Winch rope

John.
Plastic ropes stretch when loaded, this makes them unsutable for winching because as the load comes on the winch the rope stretches and therefore the turns on the drum must slide over each other this causes heat which softens the rope which causes it to stretch even more and before long the rope has melted and your truck is broken. When this happens the rope suplier will say "the winch overheated because of an electical fault" and I say howcome my winch is a pto job.
Eric.

John, I am not sure i agree with the above posting. In time we will find out if any of this "Plasma Rope" supplied by Janrek Pty Ltd (see 4wd monthly advert) has a problem with sticking to drums. I havnt heard of it happening yet.

The big advantages of the Plasma rope is that it doesnt splinter as you say, it has no memory (so you can kink it as much as you want, cross it on the drum etc) and also doesnt whip when it snaps - it just falls to the ground - so stand as close to it as you want ! no need to "clear - winching..."

I know it is more effective on a high mount - perhaps for that heating reason, but there are plenty of low mounts with it on too. Practically ALL winch challenge and Outback challenge competitors use it, so it cant be that bad !

Best to check breaking strains with Janrek.


Have fun !

Troy.

John,if you have a low mounted winch with internal drum brake (which you do) you can not use this rope. Well you shouldn't anyway. Warn says that the heat from internal brake will weaken the first few layers of the plasma rope (or similar) on the drum which in turn will produce early failure of the rope. What could happen from here on you can just imagine.

Thanks for all the info so far everyone,
I wonder if winding a couple of layers of flat "Exhaust Bandage" onto the drum first would help the heating problem, it is a heat insulator, but it depends if the heat comes from the sides or the bottom of the winch spool I guess.
...John

plasma rope is one brand of rope available and can be purchased from some opposite lock stores. 8 mm plasma breaking point is approx 5300 kg's ( 8mm wire rope is approx 7600 kgs)