Hello Gents! I am prepping for winter, so any help would be much appreciated. Last year, my winch cable broke over 7 times and I was "fit to be tied." I used the plow the year before; it never broke, once. The fairlead rollers are smooth and work properly and I see no visible obstacles. I have read about using 10 ft synthetic straps but have not tried them. I have also read about the use of a pulley block which I could hook to my front bumper guard. Does anybody know if this will work by decreasing the cable load? Any input or other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

Well anytime you use a pulley you increase the pulling power with less stress on the winch cable. I personally went to synthetic rope to avoid that situation because the wire cable bends and kinks which causes weak spots

 

X2 on the Synthetic rope. Great stuff for plowing, and if it does break you can always tie a not in it to get by!

 

X3 on the synthetic. Will never go back to steel cable.

 

there are several websites dedicated to Rigging. now, one may not consider your atv winch/cable/synrope to be rigging, but it is. there are certain configurations which actually decrease your rigging strength by 1/3! using a ****** block is a great idea. just do a yahoo/google search about "rigging with cables, chokers, slings". same principles whether using wire rope or synrope. see what pops up and read up on it. there are many misconceptions about rigging and these websites will help set you straight. most are adhered to by construction companies/industrial sites. safety first!

 

synthetic cable would be the way to go.

Me and my neighbor don't like to use our 50' synthetic rope for plowing so we used about a 20' piece of marine rope.
Works well and if it does break, we just tie a new knot. never broke once last year. held up way better then steel cable.
Nothing worse then trying to re crimp a new end on steel cable when its -40 Celsius and your machine is stuck in the middle of the road because you cant raise the plow.

 

For plowing get the 1/4" x 12-15' synthetic and aluminum fairlead hawse. Also, if your cable rubs on the bumper cut a chunk of pvc lengthwise and attach it to the bumber with zipties or hose clamps. Broke my smaller synthetic a few times last winter before going to the thicker stuff and never had an issue after that. The nice thing about synthetic is if it does happen to break you can just knot it off and keep on going.

 

i don't work on my Rancher myself (nor my Shadow m/c) but wanted to replace a broken cable with synthetic rope and decided to try it myself. it actually went easier than i anticipated; hopefully it'll last through the winter's plowing. had thought about getting a 'plow length rope' instead of the full 50' but it isn't uncommon to get stuck out icefishing, hunting or even plowing so wanted that longer cable available, too.
tried steel last winter, had to repair on the fly a couple of times; while pleased to be able to do that it was a PITA. Thanks for the tips and encouragement!
btw: i even changed oil on the Rancher this summer, so i'm learnin'!

 

Well- something isn't right if you're snapping winch cables! You should have no problem raising & lowering a plow via steel cable even if it is crimped or bent! I've been plowing for many years and never broke a cable even with my warn 3.5.

Is the cable actually breaking or is the ferrule slipping off because you bottom out at the fairlead? Is the steel cable grinding over something? If that's the case- you'll still have problems whether you use a synthetic rope or steel cable.

 

It must've been a combination of things that led to my cable breaking - the rollers appeared to be very rough, probably from running the plow when the previous owner used it for his parking lot, so i replaced the fairlead.
Cable snapped a few inches up from the end, twice, so this time I also put a 'winch line saver' on it, too, to help prevent running the cable in too far.

Lastly, don't know how old the cable was, as i had bought the unit used. There must've been less than 15 feet remaining on the winch, so the cable had snapped xx times before i started using it. Hopefully i won't be messing with the setup in the middle of a blizzard like i did last year...