Can You Paint Steel Winch Cable?

DominicWilbrink

DominicWilbrink

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Lansing, MI, USA
I recently installed a Smittybilt XRC (9500lbs, model #97495) Winch. Does anyone know if you can paint the steel cable? Are there any pros/cons? I would mostly be doing this for cosmetic purposes, so I am mostly just asking in case doing something like that would damage the cable (I would think not, but it's outside my experience/expertise so I am asking here). I can't seem to find any information about this while searching online. Thanks in advance for your help.
 
There's no reason functionally you could not paint it. However, it would have to be some kind of flexible paint and you would have to unspool the cable to paint it, giving it a sufficiently long time to cure, then hope upon re-spooling that the flex would not cause it to flake.

A better idea would be to buy a synthetic rope in the color you wanted. Then sell your cable to recover some of the costs.
 
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Bootstrap budget coupled with infrequent use made the steel cable the correct option on this project. Synthetic is firmly on the wish list. Good point on the flex and flake. I'll take that under consideration. Thanks.
 
DominicWilbrink said:
Bootstrap budget coupled with infrequent use made the steel cable the correct option on this project. Synthetic is firmly on the wish list. Good point on the flex and flake. I'll take that under consideration. Thanks.
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Maybe just get a non-winch rope for now in the color you want. That might fit a budget, especially if not using it. Or a short winch rope like 50'. I see one below in the advertisement that's red for $31
 
Yep, you could indeed paint it. Just don’t expect the paint to hold up. The moment you unspool the cable it’s going to crack the paint, same with when you spool it up again.
 
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Thanks for the idea, I might just spray a bit of red on the last 15 feet or so of mine to remind me that I'm about out of length.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 
My .02 - I would not paint it. Paint is as good at keeping moisture in as it is keeping it out. Any water that wicks up the spaces in the cable threads is now trapped, accelerating corrosion. It would suck to see that last 15ft of red cable snap because it had rusted away under the paint. I know you might think that is an extreme example, but trust me, it is amazing how fast steel vanishes from rust.
 
Why paint cable when we can use brightly colored synthetic rope instead?
20231003_161309.jpg
 
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