Thread: what length of synthetic rope?? on a PTO

re crisscrossing, synthetic needs to be spooled on under load. If you don't, the rope under winching road will jam down in the lower layers never to be freed without cutting. More so than wire rope. So, crisscross if winding on by hand, or load it up & wind on normally. After a day trip I just attach to a tree at home, in neutral, & a light load with the foot brake & wind in.

re rope length, the winch is most efficient on the bottom layer. All quoted load ratings refer to the bottom layer. Well Warn anyway.

For competition use, a short rope gets closer to the bottom layer, enabling a single line pull. For recreational use, it's easier on the winch to take your time and use a snatch block. Me, I put 150 ft of sythetic on the hi-mount, always use a snatch block, & have a synthetic extension rope if necessary.

Regards
Max P

Weeds,
once you actually play with rope you will see just how easy it is to use
I would run with 30-40m of 12mm on the drum and then lengths of 10mm for extensions.

In order to join the extensions you could go to the trouble of putting spliced ends but i have found if you just tie a bow-line in the rope, snig it tight by hand and then winch away (even to stall on my 12,000) it will amazingly undo.
This means you can use a 30m extension at say just 10m of extension by tieing the bowline mid length.

The benefit of keeping some rope off the drum is it is not out in the weather and sun.

If you are worried about how the winch drum "looks" being half filled then that is not an issue I can help with

The benefit of your PTO is that you can spool it in so quickly. The other option is to put all the rope on the drum and then you have a built in extension and just use a snatch block if you are close to an anchor.

I like having a short rope on the drum as the 12,000 could not be accused of spooling in quickly.

S

I was talking about this topic at the club meeting earlier this week!
PTO winches are different to electric winches. Instead of a poxy 6HP or less sparky motor, you have a bloody great diesel turning it. A big burly diesel that will hardly notice if you have one wrap or 100 wraps around the drum.
I was talking to a bloke (a mech eng) who had a PTO winch on his Rangie, he reckoned you are more likely to snap the rope than run out of oomph no matter how many turns on the drum. The sheer pin or clutch is more to protect the rope than any other part of the system.
Although I am very willing to hear other opinions on this matter...

Originally Posted by Tusker

Me, I put 150 ft of sythetic on the hi-mount, always use a snatch block, & have a synthetic extension rope if necessary.

Regards
Max P

thanks Max.....what size rope are you running?

One drawback of having all your rope on the drum is after a long mud slog I pull the rope off the drum and soak it in a Nally to clean then hang it up to dry.

I could see that being fun with 70m of rope! 30 is bad enough.

I guess the point is you sometimes need long lengths but you often only need a short length.

Keep your extensions clean and dry in the cab and have a working length on the drum?

(Can anyone else tell theat i am a little delerious in my thought process at the moment?)

Please excuse me

Steve

Originally Posted by weeds

thanks Max.....what size rope are you running?

I went with 11mm.. overkill, but it'll last forever.

Mark, we must have been talking to the same person about PTO's at the meeting! The trouble with them is you can't tell how hard they're working until the pin lets go. At least with an electric you can hear it labouring, stop, arrange a double or triple line pull etc.

I have been on a club trip with someone with a PTO. He refused to recover anyone else, on the grounds the shear pins were for his use only.

Recoveries of other vehicles are the only real downside to synthetic rope. Your dragging the rope over rocks etc, fraying starts. With self recovery of course, the rope is stationary.

Regards
Max P

Originally Posted by Tusker

I went with 11mm.. overkill, but it'll last forever.

Mark, we must have been talking to the same person about PTO's at the meeting! The trouble with them is you can't tell how hard they're working until the pin lets go. At least with an electric you can hear it labouring, stop, arrange a double or triple line pull etc. i loaded mine up the other week pulling a tree stump out and you can tell to an extent the load increasing on the winch i.e. front suspension dropping and a few creaks ans crones

I have been on a club trip with someone with a PTO. He refused to recover anyone else, on the grounds the shear pins were for his use only. umm, what if he got into a position where he needed somebody else to say winch him backwards.........does everybody else say their recovery gear is only for their car only??

on sheer pins....its something i should track down, i would imagine it would be a pain to replace one in the field considering you would still be stuck

Recoveries of other vehicles are the only real downside to synthetic rope. Your dragging the rope over rocks etc, fraying starts. With self recovery of course, the rope is stationary.

Regards
Max P

thanks Max

i have had this winch for five years without using it........have used it three times in the last year....the last time i used it was to winch a hugh tree up a creek bed and whilist the wire rope wasn't really an issue to set up i assume synthetic would have been easier

I haven't done a lot of winching, and only have a Warn XD9000 which will take about 30m max (think I'm running about 10 or 11mm rope).
Circumstances resulted in me buying a 50m rope, so I've simply cut it in half and made 2 ropes of 25M. One goes on the winch, the other lives in the car.

Pretty sure I'd still do similar if I had a winch that would take a longer rope, as I feel it gives me a bit more flexibility. The spare can be used as an extension for either my winch or someone elses, or used as a strong rope to hold a vehicle in position (easier to tie than a conventional webbing extension).
And as roverrescue said earlier - its less rope to clean the mud/crap out of after a messy trip.

Steve