Just hoping to get some recommendations on some synthetic winch lines. I know people speak very highly of TRE I am considering it but the price point is just killing me. Is there any options slightly more affordable that are still of good quality?
Synthetic winch line for Warn M8000
- Thread starter Dahbarez
- Start date
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- synthetic rope warn winch
Good quality 3/8" synthetic rope you can rely on is not inexpensive. It's a safety item and not where to pinch pennies. Being in a Jeep winching yourself or someone else up a steep difficult climb is not where you want to be second-guessing yourself for having gone cheap on the winch rope.
Jerry's point above should not be taken lightly. Years ago I bought a cheaper line. On a pull up a steep rock the standard thimble bent and distorted to the point where it was almost collapsed completely. Although it held, I ultimately ended up cutting the line and splicing in a Viking safety thimble.
I subsequently used that line and Viking thimble for years, and it's now on another members Jeep. Although the Viking thimble is no longer available, at least I couldn't find one, the TRE safety thimble is the exact same style. Bottom line, with winch lines there's more to consider than just the rope itself!
Edit: I did find Viking rope with a Viking thimble, but did not see just the thimble for sale. Also, in my search for one I discovered that the Viking thimble was designed by Blaine Johnson!
I subsequently used that line and Viking thimble for years, and it's now on another members Jeep. Although the Viking thimble is no longer available, at least I couldn't find one, the TRE safety thimble is the exact same style. Bottom line, with winch lines there's more to consider than just the rope itself!
Edit: I did find Viking rope with a Viking thimble, but did not see just the thimble for sale. Also, in my search for one I discovered that the Viking thimble was designed by Blaine Johnson!
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Yes it was and now Ricky at TRE sells it. Also, if it doesn't have the pear shaped eye, it isn't the TRE or actual Viking version.
I did notice that the Viking and TRE 1 model look very similar. It also looks like the TRE version 2 smoothed out the inner eyelet edges. My guess is that this was to better accommodate soft shackles. Regardless, I picked up a rope and TRE 2 thimble from Ricky a few weeks ago, but haven't installed it yet.
More than a bit of smoothing. The eye was made thicker so the radius could be enlarged for soft shackles.
I’ve got a TRE thimble I’ve not installed.
But my rope on my winch is a couple years old so I’m thinking just buy a new rope with thimble and sell the take off rope with loose thimble. Probably my spring project.
I wonder what a barely used 3 year old rope is worth.
But my rope on my winch is a couple years old so I’m thinking just buy a new rope with thimble and sell the take off rope with loose thimble. Probably my spring project.
I wonder what a barely used 3 year old rope is worth.
Probably better to just keep it and make a winch rope extension. I wished I would have done this previously, because I ended up needing one. The rope would be much easier to carry than a 2"x20' strap I have.
That is an option, I’d prefer to not add any unnecessary weight if there are other options.
This ^^^^
You not only don't need 100' of 3/8" synthetic winch line on your M8000, you risk damage to your winch with that much line.
85' is enough. Better to carry a winch line extension for those rare occasions when you need more.
The photo below shows 85' of TRE winch line, freshly installed and stretched. Another 15' would fill the drum all the way up to the support rods with no room to spare (roughly 1 1/2 more rows).
Just imagine what could happen on an angled pull with line bunching up on one side. The result of your winch line bending the support rods and forcing the drum supports off the ends of the winch drum won't be pretty - or cheap to repair.
Darsmith
TJ Enthusiast
If I recall TRE offers a discount for forum members. I called them before I bought my synthetic line and got the discount. BTW I have 85' of TRE synthetic on my M8000.