Does anyone here (perhaps a Scout owner?) know anything about these please, or suggest a website / club / organisation which can offer advice?

I am intrigued by the idea of a detachable front towbar, which could be useful in all sorts of circumstances - see here:

http://www.watling-towbars.co.uk/front_towbars.html

although I guess you would need to consider carefully the strength of the bodywork to which it was attached; the front of most modern cars (even Octavias!) seem to be all flimsy crumple zone nowadays.

I am also interested in the idea of a lightweight, detachable winch. I am surprised how cheap these can be. See:

http://www.watling-towbars.co.uk/4x4_winches.html

and

http://www.autoliftuk.co.uk/category/recovery-winch/

The crumple zones shouldn't affect the ability to fit a front mounted tow bar as they are attached directly to the chassis / sub frame.

 

It'll be all the anxilaries such as the radiators, intercoolers, fans, air intakes etc. that vary by car which will likely cause issues.

 

The winches can be fitted to the detachable front mounted tow bars so if you can have one you should be able to have both? 

 

I've been around here for some time and been a Scout owner for all of those years and never heard of anyone fitting either a front mounted tow bar or winch!

 

If you push ahead with this please tell us more! What is it you have planned? There have been a few forestry guys running Scout's where a winch would be useful. I'm guessing the front tow bar would be more useful for caravaners?

I'm not planning any off-roading. My vague thinking was just that carrying a small, cheap winch might perhaps get me or another car / trailer out of trouble some time if stuck on a slippery surface - even a grass car park. This would need to be mounted on a (detachable) front towbar, which in itself might occasionally be useful for manoevering a trailer. Have a look at the link.

Having done some time in the offroad scene I would guess that the probably isn't a good mounting point for front tow bar. Most 4x4 with a front bar attach to the chassis rails that you won't have on the front of normal passenger car. Then a winch that's going to be of much use us not a small bit of kit. Plus you have to have all the suitable electrics as they use quite a bit of power. A lot of the off road guys have twin batteries.

I don't suppose it's impossible but quite a lot of work for very little gain.

I have never researched it though so I maybe horribly wrong!

Maybe a small tirfor hand winch in the boot would be better?

Looks like that is attached to the standard towing eye point...

So I do know nothing!

I would be cautious trying to pull something that's stuck with the towing eye (if that is indeed what it is Attached to) they are only designed to pull things that roll. Have a look on YouTube for what happens when tow points break. Lots of energy involved.

But maybe I am just being a grumpy old fart

Edit: just read their website and looks like the are well designed proper tow points. I'm both surprised and impressed. (Caution is still needed when recovering stuck vehicles) ill get my coat :(