winch cable vs. winch rope

[kingluvr]

i am new to plowing with an atv. i have a 3000# winch on my 05 king. will it really hurt the cable lifting the plow alot ? i saw these 8' ropes to replace the cable for plowing. is a good idea or a waste of money. my plow is a 60" eagle. thanks for replies.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/img]

[Starky]

You should have a roller fairlead, that will add years to your cable. Even without the roller fairlead your winch will probably burn out before your cable does.
The people that have the ropes swear they are the greatest thing and if my cable ever wears out I will probably replace it with the rope but I can't see spending the money to replace a good cable. I have the Swisher plow and bucket and use them all the time and I can't see any wear on the cable.

[kingluvr]

thanks Starky. yes, i have a roller fairlead. it has an oversized roller on the bottom just for abuse plowing puts on it.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif[/img]

[IdahoVinnie]

I went down to a local supply store and purchased 12' of nylon webbing that is about 2" wide. This the cargo hold-down type, NOT like the stretchable type used as a tow strap.
I drilled 3 holes 1/2" deep horizontally on the winch drum (after removing the wire cable). I then used 3 self tapping panhead screws to secure the strap to the drum, and attached the original hook to the other end. Works great! On my old atv, I used it for 2 years with no problems at all. Last week I did the same thing to my new Vinson.

[kingluvr]

thanks! that sounds like a good idea. i just dont want to tear-up a perfectly good cable plowing and not have it when i need it ( you know: to pull out those inferior quads....lol) i will check into that.

[DavidLT250S]

we used our cable for the plow since our quad was new (1993) and the plow never seemed to hurt it, its still the original cable that came with the bike but i guess its all depending on how your plow set up was made ours is custom made

[weez440]

ok if you wear out your winch cable it is gonna be 2 feet worth on the end and it will take years to do that. and your blade doesn't weigh that much so it is no strain on it and with a roller fairhead. just run it if it wears that 2 feet worth out cut that 2 feet off with a grinder and you winch cable will be 48 instead of 50 feet long

[IdahoVinnie]

One of the reasons that I installed a strap, is that I now don't have to worry about the cable unwinding too far, causing the cable to "bury" into itself when raising the plow.

I also read of deterioration of the cable because of salt that was mixed with the snow.

[Primus]

I see by the replies you guys have had better luck than me. I have an 04.5 Sportsman 500 H.O. with the 60 inch Glacier Razor plow. I didn't make it half way through the first winter before I snapped my steel winch cable. Maybe my use differs from most others. I live in a high snowfall area and have a 300 foot long driveway with a turn-around that I can swing my transport around in, so there is lots of heavy pushing and blade raising and lowering. I had a thread about it in the Polaris forum. According to my conversations with both Polaris (factory and dealer) and Warn they say it is caused by that same couple inches of wire rope rolling back and forth with that extreme downward angle over the roller fairlead, that causes the cable to crush, then start fraying until it breaks. I tried to get advice on weather the winch rope would hold up better, but for every good thing I heard about it, there was an equal number of negative comments. So for now I just bought a spare steel cable and keep it in my storage box in case the one in my winch ever breaks while pulling. None of my local dealers will bring in the synthetic rope because they say it costs too much and no one will buy it.
What do you guys think? I don't want to buy one of those short plowing ropes, I want to know how the synthetic rope will hold up as a year round solution. Thanks.

[Hogsniper]

I'm either going to buy an 8' piece of the synthetic plow lift rope or maybe just replace entire 50' section. My problem is in order to lift plow over 5" - 6" off ground, I roll the clamp in wire cable that makes the loop for the hook. That sucker will not come back out over the fairlead at such a right angle. I may try just a 20' nylon tow strap. You can just wind it around winch drum. Don't want to drill any holes to screw it to drum. I think you could just wind it on itself 4 ot 5 loops. You only need 3' to raise lower plow. The rest would stay on drum.

HS