Thread: respooling winch cable onto winch

Originally Posted by BilboBoggles

I've got a Warn winch on my TD5 Fender. Whilst I've not yet been bogged enough to use it for recovering myself - it's been used on several other 4x4's. It's main use however is on my property for winching dead trees over etc.

Are there any tips or tricks for respooling the wire winch cable, there must be an easier way. It takes me ages to respool the cable by myself - I usually park on a slight hill attach the cable to something - and wind the cable back on to the drum. The problem I have is that it rarely lays itself down evenly. ie it tends to leave gaps or bunch up at one end. Am I doing this correctly?

It is normally a job for 2, otherwise it's a pain, you just got to be patient and layer it slowly, I usually stand a couple of feet away and layer it with one hand and use the controller with the other.

I have seen guys attach the cable to an object and winch it towards the vehicle guiding the cable along the drum

Baz.

I usually like to run the winch cable through a snatch block while respooling for 2 reasons 1) It respools slower and easier to control 2) buy running it through the snatch block it helps with any little kinks that may have occured for one reason or another.
I try to avoid guiding the wire in by hand for safety reasons.

chuck an old dead rim and tyre at the bottom of a hill, hook the winch up to that with a bit of rope so you dont kill the cable or the hook.

winch it up the hill while you stand in front of the winch and adjust the cable position with a mattock handle.

I am going to be a bit contraversial and say that this whole issue of spooling in under load is overrated.
Think about it.
What happens when you next use a winch?
Right.
You spool it out.
And unless you have a very specific problem it should be spooled right out to the last few turns of the innermost wrap, as this is where a winch has by far the most pull. Distance to anchor should be selected longer than the winch rope length and adjusted by an extension strap/tree protector.

Before I had synthetic I used to do much as Blknight suggested, although I would often just walk it in. You can control where it sits on the drum by walking from side to side, but overlays on outer layers do not really matter as you are going to unwind it anyway.
It is important not to overlay if you are going to winch over a couple of layers but this is incorrect practice.
With a bit of planning IMHO it is usually possible to find an anchor at a suitable distance.
Regards Philip A

I've always had success respooling by hand. By that I mean I get my riggers gloves on and standing out in front of vehicle where I can see cable spooling onto drum, I allow it to slip through my hand while leaning back to give it some load. If you stand a metre or so away, you shouldn't risk feeding your fingers into your fairlead, and can guide it onto drum so it spools on evenly....

Thanks for the replies - sounds like I have the right idea. I must admit I hate running the cable through my hands - I've had the joy of discovering a broken wire strand before. (Ripped through my leather gloves but did not make too much mess of my hand.)

Remember that a right hand lay rope should start from the right hand end of the drum if being overwound, and from the left hand end if being underwound. Reverse this for left hand lay ropes.