How to re-coil / tension a winch?

[Autoxdriver]

In case it's not obvious I'm a newbee to winches, just bought a TJ with one and the cable looks a mess. I was thinking of playing out all the loose cable and using the winch to pull the jeep uphill to retighten it. Is there some technique to getting it to spool correctly onto the drum? Total newb on this so any advice will be helpful. Thanks!

 

[TJ Jim]

Good question. I stretch mine all the way out, tie it to a tree slightly uphill from my Jeep. Then set the emergency brake and wind it up guiding it back and forth to spool it neatly. I also steer the jeep left and right a bit to help. I don’t set the ebrake all the way on, just enough to drag the tires a bit.

 

[Rubiconned]

Get a synthetic winch rope. So much easier...and safer.

 

[JMT]

Do as you said. If you have a friend to help it’s a lot easier. One of you can drive under tension and the other can guide it on the spool. Wear gloves, keep hands away from the fairlead, and make sure and use a tree strap.

Get some recovery gear from Wizard Recovery Gear:

Synthetic line
Thimble
Soft shackles
Tree strap
Gloves

That’s a good start. Read up on recovery and safety on here.

 

[Autoxdriver]

Hey thanks all for the advice. I will look into replacing it with synthetic line. It looks like the existing steel cable is kinked pretty good and that can't be safe.