winding winch line

[Eventhough]

Well, talking wire rope, you only need the first two layers tight and neat because you will probably spool out enough line to reach that point anyway....

I disagree. I've had pulls with very short lengths of line down to every bit I could spare off the spool. If you have loose outer wraps with wire and you load your cable you can start kinking your wire.

 

[Wh1t3nukle]

I concur with LR Max's response to upcountry.

Rewrapping after an event is quite fine, just hopefully you can do it sooner rather than...

Correct that first time use needs a stretch of the CABLE (e.g., the 500 lbs line item). Practice safety at all times with this. OHV park if you have access to one. Large parking lot, preferably with a grade. Do it in evening or some other wide open space. This is definitely preferred to do with 2 people.

Vehicle running and in neutral. Set parking brake to 1-2 clicks, just enough to provide tension. Hard to tell how you get to 500 lbs unless you have a load cell handy. lol

If you can get one, then I suggest a wireless remote for the winch. Comes in very handy. I also use something like a long socket extension > 12" for leveraging the cable on the drum. It can slide on the extension's shaft if used in pivot type action. The only annoying part is if you wrap bad, you unwind a little, and thus lose your tension. Then have to get back and reverse the vehicle.

I repeat the above process after respooling from an event. I've done this solo as well. Spray WD-40 on the cable every so often.

As of last week though...i upgraded to rope. I've got a family and my intention is to teach them and have them assist me. Safety first!! I gotta say that all the time with cable, I really disliked the possibility of a free wire end that would come through any leather glove. Just not ok if a family member experienced that.

@upcountry, I know EXACTLY what you are talking about. You know what you are doing but you say to yourself, "its ok this one time" or "I'll take care of that later". That is when you get bit.

I will say, if you have steel cable, now would be a GREAT time to upgrade to synthetic. Mine has been massively forgiving and a lot easier to work with. I know its ~$300 you weren't planning on spending, but its worth it.

As for winding in the cable, I always did it in a parking lot, strapped to a big concrete pillar at one end (BTW, old decommissioned tow straps work GREAT for attaching to such an object). With the truck in neutral and off (you can have it on, whatever) and the winch cable all the way out, begin winding in. With my hand ~5 feet away from the fairlead, I guide the rope in. The tension of the truck tugging on the rope keeps everything nice and taught. If the rope starts crossing up or not all nice and pretty, I stop, back off, and do it again. Also as I'm doing this, I often turn the wheel a little bit as needed to correct and keep me fairly straight.

That would be my recommendations. Also FYI, I recommend continuing using gloves with synthetic rope. Rope burn is rough and sometimes surprises get stuck to the outside of the rope...think thorns! OUCH!

 

[Antichrist]

Well, talking wire rope, you only need the first two layers tight and neat because you will probably spool out enough line to reach that point anyway....

Ok, you lost me.
Why does the type of rope determine how much you spool out?

 

[verdesardog]

Ok, you lost me.
Why does the type of rope determine how much you spool out?

The type of line has nothing to do with how much you have to spool out. It does make a big diference on how you spool it in, wire rope has to be tight and neat to prevent damage, synthetic needs to be criss crosed to prevent the outer layers from migrating deep into the bottom layers.

I was saying that with wire rope you need at least the bottom two layers neat and tight because you will probably have enough spooled out that the top layers will be used to reach your anchor point... Of course some of us (that used to use wire rope) would make all layers tight and neat.

 

[Eventhough]

...synthetic needs to be criss crosed to prevent the outer layers from migrating deep into the bottom layers.

A taught, neat spool of syn line will be just fine. If you loosely spool on syn line then when you spool in under heavy load the outer, loaded layers can split the inner, looser layers. I've loaded my winch hard many times and have never split an inner layer of syn line and I spool my line in under hand load and in neat wraps.

 

[86tuning]

A taught, neat spool of syn line will be just fine. If you loosely spool on syn line then when you spool in under heavy load the outer, loaded layers can split the inner, looser layers. I've loaded my winch hard many times and have never split an inner layer of syn line and I spool my line in under hand load and in neat wraps.

+1 this is what I've always done. Spooled in neatly under a bit of load, that will prevent line dive.