Hop On The Synthetic Winch Line Band Wagon, It’s Safer Here

“Should You Switch To Synthetic Winch line?”

If you have been involved in any capacity with the 4×4 industry in the last 5-10 years, you have certainly heard of the hoards of people that are switching their wire cables out for their lighter, stronger & less dangerous cousin, the synthetic winch line (SWL)…. If you haven’t, well, you must be living in a cave! But have no fear, Expedition Report is here to educate you and make living in a cave that much more bareable.

Synthetic Winch Line Construction

Most commercially available SWL’s are made from Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene, or what we have come to know it on the shop floor as Dyneema. However that is not to say they are all made out of the same material. For example there are some lines available which are made from, Technora®, Vectran®, Spectra®, or Kevlar®.

For the purposes of this article we will focus in on SWL that are made from Dyneema, as they are most common, but if you would like to read more about the different types of material used to make SWL MasterPull has a great article already on that topic.

Draw Backs of Synthetic Winch Lines

 I didn’t want to get too far into this article and lead you to believe that switching line types is not without its draw backs, but there are many things you can do to navigate around these issues, and almost remove them from the “con’s” list in its entirety!

Drawback #1 – Heat 
SWL’s hate heat, at approximatly 150*F (66*C) the fibers begin to loose strength.
Q:But how would the winch line get exposed to this level of heat?
A:The winch drum; many manufactures choose to use the winch drum as the location for the brake as its convienient, didn’t require much engineering and heat was never an issue for the cable lines that winches were originally designed to use.
(LINK to how Superwinch solves this issue)

Drawback #2 – Abrastion Sensitive
SWL’s are not going to last long if you continually use them while they are under load and up against a solid object such as a rock, root or tree. While you should be planning your recovery with no rubbing at all there is a solution out there if you can’t avoid it. They are called a “chafe guard” or “rock guard”, most SWL’s come with them or they are available for purchase from many different manufactures on the cheap($18-30):

Now that we have gotten those out of the way lets look at a quick list of Pro’s!

• It floats
• Its lighter than cable
• Does not store dangerous kenetic energy while under load
• Does not have those little wires sticking out that pierce into your skin (please still wear leather palmed gloves)
• Will not rust
• Does not kink
• It’s 30-40% stronger than wire rope

Still not conviced o the benifits, check out this video for more proof: