I'm looking at the Warn M8000 and I've found it with 2 different types of fairleads. The hawse (which is more expensive) and roller.

I've never owned a winch before so have no working knowledge of either. Can someone tell me the pro's vs cons of the two? Is one better for certain situations where the other would be better suited for something else?

TIA

 

The hawse is aluminum and can only be used with sythetic rope NOT wire rope. The M8000 comes with wire, I would suggest sticking with the roller fairlead. Hope this helps out....

 

My bad, the black one can be used with both wire and synthetic but I think the shiny stuff looks better on the front. The only benefit to the hawse in that case is space conservation..... Your decision....

 

It looks to me that the cable or synth rope would last longer with the roller as opposed to dragging across a flat edge.

Just thought there would be more to the hawse that I didn't see other than size.

OT & Weird- I was just listening to AC/DC's Back in Black prior to coming back and checking the board

 

Both will work fine and both will work with steel rope. If you get a synth line to replace your steel rope and wish to run a hawse, you will want to get a new aluminum one to help prevent abrasions to the line. If you want to use rollers with a synth line, just make sure that the rollers are new and not mared from previous steel rope use. If they are used, you can always get new thermoplastic replacement rollers.

As far as which one is better goes, a lot of this is personal preference and I prefer rollers as they provide more clearance and do a much better job at extreme side pulls.

 

Thanks WOL! I was thinking of different winching situations and just by looking at the two the roller appeared to (me anyway) to be a better option. The questions arose when the winch w/hawse was priced higher than the one w/roller, so I figured there was something I didn't know and needed/wanted to before making the purchase.

Thanks again guys!

 

Spooky!!! I'm not Angus Young:-) A good rule of thumb, aluminum and steel do not mix. Steel will always win, especially when there is friction is between them. I went to the manufacturers website for a little research, this is what I found:

Warn now offers new hawse fairleads: standard black and polished aluminum. The black unit is good for use with wire or synthetic rope on winches with a 4,000 lb. (1815 kg) pull capacity or greater. [B]The new polished-aluminum fairleads are designed to be used with synthetic rope only, and decrease the possibility of fraying.

I agree with WOL on the preference. Rollers are the way to go...

 

Thanks for the additional research. It's much appreciated.

 

So why doesn't warn offer their winches with syn rope and a hawse? It's a pain if you want to go to syn cause you have wire that you'll never use or sell...i think tmax is the only one that does this....

 

the warn 9.0RC comes with synthetic.