What is the leading cause of winch line breakage? Rope & wire. Is it that the hook gets run into the the fairlead and stressing it? I was wondering if that is the case, would it be better to use a rope that has some amount of stretch. A winch setup for just plows that has a clutch?
theres a rope specifically made for this purpose. warn makes some, i think moose does too. check out rocky mountain atv, i think they sell it. if not I can dig thru some of my literature and find it.
I know about the synthetic line that is stronger than wire and has very little stretch. It seems to me this is good line for general winch use, but if it is breaking because of the hook being jammed into the fairlead constantly, i would think that a rope that has some stretch would be more of a benefit. It's not like your lifting a lot of weight. If any of you guys do much fishing/trolling, you know what i mean, you need a shock cord between your "no stretch" line and your lure. If you don't, the shock of the fish striking will break your line every time.
One of the biggest causes of rope AND cable failure is the fair lead getting nicked up. The ever so smallest nick will eat up a rope in just a days use. It's best to use a open fair lead without rollers when using rope or at least replace the original fair lead with a new one.
There is a company offering fairleads made of UHMW (Polyethylene) and also replacement rollers for your current fairlead. Combined with a Winch Saver puck, this would solve your problems of fraying worn rope/wire. I thought that there was more breakage at the eye although i could be wrong.
Moose Country is also offering a roller fairlead with a large roller on the bottom to help with the angle of the line.
As was stated, nicks in fairlead rollers cause a lot of cable and rope failures. When ever I have replaced cable for rope I swap the top and bottom rollers.
One of the reasons cable fails when used to operate a snowplow is the tight radius going over the bottom roller. The bigger rollers help but don't completely solve the problem. Years ago I even built a pulley that would slip over the bottom roller to increase the radius. Again, it helped but didn't solve the problem.
Years ago I tried some of the short ropes made for operating a snowplow. They always failed at the braid of the loop. Found out later from a rope manufacturer that the company braiding the ropes wasn't doing it right which caused the failures.
Several years ago I figured out how to attach rope to the drum so I would end up with 4 lines coming off the drum. It doesn't require any braiding and I have never had a failure since.
rope isnt a good idea. the same as synthetic winch cable...when it gets wet and freezes, its a useless block on the front of your atv. check out the new topic of the can am outlander 800. he has rigged up a perfect solution
I have a 450 HONDA and I mounted my winch on the outside front of my racks so the cable was pointing straight down with only about 4' of cable, never had a problem and the winch doesnt work as hard.
I use synthetic with my snowblower and never had a problem with it. Like the others said, make sure you put a new fairlead on when changing from cable to synthetic.
also - may want to check out e-bay and grab a synthetic 7' cable - rather than eating up the expensive 50' cable that you want to use for actual winching the rest of the year
the issue is ussually pulling in the rope too tight not always the hook hitting the fairlead the plow may be fully up against the bottom of the frame and you may still be pulling and that only stretches it and snaps it
When your cable winds in it goes through the fairlead and under the bottom of the spool. If you wind it where the cable winds in and goes to the top of the spool, (backwards) it should make the angle much much less and not break it. When the cable comes off the bottom of the spool , through the fairlead and down to the pushtube it is basically going 180 degrees. Off the top of the spool would be maybe 30 degrees. I have an actuator to raise and lower the plow so I never tried it to know if it actually kept the cable from breaking.
I plowed about 35 homes with a Rhino for 5 years, went through a lot of cable. The problem is that the fairlead rollers do not roll so since you are only using a few inches of cable over and over, it will rub back and both against the fairlead roller and break quickly. My fix was to to get a real high quality pulley that you can hang off the bumper so so he cable comes out of the winch up through the pulley with out using the fairlead then down to the plow. This works great and you will not break the cable any more. The rope is ok for just a home but if you nose it alot, it will break quicker than the cable.
__________________ 07' Brute 750i (Black):
-Viper Max. 3000 (Roller fairlead and 12' Syn. for plowing) with American MFG. 60" Std Eagle plow, 26" -Bighorns on ITP beadlocks, Amber LED "Parking lights", 5k D.I.Y. HID headlights.
-Bunch more mods for the trail/power
08' Dodge Ram PowerWagon (6 Speed, Laramie): Few Mods
Leading cause is when you have two quads tied together with 15ft of slack of the winch line but sitting bumper to bumper and on "go" you both drive in opossite direction of each other as fast as you can. Dont ask how i know
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1999 F-250 4 Door, Short flat bed, 7.3l 6spd,8' Western Pro Plow w/ wings
I take my cable off and replace it with a two inch wide strap (from an old ratchet strap). Only use like 10 feet. Cut the end to a taper to allow it to be pushed through the drum on the winch. Works perfect. Much cheaper than replacing a cable. After plow season I put the cable back on. On my third season with the same strap and still in great shape.
I take my cable off and replace it with a two inch wide strap (from an old ratchet strap). Only use like 10 feet. Cut the end to a taper to allow it to be pushed through the drum on the winch. Works perfect. Much cheaper than replacing a cable. After plow season I put the cable back on. On my third season with the same strap and still in great shape.
The end already has A hook that you can keep from slipping off by using tape or A zip tie.
I also use stuff called muletape....If it goes bad I just cut it off and re-tie.
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