps. This is a vital step for any winch installation	15. Test run. After respooling the cable under load to give it a nice base, the UNOH Off-Road Club tried the winch out on their own private play area. It didn"t have any trouble pulling the truck up a 50-degree slope or up and over some of the logs with no assist from the vehicle.