how long has your synthetic rope lasted

Wildman1 · Nov 25, 2008

NotMatt said:
I went ahead and yanked my steel cable this time around, so now I have no excuse or reason not to buy rope. The aluminum fairlead is even mounted up.

I'm so sick of twisted, kinked, frayed hard to spool on steel cable.

How many feet of 3/8" are you guys spooling on your 8274's?

125'

Travis1 · Nov 25, 2008

Jobless said:
Yes rope breaks.

Rope doesn't:
1. kink
2. Snap back and kill people when it does break
3. fray
4. require the use of gloves when handling due to #3

and it spools onto winch easier as it is more pliable and weighs less than the same amount of cable.

How is cable better than rope?

The whip affect on cable is overplayed - finding actual wheeling accidents where somene was killed or seriously mamed from a flying winch cable where the cable itself was to the cause are very few and far between. More often than not it's the attachment point on the vehicle you are recovering that fails. When you have a couple pounds of weight on the end of a rope or cable under tension - that object is going to fly.

Rope frays as well, it just can't slice you open like cable can.

What is better about cable?

While rope has a higher breaking strength, I've seen and heard of it snapping WAY too many times under fairly light pulls because it was pulling against an object at a sharp angle. Like a fairlead.

Personally, I'm sticking with cable for quite some time simply from my concerns about rope and it's premature failure issues.

NotMatt · Nov 25, 2008

Is anyone running 7/16" rope? Rockstomper sells up to 1", but that might be overkill for an 8000lb winch. Of course, 7/16" might be too... but if I could fit 85 to 90 or maybe 100 feet of 7/16" on my 8274, I'd be tempted to go that route.

Travis said:
The whip affect on cable is overplayed - finding actual wheeling accidents where somene was killed or seriously mamed from a flying winch cable where the cable itself was to the cause are very few and far between. More often than not it's the attachment point on the vehicle you are recovering that fails. When you have a couple pounds of weight on the end of a rope or cable under tension - that object is going to fly.

Rope frays as well, it just can't slice you open like cable can.

What is better about cable?

While rope has a higher breaking strength, I've seen and heard of it snapping WAY too many times under fairly light pulls because it was pulling against an object at a sharp angle. Like a fairlead.

Personally, I'm sticking with cable for quite some time simply from my concerns about rope and it's premature failure issues.

I guess it's a preference. I'd rather deal with being a tad more careful about abrasion with rope, than have to deal with tangled, flattened, frayed, kinked, unmanageable steel cable.

I had steel cable on my M8000 that was tangled so bad I had to tear the winch apart and cut the cable off the drum.

I've been present for steel cable breakage, and it didn't kill anyone, but was not something I would've wanted to be close to.

wsm04rubi · Nov 26, 2008

NotMatt said:
I've been present for steel cable breakage, and it didn't kill anyone, but was not something I would've wanted to be close to.

Same here - I've seen both fail, and if I'm ever standing next to a winch line that fails, I sure hope it is rope...

dirtygoat · Nov 26, 2008

I've been looking at rope for a while now for my 8274...

Broke my wire the last time I used my winch...

Totally agree with, "wire sucking ass" for ease of use and cutting the **** out of your hands...

My rig is down right now, so buying rope isn't my first priority...

But, if I don't get wire for free to spool on my winch, I'm gonna spend my hard earned cash on the rope...

Money Mark · Nov 26, 2008

Wire is :rb:

zukkev · Nov 26, 2008

dirtygoat said:
But, if I don't get wire for free to spool on my winch, I'm gonna spend my hard earned cash on the rope...

Hey, I've got a length of 3/8" wire rope you can have for a donation to the beverage fridge

, was gonna scrap it, but the bottom fell out of the scrap market-you gotta come get it though....let me know; seriously you can have it if you want it!:awesomework:

Pat · Nov 26, 2008

Money Mark said:
Wire is :rb:

You know you love my kinked and frayed chinese slicing cable :kiss:

dirtygoat · Nov 27, 2008

zukkev said:
Hey, I've got a length of 3/8" wire rope you can have for a donation to the beverage fridge , was gonna scrap it, but the bottom fell out of the scrap market-you gotta come get it though....let me know; seriously you can have it if you want it!:awesomework:

Thanks for the offer...

But, being a hundred miles from you will keep that from happening...:redneck:

I'm hoping for some X-mas Rope...

John90XJ · Nov 29, 2008

wsm04rubi said:
The abrasion protector is pretty much shot though, so I need to get a new one of those. I think they run about $15 - well worth it to protect the winch line.

It's two years old now...

MasterPull makes a really slick abrasion protector that's removable and you can put it wherever you want.

Edit: My MasterPull Superline XD has held up really well....for the 3 months I've had it. Nice to handle.