What's everyones' thoughts on the synthetic rope?

I recently purchased a warn 1.5 for my explorer, it came with the synthetic rope. After mounting, running wires, etc. I had to test it out. First thing I noticed, and liked was when pulling cable, no ripping the hand to shreds from the steel cable. Hooked to a tree, had no problems pulling the machine around with the brakes locked up, up hill. It strained but got it up the hill. Hooked up a ****** block, great.

My concern is the frey after a few short pulls, it's not badly freyed but enough to where you can see it(fuzzy). What kind of life can I expect out of the synthetic?

One thing I'm going to do is pull the pulley from my ****** block, mount it on my bench grinder and polish the inner radius where the rope sits. It's not rough right now but can be a lot smoother. Hope that will help extend the life of the rope. Is there any sort of conditioner that should be used on the rope?

 

I had it on my old rancher never used it but i hear its suposed to last i know guys with lifted jeeps that use it

 

Where is it fraying? Are you using a tree strap or just hooking to the rope? It works great, you just have to take care not to let it touch anything rough IMO. Alot of guy use it on rock crawling rigs and they use pieces of fire hose in between the rop and anything it comes in contact with. ie rocks, the ground, trees sct.

 

I've been thinking of switching to synthetic on my X2 as well. First thing I was told was to not run it around a tree or rock without some type of wrap. The synthetic is not set up for abrasion.

I've since since noticed several ropes that come with a cover (sleeve) that slides over the rope. The Warn rope I just looked at comes with a new fairlead, sleeve, and the rope itself ...

 

I love mine and yes it did come with a abrasion sleeve which also IMO serves as a UV ray protector. The suns rays play hell on stuff and when I winch in the last 5-6ft that has sleeve on I take care to make it cover the whole spool of rope and it keeps the sun off.

 

i use the 3/16 amsteel blue on my 2500# for almost 1 1/2 years never had any problems and have pull out some really big and really bad stuck 4 wheelers
if u go to customslice.com or call them at 405-533-1406 they will sell u a nylon sheath to slide over the rope its about 5 ft long really protects the business end of the rope

 

Also be sure if you're using a ****** block, make sure it's not a double sheave..You should use a block with a single sheave......

John

 

I switched out the wire cable on my Venom winch last year with a synthetic rope. I'll never go back to a wire cable. I've had to use it ALOT pulling me AND my son out of places with no problems. I use a nylon belt as a tree saver and attach the hook on the rope to it to protect the rope from abrasion damage.

BTW, save yourself some money and go to Gorilla winch's website and buy the synthetic rope from them. Much cheaper than the Amsteel. Just my .02 worth.

 

As far as the "frey" goes...it's not bad by any means, just noticable after a few short pulls. I don't want to say it's freyed or fuzzy I guess, just tiny fibers here and there sticking up.
I don't wrap the rope on trees or rocks. I have plenty of straps for that. As far as the ****** block goes, it's a solid wheel not a two piece so I'm good there. I did pull the wheel and polish the inner radius, it had a few light scuffs which I can see easily doing this to the rope. It's polished to the point one could see their reflection now!

The rope thing is just new to me compared to cable where I could beat the pizz out of it and it was fine. It seems they make the sleeve for a reason. Just need to get used to taking a little better care of the rope compared to cable. I'll order up a sleeve to help protect the hook end as that's where I'm noticing the "issue".