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cruiseroutfit wrote:I have never seen a wire rope break, I hope I never do as I have seen plenty of pics... However I have seen several synthetic ropes break... enough that I continue to run steel. There are places for both of them by all means, but for the type of stuff I do, I don't think the synthetic would hold up too long.

The synthetics that I have seen break were all showing signs prior, they do not fair well against rocks, trees, etc IMHO. I have also seen them "melt" to the drum to the point they couldn't be unwrapped.

It really depends on the places you intend to use them... for a self-recovery setup, go syntehtic as it is safer. For a multi-purpose (move rocks, trees, roll over rigs, winch "around" corners, etc... I prefer the steel. However, I have vowed to try a synthetic on my rig (we have run them on comp rigs for the past couple seasons).

michaelgroves wrote:Synthetic is better than steel cable in almost all respects. (I am referring to "proper" UHMWPE ropes, not webbing or other types of synthetic that you sometimes see on winches).

Advantages:

* Safer - harmless if it breaks
* Safer - frayed steel cable will rip your hands
* Stronger (size for size)
* Lighter - this is a big one for expeditions
* Easier to handle - makes complex rigging and re-rigging much quicker
* Doesn't damage itself when criss-crossed on the drum
* Can be spliced if it breaks
* Doesn't rust


Disadvantages:

* Expensive
* Vulnerable to cutting and abrasion - care needed when rigging
* Apparent softness makes users forget basic winch safety (gloves, hands clear etc.)
* Unsuitable for hot winches - if the drum gets very hot (some winches use the drum to dissipate heat), the rope can melt


Obviously, there are circumstances under which steel is better - for example if you can't avoid chafing, or you have a hot winch (in which case the synthetic option doesn't exist).

Unless it gets snagged, cut or melted, synthetic rope will take much more tension than steel cable of the same diameter, without breaking. More importantly, if it does break, there are no lethal ends flying around.

Jim Allen wrote:Sooner or later you'll need a winch, either yours or somebody else's. Until quite recently, you had only one choice of the type of winch rope... namely wire rope. Now, synthetic ropes are more available and becoming popular. Is it right for you? Read on!

The use of synthetic rope for winch line on 4x4s has grown by leaps and bounds since its introduction in the late 1990s. Though it still has whizbang appeal in the sport of four-wheeling, as well as controversial aspects, synthetic rope itself is really nothing new. The marine and fishing industries have been using synthetic rope for decades. Successfully!

What is synthetic rope? Well, its created in a chem lab rather than a foundry and is made up of complex formulations of polymers. Do you really want to know more than that? Not many of us are chemists, so lets stick to what it does and its general characteristics. There are several types of synthetic winch rope, the exact compositions of which are hidden behind brand names like Superline, Amsteel, Technora, Vectran, Spectra, Plasma and perhaps others. The differences between the types are significant but would take a book to describe. The similarity they all share is braided, 12- strand construction.

Synthetic winch ropes offer many advantages, not the least of which is light weight. A 120-foot roll of 5/16 wire rope weighs about 28 pounds with a hook attached. A 120-foot roll of synthetic 5/16-inch rope weighs five pounds with a hook. Synthetic is “dead,” i.e. it does not stretch or store much kinetic energy. Unlike wire rope, if synthetic breaks, it generally drops dead onto the ground and does not snap back much. It’s often stronger than an equivalent wire rope and has appendagefriendly surfaces. Gloves are not as vitally necessary as they are with wire rope which can tear your hands to shreds. It also floats and in an emergency, you can tie a knot in it. Knots do weaken it, but if you perform a long splice at a break, it’s as good as new. Long splices and eye splices can also be done with wire rope, but are much more difficult to perform.

Synthetic rope has a few disadvantages when compared to traditional wire rope. It’s more susceptible to chafing damage on rocks, though that is addressed in some cases by an outer sheath and operator care. It has a high initial cost. No getting around that. One of the more talked about potential problems has to do with synthetic’s ability to withstand heat.

The common planetary winch has a one-way brake built into the center of the winch drum. When spooling out under power, i.e. lowering the vehicle under power, the brake will generate some serious heat over a long period. Winch manufacturers caution against this lowering practice and advise doing it only in short spurts of about 20 feet. In most cases, if you get the drum hot enough to permanently hurt the rope, you may have also toasted the brakes on the winch. Rope damage, however, can go unseen on that first layer next to the drum.

Synthetic ropes are rated for temperature resistance in two ways, critical temperature and melting point. The melting point is obvious, it turns to goo, but critical temperature of a synthetic rope is the point where the rope begins to lose some of its tensile strength (around 400 degrees according to one source.) The loss is not permanent when the temperature stays below the melting point and the rope will regain its

strength upon cooling. How much strength is lost at critical temperature? Some sources list up to 20 percent. There may also be issues of “heat aging,” whereby repeated heating and cooling cycles cause a permanent loss of strength over time. Ok, so it wears out over time, but so does wire rope.

There are several ways around the temperature dilemma. Some winch ropes, namely Vectron and Technora, have a high temperature resistance. They trade that for lower tensile strength. One cure is to have enough of the high temp rope spliced onto the stronger rope to cover the drum area. It could even be a larger diameter rope to compensate for the strength difference. Yes, you can splice larger diameter rope onto smaller. An easy partial solution is to place an insulating sheath of nylon over that first layer. Add that to some common sense and you are a bit ahead of the issue.

Overall, do you really need to worry about temperature and synthetics? Anything to do with safety is important, but think about it realistically and from your unique winching point of view. The problem depends on your winch. Planetary winches are the worst culprits for heat generation. If you have a spur gear Warn 8274, you have no problem at all because the brake is external. Worm gear winches like those from Ramsey, Superwinch or Pierce won’t have the problem either since they need less braking action because of the one-way operation of their drivetrain.

Bottom line; ask yourself how often you use your winch improperly and get it hot enough to hurt the rope? The solution is simple; power out in short spurts as the winch manufacturer asks and don’t let the drum reach the rope’s critical temp. If you often find the need to power out under load, you have choices to make and there are good solutions as noted. Overall, I think the issue is somewhat overstated for 90 percent of the winchers out there. Wire rope is still the best choice for some winchers.

OK, so what about chafing? Well, wire rope would win a "chafe-to-the-death" competition, that’s undeniable. Whats also undeniable is that even though wire would win, it would still be damaged and would need replacement. Bottom line is that you need to take the same care to guard against abrasion damage no matter what rope you use. Some synthetic winch retailers offer their ropes fitted with a movable nylon sheath that can be slid along the rope and placed in any spots where chafing could occur.

placed in any spots where chafing could occur. Cost may be the biggest factor against synthetic. For the hard core ’wheeler, especially in competition, synthetic offers an edge and that edge may well be worth the money. For the occasional winch user, synthetic may not provide a worthwhile balance of cost vs performance, at least not enough to replace a perfectly good wire rope. That could change as the cost of wire rope seems to be rising along with the price of steel overall, while synthetic prices seem to be headed down.

HenryJ wrote:It took nearly two years but, I finally talked myself into ordering some synthetic winchline. http://www.Sierraexpeditions.com had a pretty decent deal.
I went with 3/8"x100' Viking Trail Line.