Winch Ropes

Kerry

All very well and good. Fine for competition, but it's my understanding they are very prone to abrasion.

I may well stand corrected.

Cheers

Rosco -

Must admit I dont know a lot about the synthetics maybe somebody will be able to give a comparison.

cheers

Don't worry about stuffing the synthetic rope. If you are winching downhill with a planetary gear winch (brake in drum) then you should be worried about stuffing the actual winch!

It amazes me that people think winching downhill is a problem for the rope. These winches should only be powered out to release tension on the line and then free-spooled the rest of the way. They are not hoists. Any winch manual will tell you this. It is the equivalent of driving with the handbrake on.

Anyway, each to their own. If you are going to abuse your winch by extensive powering out then don't buy plasma / synthetic cause your winch will be stuffed before you get good use out of it.

Just on abrasion resistance of Amsteel Blue - it is excellent. It also comes with a 10 ft abrasion sleeve that slides up and down the rope so it can be positioned where needed. The rope is a lot tougher than people give it credit for.

Rubbish synthetic is more expensive!. You can get 40 meters of Amsteel Blue delivered from the USA for under $200. That is less than you pay for gal wire here. I bought mine from www.okoffroad.com and sold my gal wire (was new) for more than I paid for the synthetic rope.

That is only a problem if you are powering out for extended periods - which is not the way brake in drum winches are intended to be used. The brake is there to hold the vehicle. The power out function is just there to release tension prior to free-spooling.

I apologise Ray if you took offence to my post – wasn’t meant as a criticism.

I agree that synthetic rope over here is priced anywhere from $400 to $600. My point was that you can buy the same stuff from the USA for much less. We get severly ripped off here because it is ‘synthetic rope’

As for cheaper rope being inferior – don’t know about that. However, if you were referring to Amsteel Blue as an inferior rope then you are mistaken. It is widely used in the USA. It was developed by Samson Rope Technologies for offshore rigging applications and is UV safe and abrasion resistant. There are heaps of reviews and user testimonials on the net – which can be taken however which way you want. I am satisfied that Amsteel Blue is up to the job, not only from my research into it but from the use I have given it.

When it comes to synthetics, I don’t see much difference between the majors ie. Dynamica, Amsteel, Bronze, Plasma etc. This is what I have gleened from the research I did before I purchased mine.

As for the price of gal cable. ARB will charge you about $300 - $350 for a replacement cable – this is what I was referring to in saying you can replace a new wire cable with Amsteel and come out in front in $$ terms.

Anyway, don’t want to start an argument and apologise if I sounded abrupt in my initial follow up – wasn’t meant that way.

All that really matters is that each is happy with their choices – and satisfied they didn’t pay too much for what they get. Gotta love the net for getting good prices on 4wd accessories offshore. It’s a shame that we can’t get decent competition here to get prices down.

I am actually speaking with Samson Rope Technologies to explore the potential of importing Amsteel Blue and distributing it to the 4wd sector. We can pay retail from the USA (which we wouldn’t do obviously) and still undercut the current ‘synthetic rope’ market here by at least $150, inclusive of import and shipping costs. Accessories for the rope like aluminium hawses etc can be sourced and sold at a profit for about 50% of the current prices here. There is actually a guy on eBay who sells small quantities of Amsteel Blue for around the $500 mark – he is making a tidy profit from his direct purchases from the likes of okoffroad.com.