Pretensioning a synthetic rope winch

[J0E]

Installed my Rugged Ridge Bumper, Stubby and 12 K superwinch today. BTW, both delivered to Hawaii for free and at a great price. Watched a few youtubes on the process. I did 12 winds, pulling back as hard as I could with one hand, maybe 60 lbs? I then hooked up the remaining line to my TJR up the 5% hill. I pulled my JLR up the hill until I finished the first row and the second. I think that should be plenty. I'm skeptical how much tension a 5% slope provides as I was able to control the windup by pulling left or right.

I removed the Heavy-Duty, Clevis Pinned Latched hook and replaced it with a soft shackle. (not in this pic) Now I just need to figure out how to attach the front plate. I keep it in the garage, but I do have a winch cover. I think I'll put the same winch on my TJR.

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[Chocolate Thunder]

Why’d you use just hand tension at first before pulling it up the incline? I’d suggest unspooling it and winding the entire length of rope under tension. If you don’t think the weight of the Jeep on the incline provides enough tension, engage the parking brake a click or two while spooling it.

 

[cornercanyon]

Don't you always hand wind 8 - 10 wraps before adding tension? You never unspool all the way before adding a load, no?

 

[J0E]

Don't you always hand wind 8 - 10 wraps before adding tension? You never unspool all the way before adding a load, no?

Correct, you need 8-10 wraps to give enough line friction so the attachment lug isn't pulled out. On low to mid range winches, the lug is rated at something like 200 lbs. On the top of the line Warn Zeon, that doubles, but it's still not much.



The video says 5 or 6, I went with 10.

 

[J0E]

Why’d you use just hand tension at first before pulling it up the incline? I’d suggest unspooling it and winding the entire length of rope under tension.

Have you done more than 60 feet before? Under load, it's very difficult to get all layers wound up right.

For one thing, there's no reason to pretention the entire line. Part of the reason you need to pretension is that if you just wind it up under very low load, then pull out only 50 feet and apply a very high load, it can pull the lug out.

If you don’t think the weight of the Jeep on the incline provides enough tension, engage the parking brake a click or two while spooling it.

3rd time I pulled the parking brake the attachment came undone under the handle. I'll have the dealer fix that on my next oil change and 2.0 turbo cooling service bulletin fix.

 

[smokeythecat]

When I tensioned my line for the first time I was also able to influence the direction of the wind under load. Little did I realize how much load there was.

See this previous post of mine that illustrates that.

 

[J0E]

When I tensioned my line for the first time I was also able to influence the direction of the wind under load. Little did I realize how much load there was.

See this previous post of mine that illustrates that.

I remember reading that. Next time I'll wrap a strap around the line to make it easier to control the direction.

BTW, here it explains the lug is only to get the line started.

I had my wife steer the JLR where I told her to help the line coming in. We'll move to a 10% grade to get better tensioning. Thanks for the response.

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