I have made everything from Soft Shackles, Winch Extensions, and Winch Lines. Which winch brand you have will can dictate what you do on the spool end. For the Warn winches you can use the Viking spool attachment and just do a simple through splice, unless it is the Zeon. They have a new wedge system. For Superwinch you just feather out the end and pass it through the spool.
Here is one method. Easy on the Superwinch, but if you use the Viking attachment, just leave the tail long. Since it is generally recommended that you keep a full wrap of synthetic line on your drum I figured it might be good to make sure that you cannot pull more line off that drum. To accomplish this I actually use one of nylon webbing sewn into an "8" shape (see below pic ). These do work well, but can be difficult to move into place. Since these Line Locks are getting harder to find, I wanted to come up with a way to do the same thing without one. The general use of a Whip Lock for tidying up the end of rope would prove the perfect method. Below I will show the Winch Line Whip Lock, or if you want to call it the Beowulf Lock you can...
. I figure if there is a group that can rip this process apart, it will be here.
Once tensioned these creates an extremely ridged lock that will keep you from ever accidentally pulling out more line.
Winch Line Lock: Nice, but difficult to move all the way down the other side of the drum to maintain a full wrap. (Stock pics from webstore in England)
Step one:
Pull enough line through the drum to go the width of the drum twice. If you have the Warn attachment from Viking, just undo the line and redo it to have enough of a tail. (Pics of Superwinch EP drum)
Step Two:
Wrap the line over the tail extending down to where you want the Line Lock. I choice to have it all the way at the end of the drum.
Step Three:
Loop the Tail over the last wrap and start to feed it under all the previous wraps.
Now under all the wraps.
Step Four:
Tighten all the wraps as best you can and continue to pull on the tail to tighten up the Lock on the Last wrap. Once done you can cut off the extra of the tail. If you had perfect length you could possibly have it tucked without needing to cut anything.
The finished Product:
Now, if you think the just over once and under the rest will not provide enough tension you can go over the last wrap. Under the next two. Over the wrap subsequent two and then under the rest.
Now here I have shown this with two different colored ropes to highlight the rope placements.
