Offroad-Express

Hay All, am in a shipyard in Spain and was getting my Crane winch cable (amsteel blue 12.5mm) replaced at the rigging shop,(these guys do all the superyacht Hi tech rigging using Synthetic cable)
The guy I talked to was a ex pat kiwi and cringed when he saw my cable was Amsteel blue. I asked why and he said it is an inferior product that he has seen fail many times. I asked him what the best there is out there and he said that Dynex Dux and then Dynex are miles ahead of anything on the market and is the only product that he reccomends and will stand by on Rigging.
I then had the Idea to ask him how much he is selling Dynex Dux 7mm for? 5.40 euro (approx 10 NZD) a meter was the reply.less with a cashy .Now 4wd bits is selling it for $14.39 so a saving of $200 for the 40m that I want to get woop woop, got permission from the wife so even better.

note: not getting at 4wd bits it is just he is giving me a bloody good price and shipping is less to spain from the factory.

however befor I buy I seem to remember somewhere in the winch challenge rules that you need 8mm winch rope minimum.
now 7mm Dux has a breaking strain of almost twice what the winch I will be using if I decide to do club class. 7500 kg for the Dux and winch is 4300kg(9500lb) so I dont see how they can say I need to go bigger on the cable.
Or is the rule 8mm Steel cable or a cable of equal or greater strenght?

I like going for the dux as it lets me have a thinner cable which means more length and more winching time on the lower wraps which in turn means more pulling power. Also have the piece of mind of knowing it is strong as shit.

One note he did say when using Dynex/or any brand is you really needs eyes on the end so as not to side load the strands, he said the only breakages he has seen have been from side loading the cable. He also suggested adding a web to the eye as he has seen them collapse under full load which then snaps the cable.

Any thoughts or comments most welcome before I splash out and buy. Cheers.

confusion reigns

Sorry forgot to mention I have a lada Niva with a GEW5000lb winch weighing in at 1600kgs so would be struggling to put 7500kg on the rope even with a double line pull. The lada will tear apart befor I reach breaking strain.

The reason I am thinking of upgrading my present GEW5000 to a EWX 9500Q is so I don't have to double line pull and will get lots of meters of 7mm on the drum. Thinking that I will always be winching on first two layers so will get close to maximum pull from the winch if required and cause the Niva is so light most pulls will be fast low load pulls. This is just an option to swap winches but if I do I want to keep the Dix 7mm for it.

how does double line pull put double the stress on the rope? on the actual pully itself?

obviously if the winch stalls out at 9500 and you have a double line pull you will have 9500 on each half of the rope?

I ran dynex winch rope for a year before I sold the pig. It's still on there to my knowledge. Couldn't fault it. Lays alot easier in the drum too as it is round. Has an outer covering as well, that will do a better job keeping grit out. My understanding of double line winching is that it takes twice as long but halves the load on the winch.
Al

Don't buy an overbraid rope as you will notice everyone in the comp scene that went that way is quite quickly going back to 12 strand.
7mm is legal under 4x4 Challenges rules but 6mm isn't.

I'm all confused now thats what comes of posting before coffee... going to find a reference doc...

On a double line pull, the only component experiencing double the line tension will be the block.

The line itself will experience only what the winch can apply to it, excluding any non-ideal loadings applied by the block pulley etc.

Okay sorry I was confused... was using what we had to do on Sunday as a reference we had:

Truck --(Winch Rope)-(winch extension)---[Snatch Block] Double Line to Winch.

Snatch block still gives you double rated power, but that load is normally on the snatch block and anchor point.

darinz wrote:Don't buy an overbraid rope as you will notice everyone in the comp scene that went that way is quite quickly going back to 12 strand.
7mm is legal under 4x4 Challenges rules but 6mm isn't.

what reasons are they going away from the overbraid ropes?

The 4x4 challenges rules say... "It must be a minimum size of 8 mm or have a minimum load rating of 4,500kgs" ...so you're ok so long as your rope complies with one of those requirements.

Sadam_Husain wrote:

darinz wrote:Don't buy an overbraid rope as you will notice everyone in the comp scene that went that way is quite quickly going back to 12 strand.
7mm is legal under 4x4 Challenges rules but 6mm isn't.

what reasons are they going away from the overbraid ropes?

Speaking personally - I have the overbraid and wouldn't get it again. Not that it's not a good product - but when it does break (I have a PTO winch - I realise rope breakage is less likely with an electric which will stall first), the overbraid is an absolute bastard to strip back to splice the rope. Also, the overbraid adds extra diameter, reducing the length that can fit on the drum...

Can't speak about over braid other than to say the overbraid rope I won was stiff heavy and thick.

I use 8mm Dynex from Cookes and it survived 2 years of winch comps and club trips, was only washed a couple of times and even then only broke as I reached stall on the 6hp 8274 I run. It broke on or about the fairlead too. Seen Amsteel break at every event.

I can't complain about the run I had out of it and have a nice shiney new 60m waiting to go on for Nor west.

At the price you can get it in spain, i'd say break out the credit card buy heaps and make a bit off the top when you get home covering the cost of your own rope

cool looks like I will get the 7mm Dux then! as will be future winch upgrade compatible and allowed in winch challenge.

Will be putting 30 m on the winch and make a 10 m winch extension from the left over.

the rigging guy also said the overbraid is a waste of time. he said UV does not break down the fibers that much, On the yachts the whole length of the cable is exposed everyday to sun and they last 5 years before replacement and then it is only for safety.

thanks for the comments guys. happy chappy

Well I ended up getting 40 M of 6mm grey(best color against UV supposedly) Dynex Dux with no overbraid which with a breaking strain of 6800kg is just below the 7 mm of 7500kg.

So I should still be in winch challenge rules and have even more layers on the drum

It looks mighty small though to be hanging off a vert cliff on, but it is rated at 4.25 x the weight of the Niva then it is more than enough.

thanks for all your comments guys made my choice easier.

I think albundy got his rope as a prize for whacking the 'KISS ME' rock in the reefton challenge.Best act ive seen for a long time.classic Al.