Tuff Trucks don’t get any tougher than those built to contest the Superwinch Mainland Winch Challenge. Here series publicity officer Vicky Newport profiles the three 2018 series’ class winners.

2018 Superwinch Mainland Challenge Series Outlaw Class #1 – Scotty’s Jeep Wrangler

Scotty Newport has been involved in Winch Challenges for about 10 years now, first as a co-driver mainly and now as a driver.

Three seasons ago he decided to build himself a winch truck and just four months later he had a yellow cut-down Jeep Cherokee built. That season Scotty and co-driving daughter Megan got first in the series in the Outlaw Class. The next season in the Cherokee Scotty  - this time with new co-driver James alongside - came first again in the Outlaw Class.

However Scotty had always wanted a Wrangler. With this in the back of his mind he was always on the lookout for a suitable donor vehicle or just parts and during the middle of the second season in the Cherokee old mate Sav offered Scotty a chassis and tub which was laying around.

That’s a start, Scotty thought, so we picked that up and that was the beginning of the new build.

Scotty’s mate Steve from Auckland, a bit of a winch wiz, had been toying with a winch for some time, a hybrid winch, perfect for Scotty he thought. So while we were in the North Island on holiday we met with Steve and picked up this new winch up, which was really the second part of the build.

From there the Jeep Wrangler build came together quite fast. In fact, with Scotty being an engineer, James a mechanic, Sav a Jeep expert and Steve the winch wiz you couldn’t have got a better team.

Scotty again entered Outlaw Class in 2018 and by the end of the season (five rounds) he and James had three firsts and two second placings to their name, giving them first place in class for the series.

Three things Scotty reckons you can boil his and James’ success down to a combination of three things; the team, the winch and the truck.

Scotty himself has spent time on quad bikes and racing Minis. So he puts his driving down to that. The rest might come as a bit of a surprise, particularly the actual build cost, to whit;

.● Wrangler chassis and tub (water damaged wreck), bonnet (rolled wreck), grill (burnt wreck), windscreen frame (off Sav’s original comp Jeep), front guards and doors made by Scotty (Newport Engineering). All Free

● Home-built fuel tank mounted through the rear deck with recovery tool box on top. Built by Scotty.

● Standard shocks with 2” lift. Second hand from Sav.

● Cherokee front diff and diff lock (came out of the Cherokee),

● Wrangler back diff with factory LSD in it ($600)

● Standard Cherokee motor and auto (came out of the Cherokee).

● 35” tyres (came off the Cherokee)

● Beadlocks rims $1000

● 48V alternator which runs the winch $1200/12V runs the vehicle (came out of the Cherokee)

● Four batteries which power the winch (situated behind the driver's seat). Donated.

● One battery which runs the vehicle (under the bonnet). (came out of the Cherokee)

● Home-made dash, made by Scotty.

● Mitsubishi heater mounted under the dash. (donated by Newport Engineering)

● Kill switch for the engine and separate kill switch for winch (this was put in as a safety precaution). Both within reach of driver and co-driver.

● Rear mounted radiator $250

● Winch Rope (donated by sponsor Superwinch)

● Driveshaft (made by Scotty) tube $90

● All steel and tube used in the build was stolen from Newport Engineering and manufactured by Scotty.

● Original cost of Cherokee $700 The Winch.

Scotty does work very closely with Steve when it comes to the winch. The Winch is Steve’s Baby; it is his idea, build and design.

From Steve: “The 48 volt (V)  idea came about because 12V/24V electric winches have been around for 80 years, the only advancement the use of two motors. This wasn't a significant improvement in performance and still fell way short of PTO and Hydraulic setups.

“I looked at physically bigger sized motors, which are not readily available, however in my search I came across the 48V motors used in golf carts.

“Based on their specs and the fact that automotive manufacturers are looking to build vehicles with 48V systems it was the logical choice.

“In simple terms the build is utilising a Superwinch Talon 18, gear ratio reduced and a 48V golf cart motor. I can’t really comment on performance specs because we have never done a  full range test but what I can say is that since the first Winch test the free spool pin has been modified to take the extra loading. Scotty also reinforced the winch drum and the rope is synthetic Dynex Dux.”

2018 Superwinch Mainland Challenge Series Open Class # 1 – Brock’s Jeep Wrangler

The owner and driver of this Jeep Wrangler, Brock Welsh from Kaiapoi north of Christchurch, has been involved in Winch Challenges for about three years now. For the first two years competing in the Superwinch Mainland Challenge Series Brock entered in a road-legal Jeep Wrangler and won the Clubman class two years in a row.

However a bit of stick from fellow competitors, plus the fact that he couldn’t run the 35” tyres he wanted to in Clubman prompted Brock to build a dedicated competition truck and give Open Class a go.

With co-driver Nic Scales running ropes since the start, he and Brock make a pretty good team, certainly a very competitive one. They do have their moments but that’s normal for all teams. Something to do, no doubt, with the fact that Brock (as do all drivers) relies on Nic (the co-driver) to get him out of the shit he just drove into, the co-driver being in charge once the ropes have been run out.

Competitors don’t like to admit it but most of our teams are very competitive. Some are here hoping to just have their trucks live till the end of the event, others just want to get near the top placings while some want to win.

That said, one thing everyone has in common is they are all here to have fun. It may not seem like it during a stage but at the end of the day it was fun.

Brock started the build of his 1996 TJ Jeep Wrangler at the end of 2017 Winch Challenge season. He bought a standard truck and with both Brock and Nic being roofers he relied on other people to do the major part of the build.

Nathan and his team from KRAE did most of the body work, Ryan from Quick Spark sorted all the wiring and the treads came from KATS Tyres.

Brock won the Open class at four of the five rounds in 2018 which guaranteed him first place in the series so he decided to go up a Class to Outlaw for the final round. There he and Nic had a great run and took third place.

Here's a rundown on the TJ Jeep Wrangler:

● 2” lift with Fox shocks all round

● Standard Jeep motor with standard 3DPD auto and a bigger pan

● Rear diff is standard with ARB air locker

● Front diff is a G2 core 44 hosing with all the goodies, cromoly axles and another ARB air locker.

● AU Falcon radiator located in the rear

● Silverstone Tyres

The Winch:

Brock decided that with a new truck ne needed  a new winch. He did his homework and decided on a Black/Limited Edition Red Winch with 12 to 24 volt supercharger which is mounted on the front of the Wrangler.

2018 Superwinch Mainland Challenge Series - Clubman Class #1 Lockie’s Suzuki Vitara

Driver Lockie Coskerie from Temuka and co-driver Jake Gregory from Wanaka entered

the Superwinch Mainland Challenge for the 2018 season in the Clubman class in a Suzuki Vitara. They completed three of the five rounds and were well stoked to claim series’ honours in the class.

Clubman Class is a starter class. It’s for pretty basic club trucks and a great place to ‘learn the ropes’ as it were!

Trucks must be have a Rego and WoF and run 33” tyres. When stages are marked out the Clubman Class ‘loop’ will sometimes veer off the Open/Outlaw Class track to avoid anything that is too hard or could potentially end in a roll over…because Clubman Class rules don’t require roll cages.

Lockie’s Suzuki Vitara LWB has a factory 1600cc engine and a manual gearbox. The Suzuki has a 2” body lift, 2” suspension lift, and crawler gears in the transfer box to help turn the 32”Simex tyres on beadlock rims.

A rear ARB air diff locker, upgraded front CVs (modified Ford Explorer), front and rear bars fabricated by Lockie (including a mount for the ground anchor), plus various typical Suzuki “weak” points reinforced, completes the mod package.

A Warn XD9000 12V electric winch is mounted on the front of the Suzuki. The guys are presently running 20 metres of synthetic rope. Hopefully by running only 20 metres of rope this will prevent it from binding.

Lockie is a fully-qualified mechanic based in Temuka but currently working as an engineer.

He has an obsession with Suzuki 4WDs and fabricating custom parts. Since the beginning of 2018 he steadily modified the Suzuki from a stock standard truck, doing all the custom modifications himself. He is aiming to build another truck to compete in 2019 Series in Open Class.

Jake is an industrial electrician based in Wanaka who also owns two Suzukis, one, he reckons, in many pieces, the other not so may pieces! Jake is also the President of the Shotover 4WD Club.

The team is mostly self-funded but do have a couple of sponsors “Zuk Parts and Coskerie

Stainless Steel Products” who help them out.

The 2018 Superwinch series was the first Winch Challenge for this pair and they did well, going into it with a pretty standard truck, a good attitude and eager to get into it. That said, they didn't expect to do so well let alone take the season win for Clubman.

Their advice?

“You don't need deep pockets and a heavily modified truck to enter and be competitive.”

To read the full story in the March 2019 issue of NZ4WD go to Zinio.com (February 18) or purchase your own hard copy at the Adrenalin store.