winch question
- Thread starter mcgovski
- Start date
michaelgroves
Explorer
LOL.. you haven't read the entire thread, have you? Or do you just want to get 'em all coming out of the woodwork again?
P.S. I agree wholeheartedly - synthetic is far stronger, safer and more convenient.
Outback
Explorer
A few weeks ago I used my WARN 16.5 for the first time. Thats when I discovered that the yahoo that wired it up really screwed up! The winch would not stop. I ended up sucking both vehicles together until it dogged down the 16.5 and shut her down. After a while I was able to get the vehicles seperated. NOT FUN. I took the winch to SIX STAES Distributers in Salt Lake City (Warn certified warrantee dealer) and they inspected and rewired the winch at no cost to me. In fact they spent 6 hours checking everything. The cable was slightly squished in one section but the wires looked ok and was deemed safe. So off I go. Last Sunday my partner tried to get through a snow bank but was unsuccesful to say the least. He had an empty 3/4 Chevy diesel truck. I hooked onto his truck and started winching. HE WAS STUCK. I had to chock my front tires. Not good enough. I burried my tires in the dirt and was finally able to get a good solid pull. My hood was open. I was in the cab with the controller. The cable had an ARB winch weight and heavy weight oil skin jacket on it. The cable snapped! Now I dont know if it snapped at the flattened spot (and it was barely flattened) but never the less it snapped. Thank God I had all of the safety proceedures in play at the time. The truck weighs in at about 6,000 lbs. Stuck to the frame in snow I would say doubled its recovery weight. The cable is rated for 33,000 working load limit with a geusstimate of 50K breaking limit. I was no where near that. So if the cable was weakend which I will say it was then the cable just broke at that point. It was damaged when the cable was not spooled on correctly when the winch kept running. In any case where have you been able to spool a cable on correctly when your in a recovery situation? YOU CANT! The cable will get kinked, flattened or whatever you want to call that damaged spot. Synthetic lines dont suffer from this problem. Thicker cables such as the ones on the 12K and 16.5K rated winches seem to suffer more from cable damage than thinner cables do. To me Synthetic ropes are just better for this reason not to mention the fact that they are 2 to 3 times stronger than the same size wire rope. The problem most people have with them are there price. They may say other reasons but if there was a wire rope and a synthetic rope same size sitting side by size and the same price they would snap up the synthetic rope in a heart beat! Thats at least for the price mongers who say synthetics suck but really want one. The other group are the old farts (I use to be one of these ) just cant believe that something that weighs in at a fraction of wire rope can really be as strong let alone 2 to 3 times stronger! They will usually say stuff like sythetic ropes are safer to use than wire rope for begginer winchers. Yes thats true but it also safer for old winching experts (read really old farts) as well. For me the added saftey achieved going with a synthetic rope for a replacement rope is reason enough to go with synthetic over wire. I wouldnt buy a new winch and take a perfectly good wire rope off it. I just use the correct saftey measures when using wire rope. BUT when they are deemed no longer safe then its time to upgrade to synthetic. of course this is just one mans opinion and thats all it is. Take it or leave it. :coffeedrink:
) just cant believe that something that weighs in at a fraction of wire rope can really be as strong let alone 2 to 3 times stronger! They will usually say stuff like sythetic ropes are safer to use than wire rope for begginer winchers. Yes thats true but it also safer for old winching experts (read really old farts) as well. For me the added saftey achieved going with a synthetic rope for a replacement rope is reason enough to go with synthetic over wire. I wouldnt buy a new winch and take a perfectly good wire rope off it. I just use the correct saftey measures when using wire rope. BUT when they are deemed no longer safe then its time to upgrade to synthetic. of course this is just one mans opinion and thats all it is. Take it or leave it. :coffeedrink:
Metcalf
Expedition Leader
I did read the thread...and I did want to get my point across
I do also have to interject.....
Outback!
You should have gotten out the shovel THEN the winch! I don't want to sound like I am trying to be all preachy or ranting but I think this is the number one problem I see in vehicle recovery. People in general don't take the time to improve there situation before pulling out the winch cable! Sure its generally easier to just yank cable, but what if it was just you by yourself back in the woods stuck in the snowdrift...then the cable breaks.....
Please take the time when planning and executing recovery to be extra safe and plan ahead as much as possible to minimize your chances of getting hurt during the recovery. Winches are GREAT tools, but dangerous ones also.
Perhaps we need to start a nice long thread on winch use, winch safety, rigging techniques, hand signals, etc?
I do also have to interject.....
Outback!
You should have gotten out the shovel THEN the winch! I don't want to sound like I am trying to be all preachy or ranting but I think this is the number one problem I see in vehicle recovery. People in general don't take the time to improve there situation before pulling out the winch cable! Sure its generally easier to just yank cable, but what if it was just you by yourself back in the woods stuck in the snowdrift...then the cable breaks.....
Please take the time when planning and executing recovery to be extra safe and plan ahead as much as possible to minimize your chances of getting hurt during the recovery. Winches are GREAT tools, but dangerous ones also.
Perhaps we need to start a nice long thread on winch use, winch safety, rigging techniques, hand signals, etc?