Land Cruiser Build Runva Winch Install

In this part of our 76 (70) Series Land Cruiser build we install a Runva 13XP Premium Winch to our ARB bull bar. Not a complicated installation but is time consuming especially if you are doing this on your own. Save yourself a lot of time and have a couple of mates help you.

What You Get in the Box

The Runva 13XP Premium winch comes with everything you need straight out of the box. It includes all the necessary brackets for mounting the control box and the battery isolator switch. A couple of stubby coolers are thrown in there as well so you and a mate can have a nice cold one when the job is done.

• Runva 13XP Premium winch.
• 1 x control box.
• 2 x brackets for the control box for different mounting options (one for on top of your bull bar and another on top of the winch).
• 1 x bracket for the battery isolator switch.
• Isolator switch and two removable keys.
• Positive and negative cables both 1.8 metres long, enough cable for the install.
• Wired and wireless remotes.
• 1 x black standard fairlead (we replaced this with an offset fairlead).
• Neoprene winch cover (we won’t be able to use this).
• 1 x D shackle.
• 1 x snatch block.
• 1 x red winch hook.
• 2 x stubby coolers.

Winch Install

In this part of our Runva 13XP winch install on our 76 Series Land Cruiser build we take you through what is involved in fitting the winch.

ARB Bull Bar Removed

We have a big tube ARB bull bar that is winch compatible. The bull bar needs to come off in order to fit the winch. Unfortunately we decided to install the winch during the peak of the Covid-19 restrictions and as a result getting a mate over to help was not going to happen. Therefore this was done on our own (well by Peter and Shayne helped move the bar on a couple of occasions), this made the job a bit more tedious and time consuming.

In order to get the bar off on our own we used a couple of ratchet straps that we looped through the shed beams and then back down through the top of the bar. We didn’t get these too tight at the start as we wanted to be able to move the bar, but we made sure we had a small amount of tension in the event something went wrong when the bolts were all removed. We also placed a few timbers underneath the bar as well for a little more safety, just in case.

We have a radiator protector on the bar so this needed to be removed first, easy enough, just 8 bolts that need to come out. Then there are 3 bolts on either side of the bar that need to be removed. Two on the side and one underneath. With the ARB bar we have a heavy duty recovery point on the passenger side which made it a bit more difficult when removing. We initially made the mistake, once removing the two bolts that go through the recovery point and the bar into the chassis rail, of not loosening the other bolts in the recovery point. Once we realised this was causing the problem when trying to remove the bar, we needed to loosen these 3 other bolts. It is really difficult getting to two of the bolts so the plastic protector underneath the car needed to be removed first and then these bolts could be loosened.

Once that was done the bar slid off easily enough, we did not remove the bar completely from the chassis until we had tightened the ratchet straps up and then slid the bar all the way off. We got a bit of a fright when the shims fell out onto the concrete floor but no issues here at all. With assistance from Shayne we carried the bar onto a couple of saw horses and then lay the bar down face first so that we could mount the winch on the inside of the bar.

Rotate the Winch Housing Assembly

For our install of the Runva winch in our 76 Series Land Cruiser build we need to rotate the winch housing assembly so that we can easily access the winch clutch.

In order to so this we removed the 8 bolts from the winch housing assembly and then rotated the clutch lever 90 degrees to the left so that the clutch would be the correct way up when fitted to the bar. This is really easy and took a couple of minutes using an allen key to remove the bolts. The instructions provided explain how this should be done.

Fitting the Winch to the Bar

Now that the winch clutch had been moved to the correct location for our ARB bar it was time to actually install the winch.

First we to inserted the slot nuts into the winch and then placed the winch inside the bar. The winch fitted nice and snug inside the bar with a few millimetres either side. We then climbed under the saw horses and inserted the 4 bolts with flat and spring washers and loosely tightened. Double checked that the winch was centred in the bar and then tightened the 4 bolts. You have to add the fairlead before inserting the bottom two bolts as this is how it works with the ARB bar on the 70 Series Land Cruiser. The standard fairlead will not be ideal for the ARB bar as it sits about 3mm too low, resulting in he winch rope rubbing slightly on the bar which is not ideal. We added an offset fairlead later on that we purchased off eBay.

Control Box Installation

Once the winch is bolted in nice and tight the next step is to install the control box. The Runva winch comes with two control box brackets for different mounting options. One mounts onto the side of the winch and the other is a V shaped bracket, that we used, that can mount on top of the bar. We mounted the control box to the bracket, then a couple of bolts onto the bar and the control box was in place. We did bend the bracket down slightly so that the control box sits slightly lower making it harder to see behind the bottom bar of the bull bar. This is more an aesthetic thing as we don’t like it when you can see winch control boxes sitting on top of bull bars.

You then have to connect all the cables to the control box. To do this we basically ran all the cables down into the bar so that they could be connected to the winch. All the cables are colour coded to the winch so this part is really easy to do. The small black cable is the control box earth so this is connected with the long earth cable that goes to the battery. Once all cables were connected we then used zip ties to keep these all nice and secure and out of the way. The ARB bar has a number of holes that make securing these cables with zip ties really easy.

Getting the Bull Bar & Winch Back on the Cruiser

Once this was all done it was time to get the bull bar with the fitted winch back on to the Land Cruiser.

The biggest pain here, other than getting the bar back on with just Shayne and I, was trying to keep the shims in place. Shims are thin metal pieces that go in between the bar and the chassis in order to stop any friction between the two as well as having a nice tight fit so that when the bolts are tightened up you don’t bend the bar.

There are three shims on each side, one that goes on top, one on the side and the final one underneath. If we had some super glue (we thought we had but it was empty), we would have stuck these onto the chassis rail, but we didn’t so we used a bit of tape to hold them in place. With the assistance of Shayne we attempted to get the bar back on the Cruiser. We had moved the bar on the saw horses really close to the Cruiser and already had the ratchet straps around the bar. I took most of the weight and had Shayne assist in manoeuvring the bar onto the timber blocks, we held it there while we tightened up the ratchet straps. Once the bar was secure it became slightly easier. We used the ratchet straps to get the bar to the correct height and then slid the bar back onto the chassis rails. Of course the shims moved straight away and we stuffed around a bit here to get these to stay in the correct place.

The drivers side was fairly easy to line up and get the bolts back in but the passenger side was a bit more challenging. The bolts through the recovery point were almost impossible to line up correctly. If we had some help it would have been really easy as the other person could have manoeuvred the bar around until these lined up. Anyway it required tightening and loosening the bolts on the driver side and the ones underneath the bar to eventually line these two bolts up. The bolts through the recovery point were really difficult to get in, and at one stage we thought we would strip the thread on them but eventually they got in ok. One of the big issues here is when ARB fitted the bar initially, we are pretty sure they used an impact wrench to tighten everything up and as a result the bolts and threads were not in the best condition. We have since had to replace a couple of the bolts.

Winch Wiring & Custom Bracket

Now that the control box had been fitted and the bull bar back on, the next part of our Runva winch install on our 76 Series Land Cruiser build was to get all the wiring done.

This part is fairly straight forward. All you have to do is run the positive and negative cables back into the engine bay and connect to the battery. The positive needs to connect to the isolator switch and then there’s another shorter cable that runs from the isolator to the positive terminal on the battery. The Runva winch comes with a bracket for the isolator switch that for most 4WDs you should be able to find somewhere to mount this to the body of the car. With the Cruiser though we had no space close enough to the battery to mount this so we had to make an extension using a piece of angled aluminium we had lying around the shed.

We removed the battery and then drilled a couple of holes into the battery side bracket, this allowed us to bolt in the angled aluminium (see pics) and then the isolator switch and bracket onto the end of this. It worked out really well and is now in the perfect location next to the battery and positive terminal and is in a really easy spot to access. The battery went back in to the Cruiser and we connected up all the wires. We then tidied up all the wiring using zip ties and split tubing. Reconnected all the lights in the bull bar, bolted in the radiator protector and we were ready to see if the winch worked. Maybe we should have checked this first, haha.

The Runva winch isolator switch has a removable key which is quite nice, makes sure you don’t accidentally turn it on without realising. We turned the isolator switch on, connected the wired remote control and it all worked as expected. Finally we fitted the winch hook and then pulled the winch rope all the way in with the winch hook connected to the tow point.

Overall it is a really straightforward install, but get the assistance of one or two mates as this will make your life a hell of a lot easier and save you a lot of time.

Read our blog post on what to consider when choosing the correct winch for your 4WD to ensure you don’t run into any problems in the future.

If you enjoyed this Runva winch install part of our Land Cruiser build, then check out some of our other build posts here.

For more information on the Runva 13XP Premium winch check out their website here.

The thoughts of Peter.

This is not a sponsored post, we bought this gear and it’s an honest review of what we think about it!