Not really on the list of anytime soon, but it was definitely on the list of someday.
Warn 8274. This particular one is from the 14th work day of October 1984. The person I got it from cleaned it up, replaced bearings/brake parts and sealed it up and painted. Not a fan of the painting on the aluminum case part, but for now it’s good. The cable is newer and he said maybe 2 pulls on it. I can say it’s not rusted or kinked or frayed at all so seems legit. Eventually I would like synthetic just for safety reasons.
Why have I been waiting for the 8274?
#1 iconic winch, fast, strong, durable, the GOAT
#2 my arb was made to fit an 8274
#3 can rebuild, upgrade, not made from chinesium
#4 period correctness - yes I know the make them still, but they just look so right on older cruisers. Not sure what the “go to” winch was in Australia in 1988… not going down that internet rabbit hole today!
#5 I can proudly say I’ve got a “warren wench” just like the people that sell them on Craigslist.
I would have loved to bought new, but $3,000 was out of my budget for a winch buy a long shot. For the price I paid, little more than 1/4 of new, I could have bought some harbor freight, smittybuilt some come up models and probably would have been OK with the way I will use it. I’m not bashing those choices and no one will ever complain if a chinesium winch pulls them out.
I have wanted an 8274 for a long time. I had the earlier version on my 55, but the 8274 is much better. It’s the gold standard imo, I’m sure there are arguments for others as well.
Only mods needed to install was knock out the blank plate for the fairlead and remove the tray where the winch goes.
Going cyclops for now, I will have to figure out a new mount style for my lights.
Battery Cables were perfect length to reach my secondary battery.
The winch works great. I fully realize I will probably never need to use it again now that I have it. No actually I’m going to start attaching it to anything I can and dragging around the property saying see! That’s why I needed it!
At this point, I’m mounting my roof top tent and buying a set of maxx trax sand ladders and 4 roto pax tanks away from being able to park at REI.