Frequently Asked Questions

Yes you can. With a little practice it takes as little as 15 minutes to repair a broken line. The easiest way to correctly repair a cut rope is to get a rope Repair kit and splice the line back together with those tools and instructions.

The best way to learn to splice properly and safely is by using the right tools. We have a Splice Kit that has all the right tools to get started including a piece of practice rope and official instructions.

Yes you can. With a little practice it takes as little as 10 minutes to splice an eye. The easiest way to correctly repair a cut rope is to get a rope Repair kit and splice the line back together with those tools and instructions.

The best way to learn to splice properly and safely is by using the right tools. We have a Splice Kit that has all the right tools to get started including a piece of practice rope and official instructions.

Yes you can, however, you do need to be careful to keep your synthetic winchline away from the steel roller housing/frame, if your vehicle is at extreme up or down angles while side winching it is possible to cut the winchline on the sharp steel housing. Whether you use a roller fairlead or a hawse fairlead you always need to careful that your line does not come in contact with sharp edges on your bumper.

We have tried to do that without success . Provided you are using equipment in good working order and based on our extensive testing it is not possible to get the line pinched between the rollers or between the roller and the steel roller housing.

By switching from steel cable to a synthetic winchline you will reduce the weight as follows:
– 5/16″ x 100′ of Steel Cable weights 18 lbs vs. 2.7 lbs for Synthetic, saving 15.3 lbs.
– 5/16″ x 125′ of Steel Cable weights 22.5 lbs vs. 3.375 lbs for Synthetic, saving 19.1 lbs
– 5/16″ x 150′ of Steel Cable weights 27 lbs vs. 4 lbs for Synthetic, saving 23 lbs.
– 3/8″ x 100′ of Steel Cable weights 26 lbs vs. 3.6 lbs for Synthetic , saving 22.4 lbs.

By switching from a stock roller fairlead that weigh about 13 lbs vs. the Aluminum Fairlead that weigh about 1.5 pounds.

Since synthetic winchlines are so light , they can’t store as much kinetic energy as heavy steel cables. Therefore the synthetic line will not carry as much force like heavy steel cable will when it breaks under load. You can test it out by comparing steel cable to a wet napkin and a synthetic winchline to a dry napkin, throw a dry napkin as hard as you can it will only go a few feet, but soak it in water and now you can throw it much farther.  When stee or wire cables break they rotate as they fly throught he air because they are twisted compared to synthetic being braided.  Braided ropes do not store this sort of rotational energy.

The number one reason is from abrasion, where the rope has come in contact with the fairlead mount or bumper. The most common culprit is the bumper manufacturers do not always provide enough clearance or opening for the winchline to pass through untouched before it goes through the fairlead. The solution is to grind the opening larger to allow the fairlead mount opening to be at least 1/4″ larger than the opening of the fairlead. In particular on the bottom and on the sides. In our opinion this reason accounts for probably 98-99% of the rope failures.  See Illustration at teh bottom of this page.

The remaining reasons are:

• Allowing ropes to come in contact with sharp rocks under load
• Buying too long a winchline for your winch
• Not properly installing the winchline under load. Loose winchlines can result in backlashing. This is where the rope gets stuck in between itself which can cause hifh friction and abrasion
• Overheating winches, in particular winches with internal brakes in the winch drums
• Using winchlines for sucking axles down (rock crawlers) by threading the line through the front of the fairlead then down ot the axle. This will prematurely wear out the line