Synthetic rope failure: Does it drop or recoil?

jjvw

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I finally snapped my synthetic winch rope. Did it violently recoil? Or did it quietly drop to the ground?
 
Keep them coming. Especially from those who haven't seen this happen in person. This is interesting stuff.

I'll share the answer in a bit. :)
 
Fell to the ground....Not! :LOL:
 
I’ve never seen it in person but I’d think it would recoil a bit but I’m a not violent matter. The rope is super light so there shouldn’t be a lot of inertia.

On another note do you think a steel cable would’ve broken with the same use?
 
And I was Warned about it, too!

Warned.... is that a pun on the winch line? My guess is it fell to the ground a hell of a lot less violent than a steel cable.

The big question is will you be replacing it with another synthetic line or swapping to cable?
 
I will stay with synthetic and will also keep this one for a good while longer. There is no reason to replace it.
Ok so I'll go with it broke near the anchor by chaffing on a rock then flew halfway back to the jeep.
 
Ok so I'll go with it broke near the anchor by chaffing on a rock then flew halfway back to the jeep.

I got stuck in the snow. In June!
20190620_171706.jpg


This is the same place as my profile pic. But almost exactly 4 years later.
 
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Here's my guess (and that's really all it is): The line recoiled. I'm thinking that there's some stretch to it, so it has stored up energy (I don't know what's the correct terminology). When it snaps, it recoils pretty quickly, as the line doesn't have much weight to it. Also, it's so flexible that it would be able to double back on itself fairly easily.

So there, that's my guess. Really looking forward to you filling us in on this one. ;)
 
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I’m going to say if it broke clean it did not have much recoil at all, when I have used mine and slacked it after loading, it drops immediately.
 
Assuming it snaped from the thimble area. (Because you are reusing the line) it might have made to back to the winch. But im guessing 15 feet from it.
 
That is an important question. That answer will be probably not. And I was Warned about it, too!
The amount of recoil is predicated upon several factors. If the load is high, the amount of recoil will be high. If the load is low, the recoil will be low. If the load did not cause the line to part and instead a combination of load and physical damage to the line like dragging across a sharp edge, then the amount of recoil is hard to predict except there will be some.

The only truth is there is recoil when the line parts under load.