Winch cable or rope

[Lurch]

So I broke my second winch cable this weekend dragging my brothers motor home into camp. I'm wondering what the advantage would be to run rope instead of cable. I know cable is way cheaper and available local but I have been seeing more and more rope out there and wanted to see what everyones thoughts were.

[Peanut]

We were running cable. But I bought Trashy a Winchline rope last year for our anniversary. I picked ours up at Offroad overstock . com and paid quite a bit less than directly through them. Ours is a 3/8ths 80 foot with rock gaurd, I got it with the metal eye thingy but no hook and I want to say it cost roughly $200, but I don't remember for sure.

So far we REALLY like it. We've used it to pull our truck several times on some pretty hard pulls....example - up at moon rocks with the truck sitting on it's "back bumper" vertical and had to pull the nose down into the rock so the tires were touching then pulling the truck vertical out of the hole. The truck weighs somewhere in the 4800 pound range.

It's nice too because you don't have to worry about cable splinters or wearing gloves, and if it did break it's not going to whip and hurt someone.
The rope gets two thumbs up from us!!

[warrpath4x4]

im not sure any difference in strength between the two but i know the rope is lighter

[tobyw]

I went with rope for 2 main reasons:

* Safety. The rope doesn't store energy under tension like the cable does, so when/if it snaps, it will essentially drop to the ground rather than become a deadly weapon...

* Weight. It is significantly lighter than cable, making it easier on the front end of my rig. It's also MUCH easier to work with in general, and I've done everything from vehicle recovery to hanging elk to pulling stumps and fence posts...

[Lurch]

What brand and size do you guys recomend? If you go with the 3/8 do you need a shorter length so it will fit okay on the winch?

[White trash]

The 3/8" rope fits better on the winch than the 100" of 3/8" ever thought of. I'd wager I could put 120" of 3/8" rope on the drum easily beings the rope flattens out a bit when you spool it into place. I'll never use cable again that's for sure... Oh and I must mention that my wife kicks major butt..


As to what brand we're running winchline.com and it has been a very good product for sure. I know guys running a few other brands that have been good too. I think as long as you go with a name brand you'll be fine. I have friends that run rope from the docks in seattle and it breaks a lot. But for their money they all are happy.

[Toolegit86]

rope is my choice no slivers no getting poked while pulling cable. no chance of death or injury and it also has no memory. like when the cable is bent or twisted thats the best part. go with 3/8's it is stronger and will last longer