What's the advantage of synthetic winch line vs steel cable?

mrblaine said:
The technology is there to make outstanding winches for us. The only problem to solve is an additional hydraulic pump and where to do that. If I were the winch master on some hill tasked with dragging rig after rig up a steep muddy hill, I'd certainly have a hydraulic version with a 2 stage pump and enough horsepower to make it work. High when you need it, lots of low end grunt when the load comes up.

It is unfortunate that the Jeep versions are so under designed and engineered. There does exist a need for them.
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Something with a constant pressure / speed pump and a variable speed, tilting block motor maybe? That would do it nicely, and it's old technology. No gear train required. Motor and control levers on one end, brake on the other. Suitable drum in the middle. Simple.

The speed and power would be constantly variable.
 
StG58 said:
....

It's too bad the marine winch makers don't make Jeep winches. Something like a three speed Barlow on the front bumper would be to cool for school. Fast line speeds for when you want it and massive power when you need it.
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Like this?
 
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...or this-
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Three speed self tailing. Comes in manual, electric or hydraulic versions.
 
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Head Lice said:
If string is superior to wire, why hasn't the logging industry embraced it ? We use multiple winches . . . guy lines, mainline, haul-back, strawlines, tag lines etc.
Your slamming of another member says a whole lot about you . . . . :(
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If you are involved in the logging industry you know exactly why synthetic is not used. I’ve been working for the forest service for many years now and can tell you off the top of my head that a few factors come into play. Synthetic costs 2-5 times as much. In fact Oregon State University recognized the potential of synthetic rope and began field trials and laboratory testing where they found out a few things. The adage “you can’t push a rope” was confirmed with this carriage winch design for spooling off the skidding line. The two-speed winch caused back- spooling hang-ups on the drum because the carriage design depends on the stiffness of steel wire rope to push out the slack. The lack of stiffness in synthetic rope caused the BomanTM winch to backspool, but when the rigging crew applied constant tension during lateral slackpulling, backspooling was eliminated. The logging industry uses steel cable for specific reasons, which don’t apply to us. It’s foolish to compare them.
 
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I use steel because I am old school have always had an winch and have always had steel cables. I don't know how to pick out or take care of synthetic. I cannot say if steel is better than synthetic or worse, because I have no experience with it.

I have only had one problem with the winch in my whole wheelin career (mostly in the PNW) one night a friend of mine (and I am sure this was pre-synthetic anyway) was stuck in some deep ruts and we were trying to winch sideways. It was a full sized blazer with two batteries and no isolator so we jumped the batteries with jumper cables and winched the full 16K lbs out of it with a snatch block. After getting the cable as tight as it would possibly go and still not budge the blazer the side roller let go and tore through some trees. Luckily we all got missed, but we learned pretty quickly how dangerous winching could be.

After that we all put switches inside of the cab. We do other boring stuff that I won't bore you with, but we have never had any issues since. I am assuming winching is just as dangerous no matter what type of rope/cable type you are winching with. For now I can't argue whats better, but I don't think you are that bad off with a cable line.

I surely wouldn't replace a brand new cable for a rope, even if you can convince me I would like it better. I am not saying it is not better, but for the money you spend on the winch use the cable till it rusts, frays or kinks. Then when you replace it weigh the options then.

Just try and be as safe as you can winching with whatever you have.

Meanwhile I will try and find someone that has a rope winch that we can mess with, so he/she can convince me that it is better than my good ole steel!

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