Winch question

Unless the wood is really hard, it will become notched. We used to use two different methods for the twisted steel logging cables. One was a steel rod a few feet long with a simple pulley on the end that could shove the cable back and forth as needed. The other was a small spider pulley on a metal axle that was part of the winch, it could be shoved back and forth with whatever hunka tree was available. Few guys lost hand parts trying to do it by hand, pretty much similar to what happens when a cable spur grabs your hand when you aren't expecting it like Mike says. If the cable lets go it can remove teeth, limbs, heads, etc. even with a good whip blanket on it.

Sounds like the wire cable can be a bit of a problem, anyone using the winch 'rope'. I'm not exactly sure what it's called but it replaces the wire with rope and doesn't whiplash when it breaks or crush/kink. It looks like about 4 times the price but it might be worth it given all the problems wire cable seems to have.

Ah... you see there is another problem. Two of our members are judges at ERoCC events, and they have seen many a synthetic winch rope break during recovery. The competitors (after righting their vehicles after the roll) simply tie a knot in it and try again.

JimG

Keith:

I was thinking about replacing my winch cable with that "rope" as you are suggesting until last month when I went with a group through Isham Canyon. One of the guys had that on his winch and got himself stuck badly enough to have to use it. On the very first pull, it broke about 6 feet from the loop at the end. You are right that it didn't whiplash, but it sure didn't do the job either. Several other guys commented that they had seen failures like that many times before and would never buy the "rope" for their winches. I gave up on my idea to replace mine too.

For what it's worth, Dave

| Sounds like the wire cable can be a bit of a problem, anyone using the winch | 'rope'. I'm not exactly sure what it's called but it replaces the wire | with rope and doesn't whiplash when it breaks or crush/kink. It looks like | about 4 times the price but it might be worth it given all the problems | wire cable seems to have. | | -- | Keith | 98 TJ | 86 Mustang GT

Congrats on the new winch! XD9000i, same as mine! We have made good choices in our winch purchase. For advise on winching techniques, I suggest you go to the WARN winch home page and find their help page. They have available for download "Winching Techniques" in pdf format.

Greg

A chunk of hockey stick about a foot long with a V in the end works for repacking the cable on the spool. I have used a chunk of tree with a branch coming off sort of Y shaped.

The cables do wind up nice and easy with a decent amount of stress on them.

If they start to wind up strange and overlap where they shouldn't, then likely you don't have enough load on it. With the right load, they coil up nice.

Even if it is only a person or two holding the stress on it for a rewind, the stick still will guide it safely.

Mike