Interesting synthetic rope advice...

[OrangeCrush]

Since I bought my winch, I was going to replace the wire cable with a synthetic rope but after reading this article, I think I'll wait until I become more familiar with it.

Here's the article...

SYNTHETIC WINCH ROPES

The use of non-wire ropes is a fast growing trend amongst off-roaders. They were originally employed for safety reasons, on the basis that when they broke their low mass caused them to drop to the ground, rather that take your hand off. Other attributes are that they are easier to handle, possible to repair by splicing, when they break and the 10kg or so weight saving on front overhang meant that had less of an effect on the vehicles handling, compared to the heavier wire rope. However, there are a few disadvantages.

They are quite expensive, costing about 3-4 times that of one of our wire ropes.
They cut easily and generally have poor resistance to abrasion.
They are sensitive to heat, with deterioration begining at just 60C and can even melt with excesssive drum heat or friction.
Under extreme loads they can generate even massive side loads. I.e. up to 55 tonnes from a 4.5 tonne pull.
Now the problem of cost is a personal one, you pays your money and makes your choice, but points 2, 3 and 4 can be avoided by careful and correct winch practice.
Change the roller fairlead to a "hawse" type, as the frame of the roller fairlead can cut the rope. Then protect the rope from sharp or rough objects at all times.
If you have a planetary type electric winch drum heat is your problem, however, the H12 produces virtually no drum heat as the motor runs cooler and importantly braking is carried out remotely at the control valve. Correct spooling, as described below will help prevent frictional heat.
To avoid the "log-splitting" effect and the consequential jamming, friction and excessive side load problems, avaoid spooling the drum neatly and in a parallel fashion, as is recommended for wire ropes. The first layer should be put on under load (around 500kg) to capstan it on to the drum, all subsequent layers should be fed on tightly in a criss-cross manner so that each layer is at an angle of about 30 degrees to the layer below. This will prevent the upper layer from finding their way to the centre of the drum through the upper layers.
The effect of this rough spooling is that the drum will be filled more easily, so for the H12 we recommend 27 metres of 3/8* diameter rope (either 9 of 10mm if the rope is metric) and spliced 4 times, with a proper taper lead.

If you are just learning to winch, my advice would be to start with a wire rope and change to synthetic when you are confident you know what you are doing. I have seen people wreck a 200 rope on their very first pull, a wire rope is much more forgiving, more difficult to damage and cheaper to replace.

Anyone with opinions on this? For instance, the bit about weaving the rope back and forth at a 30 degree angle so not to let it pull to the cneter.

Mark