This past summer my cable winchline finally seen it's last days so I purchased a synthetic line from viking. I spent a decent amount of time getting it nice and neat and tightly spooled on my drum.

The very first time I used it with a buddy, he told me to take it apart and re-spool it a bit more messy and loose. He told me that with synthetic lines, this is the proper way to do it.


Is there truth in this?

 

Mines always messy lol, I don't think it matters with synthetic.

 

Good to know, but wondering if there is a downside to having the line neat and tight when it is synthetic?

 

You want to take wide sweeps with syn as opposed to steel. The syn *can* sink down into the layer below it and make your life absolute hell. I wouldn't say messy, but certainly wide sweeps.

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Let it wind up naturally under a load. With it a little messy, it dries out better when it gets wet.

 

No truth to this at all, in fact, switching from steel wire to synthetic rope is not recommended as well. Your buddy has no clue what he's talking about.

Synthetic line needs to be wrapped on the drum under tension. This prevents the rope sinking into the lower layers and is critical to long rope life. Unspool your rope, anchor to a sturdy point, back your Jeep up until the slack is out of the rope, then spool in the winch while applying moderate brake pressure. Ensure that it is wrapping evenly across the drum. The last 6' can be powered in under no tension.

Switching from steel to synthetic is not recommended due to the steel cutting small grooves into your drum. The grooves will act as a serrated edge against your synthetic rope, there will also be small bits of wire left on drum and both will start to cut your synthetic rope.

 

That makes sense. Thanks

 

Well, lol ...it did sound weird to me when he told me. He said that t causes friction because it is so tight and freys.

As for my switch, the drum is a tad scratched but not a whole lot, and my rollers are brand new from daystar for synthetic.

Anyway, your vote is to spool it under tension, which is what I did and it automatically spooled it really neatly when it was under tension. Appreciate the input

Any other thoughts?

 

Hmm....

I've been running syn for years (about the last eight or so years) and my winches have gotten very regular use on the trail, so the following is experience talking, not something I read on the interwebz.

Spool it under LIGHT tension, just enough to insure it doesn't wrap back onto itself. Too much tension will net you EXACTLY what your buddy told you (but it will not hurt the line, it's just not good for it long term and will cause matting/crushing).

I am still running the same original syn line and it sits in the sun, in a marine environment.... other than discoloration and matting (from when others others have rolled up my line too tightly and recovery operations), it is perfectly serviceable.


Good luck.

 

Thanks I appreciate the response and sharing your experience