Last evening I was over at my brother's place to help him extract a stump. Warn HS9500i, polypro rope.
I set up for a simple straight pull from about 40' away; tree strap, shackle, blanket on the rope, not rubbing anywhere. My truck was butted against a good size maple to keep it in place.
We stood back out of harm's way, just in case, as should be done.
On the very first pull, with the stump budging a bit at least, the winch got almost to the stall point when the line snapped at the winch. That thing recoiled like a bullet into the blanket. I was astounded; those ropes are supposed to be load rated pretty highly. And, according to urban legend, they're not supposed to recoil dangerously like that.
This was a relatively new rope, placed on just one year ago, maybe a couple dozen pulls "under its belt". It spent the winter on the truck, but covered, well protected from the elements.
During the first time pulls with the rope. We (Steve and Brad Morris and I) found it slippery; it kept sliding on the spool and pulling out of the anchor lug. That was fixed by sticking an 8" x 8" piece of skateboard grip tape to the spool. THAT worked great last night. If it had have slipped, I'd still have a rope. Also, the rope deforms easily, sinks down into the wraps easily; but this, apparently is normal. But all this led to Brad not really liking the rope. So now, I'm in agreement. Just as well it broke under simple conditions; I'd rather not have it break when I have a buddy on the end of the line (facing uphill, off-camber, something like that).
Cheers.
I'm off to the wire rope store.
I set up for a simple straight pull from about 40' away; tree strap, shackle, blanket on the rope, not rubbing anywhere. My truck was butted against a good size maple to keep it in place.
We stood back out of harm's way, just in case, as should be done.
On the very first pull, with the stump budging a bit at least, the winch got almost to the stall point when the line snapped at the winch. That thing recoiled like a bullet into the blanket. I was astounded; those ropes are supposed to be load rated pretty highly. And, according to urban legend, they're not supposed to recoil dangerously like that.
This was a relatively new rope, placed on just one year ago, maybe a couple dozen pulls "under its belt". It spent the winter on the truck, but covered, well protected from the elements.
During the first time pulls with the rope. We (Steve and Brad Morris and I) found it slippery; it kept sliding on the spool and pulling out of the anchor lug. That was fixed by sticking an 8" x 8" piece of skateboard grip tape to the spool. THAT worked great last night. If it had have slipped, I'd still have a rope. Also, the rope deforms easily, sinks down into the wraps easily; but this, apparently is normal. But all this led to Brad not really liking the rope. So now, I'm in agreement. Just as well it broke under simple conditions; I'd rather not have it break when I have a buddy on the end of the line (facing uphill, off-camber, something like that).
Cheers.
I'm off to the wire rope store.
