Hi COT's. I am still considering whether to go with a winch - so thanks for your interesting summary. I am currently in your option 2. However, I could venture into option 3 in a few years but maybe not.
So - what to do??
Therefore, maybe the Removable Winch with the towing mounting kit is a better option than the Integrated Winch or no Winch.
Benefits:
1. Don't need to be carrying around approx 40KG of winch for the 95% of the time I will be driving the G under your option 1 & 2 scenarios.
2. Can use the winch at the front or the rear of the car
3. Cheaper to purchase as an option
4. Easier to upgrade to an alternative winch in needed in the future
Disadvantages:
1. Rated 3.5 tonne (rather than 5.5.tonne)
2. Doesn't look as good as the Integrated Winch set-up
3. Front suspension not adjusted as is for the Integrated Winch - so marginal decrease in driving characteristics (I assume that the car is driven with the Removable Winch attached to the front or rear rather than transported in the rear cabin)?
What other issues/factors have I missed in this assessment.
Why isn't the removable Winch the more popular than the integrated winch?
I ran a removable winch on my Jeep for years, so I have a lot of experience with that, and I now run a permanently mounted winch. For my previous setup, I used a receiver welded to a winch plate. You hit the nail on the head with the advantages, but there are a few disadvantages you may want to consider.
1) It sticks out the front quite a ways. Not a lot, but it can be enough to mess up approach angles in some situations. It also makes it more exposed to the elements - rain, road salt, snow, grime, etc. -- and as a result, you will likely experience a greater degree of wear and tear on your winch and it's associated kit -- gears, seals, and even the cables themselves will wear out quicker when stuck out in the elements. This happens when it's permanently mounted too but they tend to be a bit more protected so in my experience it's not as bad. The other aspect to this is how much further forward it puts the weight -- sometimes it's as much as a few feet ahead of the front axle, which can dramatically exacerbates the load on the front springs, especially if you are using a steel cable on a winch rated to 1.5x the GVWR of the rig it's attached to (as is the recommended practice). This also means it's not apples to apples when comparing the weight of an integrated vs receiver mount winch as integrated usually has less of a levering action on the suspension and thus has a much lower impact on handling of the rig. As far as in-use storage, I always drove around with mine when I was on an adventure - it was too much weight inside the vehicle, in an awkward shape that makes it tricky to pack around, and of course it would also make for a nasty 200lbs projectile in an accident. So, I would say count on it being stuck out off the front or back when you are on a trip that you might need it.
2) Engineering Quality - when a winch is mounted on a plate with a receiver, the receiver is almost always welded to the plate. I've seen good welds and I've seen bad welds - often from the same welder! - and I've seen welds that look good at first, but prove to be bad in the long run. With the number of manufacturers out there, if you are buying a winch plate off the rack, there was always (at least for me) a question of how good those welds actually are. Flaws in the welds are invisible, and when they fail, it's always a sudden, violent surprise without a lot of redundancy to keep bits of metal relatively contained, and usually there are only two critical beads, which isn't a lot. On the other hand, a permanent mount relies on bolts. Bolts that have been tested a million times to a known failure range. Even in the unlikely event of one being bad due to a manufacturing defect, there are usually a few more holding the winch in place. And the bumper itself provides a lot more structure for redundancy - first, it's typically bolted to the chassis so again, a good, solid, verifiable mounting point. But then, the nature of bending and welding bumpers together means it's never only two weld beads that hold the winch captive -- there's bends, gussets, extra reinforcement, etc. all through the bumper that means if something fails, it's unlikely to send bits flying.
3) Sidways pulls. Every receiver I've seen is rated for more-or-less straight line pulls. In reality, those are rare - it's not uncommon to have to pull at an angle. But that dramatically changes the forces at play, and makes the receiver mount less robust than a fixed application. You do lose a bit of versatility in terms of being able to pull forwards or backwards, but the right technique mitigates this quite a bit and often when I need to winch, it's to winch through - not to winch back and try again.
4) Convenience. There were a few times when I'd leave the winch behind because "Nah I won't need that on this trip" and then I absolutely needed it on those trips - either I could have helped someone else but was not properly equipped, or I've forgone some side roads and adventures worth having because I didn't have my recovery kit with me. I hated missing out on these so much that after a while, I stopped taking the winch receiver off and just ran with it attached all the time, which further exacerbated the "cons" I mentioned in item 1. In my case, no front number plates to obscure as DaveB said; I don't know about legality here in Canada; I never got stopped, but I know that the rules are a lot more strict elsewhere.
As for why they aren't more popular - two reasons. The first is looks. There's a lot of rigs with a Warn stuck on the front because that's the aesthetic. I would say this is the predominant reason why folks don't use the receiver mount more often, but I also think it's irrelevant to this decision as a winch isn't going to make too big a difference on the looks of a Grenadier any more than a claw has an impact on the looks of a hammer. It looks a certain way because it does a certain kind of job! However, for folks who do use winches regularly the above safety risks usually tip folks in favour of a permanently mounted solution. More robust, more redundancy, and thus it's a bit safer. The first and fourth reason are more personal preference.
I would say if you are currently option 2 and might go option 3, for me I'd go for the integrated winch now and get it wired up with a warranty. Odds are with inflation and such, the same winch will be a lot more expensive in a few years time! And, I guess the summary of it is: I've never heard anyone say "Glad I didn't have a winch". But I've heard plenty say the opposite -- "Glad I had a winch" -- or worse, "I wish I had a winch"!
