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Synthetic Winch Rope
Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2011 8:27 am
by mbw
Hi,
I bought 50m length of 9mm dyneema rope for my PTO.
I spooled it on last night, managed to get all 50m on, but only just.
Few questions.
Should you leave a gap on the drum? If so how much? Maybe need to cut a few meters off.
Also wondering what the best method is for spooling new rope on is, to prevent rope pulling through the layer under tension.
Lastly, can you still a roller fairlead for rope?
Re: Synthetic Winch Rope
Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2011 8:42 am
by Sadam_Husain
If your drum is pretty full you've just got to watch when your winching on an angle that the cable dosent bunch up too much on the side and climb up over the side of the drum and jam up (or if you've got a nissan winch break the side of the drum off

), I've used standard dyneema and overbraid and the standard stuff tends to flatten out more under tension and dosent cut down through the layers as bad as overbraid does, your roller fairlead should be ok so long as the rollers are in good nick and theres nowhere the cable can get snagged, hawse fairleads are cheap as chips now anyway I think the last alloy one I brought was about 50 bucks

Re: Synthetic Winch Rope
Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2011 9:14 am
by mbw
Cheers,
I might try re spool it on with tension and see how much space is left on drum before cutting. Mind you the spare rope could always be used as an extension.
Re: Synthetic Winch Rope
Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2011 9:18 am
by DieselBoy
You get 100's of reply's on this thread
To spool your rope on, you need to attach the rope to an unmovable object, put the hand brake on to about half, and starting with half a layer on the drum spooled on by hand, winch the rest on dragging the truck on the hand brake.
If your in the bush and you need to spool it on loose after a winch or after you've got to much rope out, criss-cross the rope on the drum. It looks messy as fuk, but the rope can't cut down as the criss-crossed layers under it holds it out.
If it does cut in, wrap a loop around your tow hook and get your navi to hold the loose end of the rope while you spool the winch in reverse and it pulls the trapped rope out.
Rollers are best.
Others like Hawse fairleads. With a Hawse your dragging your expensive new rope that's full of grit and crud across a solid object that doesn't move, cutting and grinding away at your rope, and adding extra friction and resistance to the winching operation. If your winch is fully loaded you might be grinding your dirty grit and mud laden rope into the Hawse with over 8000kg's of pressure. That's gotta cause the grit to start cutting the fibers and reduce the life of the rope!!!
With a roller set up, they roll under the rope as it comes in, so your not dragging your dirty rope over something every time you use it.
Re: Synthetic Winch Rope
Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2011 9:21 am
by Sadam_Husain
you might want to try out the whole 50m for a bit before you decide to chop it up or not, when your winching you've usually got 10m, 20m or more spooled out (sometimes the whole lot with a double line pull) so that should take a fair bit off your drum while your winching
Re: Synthetic Winch Rope
Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2011 11:17 am
by Drurban
If you are concerned about the length I would make some uprights on your bar that way you can wind what you need on then and dont have to worry about winding all the rope on the drum, also it is good when you are out winching and dont want to wind it all back in.
Just a suggestion.
Re: Synthetic Winch Rope
Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2011 7:44 pm
by kaukapakapa
one thing I have done is layed a short piece horizontally along a couple of layers below the top layer. this stops the top layers sinking into the lower ones. Its a real bummer to get it out of its been under very heavy load. You dont need to use Dynema as thats very expensive. Any rope will do but if you are using it a lot you need a couple of spare pieces.
Re: Synthetic Winch Rope
Posted: Sat Nov 12, 2011 6:55 am
by Hoodoo
And rubber rollers are available for the fairlead.
Regards,
Re: Synthetic Winch Rope
Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2011 2:04 pm
by darinz
kaukapakapa wrote:one thing I have done is layed a short piece horizontally along a couple of layers below the top layer. this stops the top layers sinking into the lower ones. Its a real bummer to get it out of its been under very heavy load. You dont need to use Dynema as thats very expensive. Any rope will do but if you are using it a lot you need a couple of spare pieces.
To not use Dyneema rope is dangerous. Dyneema SK75 is the fibre that basically all suitable synthetic rope is made from. eg Dynamica, Amsteel, Dynex etc etc.
If you are using something else then it has too much stretch OR is not strong enough for the give dimension.
So use cheap Dyneema if you like but it will break alot but don't use anything else. (apart from maybe a new fibre that is available from the US that is almost the same as Dyneema)
Re: Synthetic Winch Rope
Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2011 4:32 pm
by Ralfie
darinz wrote:kaukapakapa wrote:one thing I have done is layed a short piece horizontally along a couple of layers below the top layer. this stops the top layers sinking into the lower ones. Its a real bummer to get it out of its been under very heavy load. You dont need to use Dynema as thats very expensive. Any rope will do but if you are using it a lot you need a couple of spare pieces.
To not use Dyneema rope is dangerous. Dyneema SK75 is the fibre that basically all suitable synthetic rope is made from. eg Dynamica, Amsteel, Dynex etc etc.
If you are using something else then it has too much stretch OR is not strong enough for the give dimension.
So use cheap Dyneema if you like but it will break alot but don't use anything else. (apart from maybe a new fibre that is available from the US that is almost the same as Dyneema)
Darin, Have another read ............ then re read it again before jumping ........!!
He was referring to the small pieces to lay over the drum layers to stop the rope pulling down and jamming between layers and not the actual winch rope.
Re: Synthetic Winch Rope
Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2011 7:28 pm
by mbw
Hey guys
I have another length of 40m of Dyneema cable for sale if anyone's interested,
That's 40m x 9mm for $300.
Re: Synthetic Winch Rope
Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2011 8:15 pm
by kaukapakapa
be very careful with Dyneema when it gets a bit old. It can still appear to be in good condition but it can just fail and break. I have used it up to 22mm which has a reasonable SWL but it can fail. You can at least see wire and other fibres failing. Dyneema is good but it does have its down side.
to the guy that didnt read my 1st entry. Do you want to borrow my glasses or did you just want to let all know what an expert you are on the subject ?