Synthetic rope for a trailer winch

[MagicalTrevor]

Not sure where to put this question.

I have a Brian James C4 Blue trailer and I've managed to kink the wire rope. For safety reasons I'm thinking of replacing it but in the process I found synthetic rope.

I found this place that sells 6mm rope which has a breaking load of 3200kg
http://www.electricwinchshop.co.uk/winch-accessori...

Is that suitable to replace what I have? Has anybody used it before?

[Martin4x4]

Synthetic rope is getting very popular for self recovery winches used on Off Road vehicles. I have it on my off roading Discovery.

It is easy to handle, safer under failure and far stronger for the same diameter.

You don't say what size your original wire is, but if you are using the same (or even one size smaller) you will be fine.

[MagicalTrevor]

Thanks, that's what I'd read about it. It sounds good based on those points.
I'm not sure what's on it right now but does it matter so long as it can cope with the weight?

[Martin4x4]

Just measure the existing rope with a rule and select the closest size of Dynemma

Rolling weight is a lot less than the lifted weight, even up a ramp. So you have 3.2 metric tonne working weight for pulls and massive safety margin.

I posted a while ago about calculating effective rolling weight.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gAssing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Edited by Martin4x4 on Monday 27th October 22:28

[MagicalTrevor]

That's very useful! Thanks Martin

[PugwasHDJ80]

Love synthetic rope- have 300ft in the shed for offroading. Its easy to keep clean (stick it in a pillow case in your washing machine), has no memory, no stretch, is easy to repair (a permanant splice doesn't take long).

2 things it REALLY doesn't like- bending round tight corners under load, and more importantly abrasion resistance. The latter MAY be important if the rope will consistently come into contact with the trailer whilst under load. Generally in off roading recoveries the vehicle is pulling itself up a static rope- in trailer recoveries the winch is staying static and the rope is moving which means you have a much greater chance of cutting/abrading the rope.

[robinessex]

Martin4x4 said:

Synthetic rope is getting very popular for self recovery winches used on Off Road vehicles. I have it on my off roading Discovery.

It is easy to handle, safer under failure and far stronger for the same diameter.

You don't say what size your original wire is, but if you are using the same (or even one size smaller) you will be fine.

Wire rope will always have the highest tensile strength

[skyrover]

Synthetic rope is great stuff... a few things to watch for.

It can chaff, significantly weakening it... so make sure you look after it.
It does not like getting sandy/muddy, again damaging it
You wont be able to fit as much on the drum as steel
it does not like heat... so if your winch gets hot, it can damage the line.

Steel is generally more tolerant of abuse lasts longer and is cheaper to replace, but is also lethal when it snaps.

One of the biggest advantages of synthetic is weight, which is probably more relevant for off-roaders.

[Martin4x4]

Abrasion can be an issue but a cheap mitigation would be to use a rub strip made of dense polyurethane which you should get from any DIY place.

robinessex said:

Wire rope will always have the highest tensile strength

Wrong, at the same diameter a synthetic rope is about 40-60% stronger than regular steel wire and for the same weight is about 8 times stronger.

[robinessex]

Martin4x4 said:

Abrasion can be an issue but a cheap mitigation would be to use a rub strip made of dense polyurethane which you should get from any DIY place.

robinessex said:

Wire rope will always have the highest tensile strength

Wrong, at the same diameter a synthetic rope is about 40-60% stronger than regular steel wire and for the same weight is about 8 times stronger.

Poly:- Tensile Strength 12-43MPa. Steel:- high tensile. Tensile Strength +1500MPa

[skyrover]

Martin4x4 said:

Wrong, at the same diameter a synthetic rope is about 40-60% stronger than regular steel wire and for the same weight is about 8 times stronger.

Indeed synthetic is stronger than the steel rope, although it's worth mentioning that it loses a significant amount of strength when wet.

[PugwasHDJ80]

robinessex said:

Martin4x4 said:

Abrasion can be an issue but a cheap mitigation would be to use a rub strip made of dense polyurethane which you should get from any DIY place.

robinessex said:

Wire rope will always have the highest tensile strength

Wrong, at the same diameter a synthetic rope is about 40-60% stronger than regular steel wire and for the same weight is about 8 times stronger.

Poly:- Tensile Strength 12-43MPa. Steel:- high tensile. Tensile Strength +1500MPa

Idemat 2003 puts tensile strength of Dyneema (or spectra) fibers at between 1400min and 3090max mpa

It puts High Modulus Aramid from a 2800mpa min to 3600mpa

Maraging steel would get up to 2700mpa max

Of course the construction of the ropes/wires is as important as the individual fibres.

Wikipedia has a guide to tensile strength which I've just found : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate_tensile_stre...

have a look at carbon nanotubes- i'd love to know what width a carbon nanotube recovery rope would have to be in order to compete with a 30,000lbbreak dyneema rope

grapheme looks to be 38 times stronger, which would suggest a 12mm rope could be reaplced with a thread which was 0.3mm which isn't a lot larger than a human hair

which is frankly bonkers!