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The sound of a Kinetic Rope failure. Damage and cost..... Plus photos of the wheeling and camping.

wibornz

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So up wheeling over the weekend and been in 2wd all weekend. The trails are sandy and no real threat of getting stuck..... well or so I thought.

We are leading the pack as normal. Enter a water hole and bam stuck we are. Out comes our kinetic rope. The 2nd Jeep drives around the water hole and hooks up to pull us out. We are not super stuck. Should be an easy recovery. My bud gives it a yank and the kinetic rope breaks.

Turn up the sound. It sounds like a rifle shot through the woods.



















The rope come back to my Jeep and destroys the winch control box, and winch solenoid. Then hits the grille and bust the grille insert and caves in the AC condenser. I unhook the positive cable to winch to ensure that the exploded wires do not turn the winch or or ground out the battery. Luck is on my side though as the A/C condenser is not leaking and we still have air. We continue wheeling the rest of the day without issue.

A/C condenser
Jeep Wrangler JL The sound of a Kinetic Rope failure.  Damage and cost..... Plus photos of the wheeling and camping. 1626882453007


Grille insert
Jeep Wrangler JL The sound of a Kinetic Rope failure.  Damage and cost..... Plus photos of the wheeling and camping. 1626882490051


Winch Control box
Jeep Wrangler JL The sound of a Kinetic Rope failure.  Damage and cost..... Plus photos of the wheeling and camping. 1626882540964



Get home and today, finish ordering everything I need.

Bought a new Warn winch to replace the Smitybuilt X2O. The cost to get a new control box,, solenoid and wireless control module and I had planned on replacing the synthetic rope in the near future, it just made sense to upgrade to the WARN and have a new winch. The Smitybuilt had served me well, but I just could not see dropping approx 400 to 450 into the Smitybuilt winch when that money could be used to upgrade to the Warn.

I bought this for a winch $840 of Amazon. About $50 cheaper than anywhere I could find it on the web.
Warn VR EVO 12-S Winch with Synthetic Rope

I ordered a new Gladiator center grille insert. $23 at the dealer. I could find it for $13 on the web, but by the time I added shipping, most places were at the $45 range. Score one for the dealer.

The new A/C condenser was $54 + shipping and total cost was $75. I will still have to pay someone to drain the old system and recharge it after I install the condenser so there is no total cost on this.

Bought a new kinetic rope from Factor 55. Cost $170

Just the cost of wheeling.

Some pics leading up to it and the weekend in general.

Pic of the Jeep and camper heading home after the weekend.
Jeep Wrangler JL The sound of a Kinetic Rope failure.  Damage and cost..... Plus photos of the wheeling and camping. 1626882659447


out on the trails
Jeep Wrangler JL The sound of a Kinetic Rope failure.  Damage and cost..... Plus photos of the wheeling and camping. 1626882700536


Jeep Wrangler JL The sound of a Kinetic Rope failure.  Damage and cost..... Plus photos of the wheeling and camping. 1626882743011


Jeep Wrangler JL The sound of a Kinetic Rope failure.  Damage and cost..... Plus photos of the wheeling and camping. 1626882770310


Jeep Wrangler JL The sound of a Kinetic Rope failure.  Damage and cost..... Plus photos of the wheeling and camping. 1626882826402


Jeep Wrangler JL The sound of a Kinetic Rope failure.  Damage and cost..... Plus photos of the wheeling and camping. 1626882926334


Jeep Wrangler JL The sound of a Kinetic Rope failure.  Damage and cost..... Plus photos of the wheeling and camping. 1626882968469


Drone flight through our base camp at a lake that is off the beating path in Northern Michigan.

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DadJokes

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Glad nobody was hurt.

I hope it wasn’t a Bubba Rope (what I have). :surprised:
 
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CaJLMetalHead

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cool adventure!

Do you have photos of the broken rope? I cannot play the audio of the rope breaking...
 

Roky

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So up wheeling over the weekend and been in 2wd all weekend. The trails are sandy and no real threat of getting stuck..... well or so I thought.

We are leading the pack as normal. Enter a water hole and bam stuck we are. Out comes our kinetic rope. The 2nd Jeep drives around the water hole and hooks up to pull us out. We are not super stuck. Should be an easy recovery. My bud gives it a yank and the kinetic rope breaks.

Turn up the sound. It sounds like a rifle shot through the woods.



















The rope come back to my Jeep and destroys the winch control box, and winch solenoid. Then hits the grille and bust the grille insert and caves in the AC condenser. I unhook the positive cable to winch to ensure that the exploded wires do not turn the winch or or ground out the battery. Luck is on my side though as the A/C condenser is not leaking and we still have air. We continue wheeling the rest of the day without issue.

A/C condenser
Jeep Wrangler JL The sound of a Kinetic Rope failure.  Damage and cost..... Plus photos of the wheeling and camping. 1626883768237


Grille insert
Jeep Wrangler JL The sound of a Kinetic Rope failure.  Damage and cost..... Plus photos of the wheeling and camping. 1626883768237


Winch Control box
Jeep Wrangler JL The sound of a Kinetic Rope failure.  Damage and cost..... Plus photos of the wheeling and camping. 1626883768237



Get home and today, finish ordering everything I need.

Bought a new Warn winch to replace the Smitybuilt X2O. The cost to get a new control box,, solenoid and wireless control module and I had planned on replacing the synthetic rope in the near future, it just made sense to upgrade to the WARN and have a new winch. The Smitybuilt had served me well, but I just could not see dropping approx 400 to 450 into the Smitybuilt winch when that money could be used to upgrade to the Warn.

I bought this for a winch $840 of Amazon. About $50 cheaper than anywhere I could find it on the web.
Warn VR EVO 12-S Winch with Synthetic Rope

I ordered a new Gladiator center grille insert. $23 at the dealer. I could find it for $13 on the web, but by the time I added shipping, most places were at the $45 range. Score one for the dealer.

The new A/C condenser was $54 + shipping and total cost was $75. I will still have to pay someone to drain the old system and recharge it after I install the condenser so there is no total cost on this.

Bought a new kinetic rope from Factor 55. Cost $170

Just the cost of wheeling.

Some pics leading up to it and the weekend in general.

Pic of the Jeep and camper heading home after the weekend.
Jeep Wrangler JL The sound of a Kinetic Rope failure.  Damage and cost..... Plus photos of the wheeling and camping. 1626883768237


out on the trails
Jeep Wrangler JL The sound of a Kinetic Rope failure.  Damage and cost..... Plus photos of the wheeling and camping. 1626883768237


Jeep Wrangler JL The sound of a Kinetic Rope failure.  Damage and cost..... Plus photos of the wheeling and camping. 1626883768237


Jeep Wrangler JL The sound of a Kinetic Rope failure.  Damage and cost..... Plus photos of the wheeling and camping. 1626883768237


Jeep Wrangler JL The sound of a Kinetic Rope failure.  Damage and cost..... Plus photos of the wheeling and camping. 1626883768237


Jeep Wrangler JL The sound of a Kinetic Rope failure.  Damage and cost..... Plus photos of the wheeling and camping. 1626883768237


Jeep Wrangler JL The sound of a Kinetic Rope failure.  Damage and cost..... Plus photos of the wheeling and camping. 1626883768237


Drone flight through our base camp at a lake that is off the beating path in Northern Michigan.

It’s a good thing it broke, the way he took off you’re lucky he didn’t pull your bumper off.. 🤣 .. maybe it’s just the way it looks in the video.......:)
 

Big Hoss

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Can't see or hear the video. (This has been happening a lot recently on this site, I haven't changed any settings, also can't stay logged in either).
 

Trainman

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You should get the rope that Matts Towing sells on his YouTube channel, he pulls everything with them. I think they are around $400 or so, but you can't break them. Watch Matts Towing on YouTube he pulls everything out with a Jeep Cherokee, I mean just about everything.
Matts Towing on YouTube
 
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GeoTracker

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Curious as to age of the rope as well. I rock climb and have seen/heard of rope failures. Often it's due to age and/or contamination of the rope. Climbing ropes take more frequent stress from falls and a well used rope only lasts a couple of years before the manufacturer says you ought to replace it. 5 years of infrequent use is the recommended replacement time there.

The synthetic ropes in the off-road industry use similar if not the same materials so keep that in mind. For contamination issues, the climbing ropes either had dirt in the (slipped past the sheath) or in some cases acid contamination from battery acid or other factors due to storing it in a garage or trunk.

Also just wondering if you had a damper on the kinetic rope and if you think it would have saved the winch if you did,. Not sure if that's a normal thing to do in the recovery setup.
 

DadJokes

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Was that start of a race or a Jeep recovery? He took off like he stole it, damn.
That’s typical for a kinetic recovery rope. The whole idea is a yank and momentum transfer to the vehicle being recovered.
 

brewski

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don't know what kind of kinetic rope you had or the condition of it. They do not like to be dirty, so they need to be cleaned periodically and can only take so many stretches before they need to be replaced. Really sucks you had this happen to you, glad there were no injuries and just some annoying damage. When I was on SAR we never used kinetic ropes because they are dangerous, but I use them a ton when wheeling with my friends.

I'd highly recommend MasterPull SuperYanker for a replacement kinetic rope. Everyone that gets one preaches about how great they are, but not cheap.

Update:
I was able to see the video on my phone. I could not see it on the computer. It’s hard to tell from that distance but looks like the failure was at the pull vehicle. So this would be a faulty or worn strap or the way the pull jeep set it up. His technique is not good, WAY too much speed and too much slack. Just need a little slack, not half the ropes unstretched length.
 
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Mikester86

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That’s typical for a kinetic recovery rope. The whole idea is a yank and momentum transfer to the vehicle being recovered.
I understand, just never knew the recovery vehicle used that much speed with kinetic rope.

So the recovery process with kinetic rope is to press skinny pedal to the floor with slack in rope, I got it now.
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