I have had my synthetic winch line for about 2 months now. I leave it "unloaded" but have had a friend tell me its bad to leave them with no tension on them. He has steel cable. Is it Ok to leave it dangling out an inch or should I hook it to a d-ring on the bumper and keep it tight? I would like to get the polyurethane base that hold it in place but will that stay seated on a Rubicon Express hawse fairlead? Any help would be great.

 

It is best to unwind the entire length of rope and respool it under tension. I believe every winch and line manufacturer tell you to do this. After spooling it on under tension, you should hook the rope end to a d-ring or something else on the bumper to keep it spooled tight. This is more so that you are ready if you need to winch rather than affecting how it survives storage on the spool. If you needed to winch something and the rope was not wound tight on the spool, it would dig into underlying layers and abrade the rope.

I'm not sure I know what you are talking about with the polyurethane base?

 

This is what I meant by the "polyurethane base". Is it also better to tighten it from a d-ring or just pull the hook to the fairlead?

 

/|\ I like that

 

I have never seen that base before, but it looks nifty.

I have always hooked my lead to a d-ring and then spooled in until it is just tight enough to keep the rope under tension. I imagine either that, or using that base would work. I would not suggest spooling in the raw hook straight into the fairlead, as it will scratch it up. And scratches in the fairlead will abrade the rope as it is used.

Happy winching!

---------
Paul

 

The plastic part for the hook is great and all, but are you using a roller fairlead? Most synth line users including me believe that a simple non-roller type is best for synth line.

In my experience after a few loaded pulls the inner wraps soft of smash themselves into a continuous mass (synth). Once you reach that state there is little or no tension required on the outer wraps to keep it that way. Anyone here with first hand experience notice something different

After a 13 pull day I have not used my winch for 3 months. I removed the hook after several walked away and simply loosened two wraps and tucked the first under the second. Months later and the whole thing is still wrapped tight.

It might look cool to have the line hooked to a D ring, but it is not needed with synth line. Even with UV protected line the light will degrade the exposed section. Left long enough it may fail when you need it most.