Both steel and synthetic. We all have had the shudeering thoughts of spooling out too far and losing the line off the drum. Here's one way to possibly prevent that from happening. The idea is simple, eye splice the synthetic around the drum. Include a custom ring terminal in the eye of the splice to start the spooling in for the first wraps. Ric and I tested the splice under a load to make sure the splice would not pull lose. This is the kind of thing that is so simple that with hindsight it seems silly that no one has done this before. Or maybe they have and I'm the last to know?

Here's the line spooled all the way out. If you look on the left side of the drum you can see my ring terminal in the eye splice to start the spool.


Here's a closer look at the ring


The angle that the line was pulling at


Ric and I set up with a snatch block anchored on that white concrete cylinder so he could use his winch to wind in while my winch was spooled all the way out. Only one wrap if you count the splice that way.


Here's the result. Not much of a load test but it was enough to drag all four tires locked up on the loose gravel. In theory it should hold the full weight of the vehicle and then some. Anybody want to volunteer their rig to test that out on a mountain side? We can let the rig roll back a few feet to create a shock load. I'll even do the splice free for you. lol

 

No way should you have that much spooled out. Agreed the eye splice gives you some additional peace of mind of stripping the line straight off the spool, but you should still have AT LEAST 5 wraps on the drum. Keep in mind that the splice will hold tension, but won't provide any torsional friction to spool the line in under load.

If you have a winch, you really need to have a section of line to use as an extension so you don't have to pull that much out.

 

I probably should have been clearer about that. For those that don't wheel or winch that often they might get a false impression that it's OK to spool out that far. I just put this up as an alternate to the traditional way where one has to rely solely on paying attention.

And yep the ring terminal and set screw I have in mine wont hold up much if you start cranking on it. I replaced the original screw with a stainless one when I first got the winch mounted. I don't know what the original screw was made of but if it's just normal mild steel then it has a tensile strength of about 700 lbs

I replaced mine with a stainless 304 screw and added a low profile ring to it. Stainless 304 has a tensile of about 90,000psi or something like that but since it's only about 0.125" in diameter it's tensile strength would only be good for about 1,300lbs. Less than that actually since it's being pulled on a sheer line.

I'm with ya on the extension I have a technora line with closed end thimbles. I've used it a couple of times and even though it's 80 feet I think I'm going to get a much longer one. 80 feet doesn't seem like that much when you're looking for a tree with a decent sized trunk.