SW4006

A few weeks ago, while it was still cool, I respooled my winch cable under tension. I cleaned and oiled it as well.

Finally, the sun has come out. I went out and looked at the cable... completely loose, expanded in the heat. I will have to respool again before I can use the winch...or unspool it to make a pull.

So, just a friendly reminder, now that it's getting warm... make sure your cable is spun tightly.

Ario56

Thanks for the heads up. I just mounted my winch a few weeks ago and this never even crossed my mind. I'll be checking it today after work.

Curiosity

never thought of this... just checked my cable and after a few 90 degree days + intense sun, its loose. I'll be respooling it tonight after work. Thanks for the heads up

JKU Rubicon

buy a synth. rope. You don't need to do that anymore

NH-JK

That's good advise! Especially since it's........summa summa suuuuummmmmaaaaaa tyyyyyymmmee!!!! Hahahahah you know you know that song!!!!

adamisadam

good info.

here's another tip: don't oil your cables. all it does is attract dirt.

I checked into this, as well as cable v. synthetic issue, this winter when I got my winch. I was writing an installation article on the subject to I had access to top Warn execs, and interviewed air force personnel who use cables extensively. short answer: don't oil you cables. long answer is availble here in older threads if you search for them.

thanks again for the re-spool tip!

opdsgt

Doesn't heat cause expansion? And wouldn't themral expansion -if anything- create a tighter wound winch cable rather than the other way around?

To the OP -> how are you spooling? Under a decent load?

After use, I spool the last ~100 feet of my cable, pulling uphill to a fixed object. My cable is neat and tight and is never impacted by temp changes.

No disrespect, but I can only surmize you didn't spool correctly to begin with . . .

Suffolk JK

Haven't free spooled tightly in over a year and pull almost 3-4 times a month and it's still going strong? Some things that people get wound up about...

opdsgt

In fairness Suffolk, a tightly spooled winch cable prevents your cable from embedding itself in underlying layers while the line is under tension, so we can't poo-poo the practice.

Btw, "free spooling" isn't the term for preloading your cable. Free spooling is simply disengaging the clutch pack on the winch and pulling a free cable to your anchor point.

FWIW

adamisadam

x2

Also, if the cable expands, it will get looser and allow the cable to get embedded into underlying layers. The whole reason we spool up under tension in the first place.