Nah, I got the very strong impression it was for liability. People use those ropes until they are thread bare and are almost certain to snap. This way Warn only has to be on the hook when a new cable snaps.

 

Just got around to adding that winch recovery bible page to our Portal page.

It's at the bottom of the Technical Links.

 

Thanks Corey that is a really good read. Does anyone sell winches with the synthetic rope already installed? I'd hate to have to buy something separately especially since I doubt it would be easy to get rid of.

How much lighter is this stuff?

 

You can also toss the synthetic rope in the washing machine when it gets too dirty.

 

You are welcome Victor.
I don't think any winch makers sell the stuff, and the only way they will is if their name is on the line.

It's really easy to put on.
Jim & I had my old one off as fast as I could run with cable away from the rig.

He got underneath and used an allen wrench to take the bolt out, dropped the steel line on the ground, and then hooked up the synth line and tightened the allen bolt.

And you have complete access to the line when you crawl underneath of this type of bumper.

Then all we did was run the new winch line in keeping a little pressure on the line.
No need to baby it like a steel line, it's very forgiving how you wrap it back up.

I sold my steel cable to Paul Elbisser the very first day I advertised it in the classifieds.
There's people out there who will still use steel cable, you should be able to sell it.

 

I don't know if washing that is such a good idea. This stuff looks to be very similar to static synthetic rope that we use as utility rope in the fire service. It is far better to buy a rope brush and brush than washing it in the machine. If you do wash it be very careful what products you use since many of them will cause the nylon fibers to start to break down. I used carry 100' of dynamic climbing rope with me. It is great for all sorts of stuff but since it is dynamic it has stretch in it which of course you don't want. I now always carry 150' static rope.

 

I emailed Masterpull and was told their line was machine washable.

 

You can machine wash rope but generally it needs to be in a bag and no soaps used. That is why a rope brush is preferable since you can brush the contamination loose. If you do wash the rope make sure after it dries that you check every foot of it. Form a loop on itself but don't knot it. Look for the fibers starting to separate or the interior material starting to fray.

As long as it isn't exposed to excessive heat synthetic rope is far superior to natural fibers and I'm assuming it is much more desirable than steel cable in a winch. So does anyone know how much lighter it is per 100' per instance?

 

The info should be archived here as to the weight, as I weighed mine.

But off the top of my head, the 100' of synth line and the big hook I use weigh about 8 lb.

The stock steel 100' line and stock hook weigh in at around 24 lb.

Mucho difference.

 

That's exactly what the tech told me. He also said to use cold water.

 

That is a nice wench rope failure video, but it does not hold a candle to the one we filmed yesterday.

Picture this, we are wheeling in GWNF in VA and come across a Taco abandoned in deep water. We searched around and could not find the owner and keep on wheeling. As we were ready to leave for the day we decided to stop back by the abandoned Taco and by luck the owner was there.

One of the guys with us has a new wench and it looked like the ideal opportunity to try it out. We hooked up to the Taco with a snatch block and it started to pull the wench truck into the water. We then anchored it to a very large tree from the rear and cranked down on the wench again. The anchor strap stretched about 6 feet and the bumper of the wench truck came up against another tree so we kept cranking down more on the wench.

All this time the stuck Taco was not moving a bit. We were all thinking WTF is going on and then "BANG" the anchor point on the stuck truck fails and the cable came back to the wench truck like a bullet snatch block and all and impacted the ARB bumper placing a very nice dent in the bumper and the rest of the cable shot under the truck. The wench truck sling shotted back about 6 feet with me in it, while everyone ran for cover.

What did we learn from this?? We are all not as smart about wenching as we should be to be using this high-powered equipment. Someone could have been killed.

Next we learned that the Taco was stuck since Wednesday and several previous attempts have been made to get it out. We learned that other wench trucks had also failed to get it out, but did not end so catastrophically. The owner then decided to share with us that it was not stuck in mud like we all thought.

The truck hit a submerged tree stump and road over it until it passed the skid plate and then the truck dropped over it with the stump between the steering rack and the cross member.

It would have been real nice to know all of that before we made the attempt as no wench is going to get it out until the truck is lifted up and off of the stump. Can you imagine how badly that truck's frame is tweaked???

I have decided to get a wench for my own truck now, but I will not even install that steel rope, NO WAY!!! I have learned my lesson, trust me.

Video of the big event should be posted today on www.TTORA-VA.com today.

Gadget

www.GadgetOnline.com

 

Does it spool faster now or is the gearing of the winch the limiting factor.

 

Wow
Glad you guy's are OK Gadget.

Here are two good items to view.
The first one is a PDF file, and it's the Warn manual that comes with every Warn winch.
It's a tad over 1 mb.

The link here takes you to Ramsey's winch page.
Look for the 3rd video.
12 mb, and worth the download.
Lots of good info on how to rig a winch and play safe.

The middle vid on their page is the Wireless Remote that I run on my Warn winch.

That's to bad about that Taco being stuck, and posible damage.

A thing I learned last April while pulling a stuck 2nd gen out of some deep snow, is to take the winching rig out of gear.

I had my truck in park, and I found out later that's not a good idea as it's posible it could have snapped something in my tranny?

There's a learning curve to using these things, and that was the first time I had pulled out a stuck rig.
From now on it's in neatral, and stand on the break pedal.

 

I'm not sure, my steel cable was a virgin, never used it.
Went right to the synth line shortly after reading that article on ODW and others telling me the benefits of it.

And also the sanctioned events outlawing it was enough to convince me to get rid of it.