I bought a polaris 3500 lb winch today.
It has the blue synthetic rope instead of the traditional metal cable.
I heard it is supposed to be stronger than cable, but have a hard time believing this.
Does anyone else own this winch?
Had good or bad luck with the rope?

 

Believe it. It is marketed under the name "Spectra" in some cases. It is stronger and lighter than conventional steel cable. I build high end custom sailing yachts for a living, and we use Spectra extensively in this field. Tug boats are using it for their towing hawsers (ropes) because it is so much lighter and stronger. It's better all the way around. Not sure how it compares in abrasion resistance though. Anyone have any info on this?

 

just dont get it near anything sharp or it will be the strongest in many pieces lol. i'll stick w/ the steel rope for this reason. imo.

 

I made the switch to synthetic rope and strongly believe in them. Aside from being lighter and stronger, they carry no energy so there is no risk of injury if they do snap. Also, I can fit another 25ft on my winch! The downside is they don't handle abrasion as well and I suspect will deteriorate if they are stored wet and dirty.....

Although new to atv'ers, four wheelers have been using it for some time now. I haven't heard of anyone going back to steel cable!

 

great product, but make sure you get the abrasion sleave, it isn't included with all brands of winches/replacement rope, AND, replace your fairlead/inspect your winch drum for burrs before you replace wire cable with synthetic rope! It won't last long if you run it over ruff spots on your fairlead of drum!

 

I'm with Stendori on this one......Although the synth rope is lighter and stronger, I don't need to be worrying every time I'm pulling my quad that the rope might be rubbing on something. I'll stick with steel.

 

If you use your winch to raise and lower a plow a lot it can kink a wire rope but doesn't hurt a synthetic rope. I had to cut off a foot or two off my steel cable and repair it because it had so many kinks in it. That's just one of the reasons I'd rather have synthetic. And like I told my friends earlier today, they use this type of rope to tow oil tankers because steel cables aren't strong enough.

 

It's not because steel cable is not strong enough.....We've been towing oil tankers since way before spectra was invented. It's because the spool of Spectra required to tow an oil tanker is so much lighter and smaller than the spool of steel cable required to tow an oil tanker.

 

I should have said a steel cable of the same size, or weight isn't strong enough. Hemp rope, manilla rope, etc. are strong enough too if it's big enough, but a fiber rope that's big enough would be huge. I used about a 2' diameter rope to pull out my truck one time when it was stuck, but a 1/4" blue steel synthetic rope would have worked just as well. A 1/4" steel cable on the other hand would have snapped in two.

 

Excellent point.