sportsman09,

I picked up a second winch hook and attached a 15' piece of rope right to the hook without the thimble. A friend recommend the knot shown below. I've used it for plowing for two years now, and it's still holding up fine. Here's the link (look at the bottom video).

The Constrictor Knot

The more you use it, the tighter the knot gets. I'll have to cut it if I ever want to get it off.

 

Give this a try before you buy a new fairlead fella's. My wife just got me a synthetic line for X-mas. Before buying a new fairlead today I pulled the old rollers off,and mounted them in the drillpress and started with with a fine tooth file and worked my way down to 600 grit sand paper and then polish. The old rollers look like polished aluminum now. Only took about 10 min. per roller. Not to mention saving a couple bucks!

 

Yep..real good idea to just clean them up.
I have a basically new set of rollers if anyone needs them,like I said I went to the hawse mainly for it's lower profile.

 

It is super easy to do a real eye splice on your winch line. There is a walkthru on the whole process here:

Tech Tip - Splice a Broken Winch Line - ATV Torture Forums

 

I have had the same problems,cold and heavy gloves you run it up to far and bang you break it. I'm thinking of changing to a 3" wide strap like on a boat trailer. They are rated 10,000 lbs. Only need 6or 10' for plowing. Anyone try this?

 

yes, there have been quite a few people that have used a tow strap for plowing

 

the first time I ever used the winch was to get a big fallen tree out of a driveway...pulled it a few feet then decided to abort, but somehow in those few feed I managed to put some serious rash on the syth rope...was rubbing somewhere inside the spool....My guess is it was too much of an angle and rubbing against the side of the winch? I'm new to winches so maybe I just dont know what I'm doing.

 

I have one of those popular polaris 3500 winches that came with syn rope on my xp.Can anyone tell me if the polaris rope at the end have an eyelet and bolt to the spool? Im going to replace the rope so I looked at the spool and cant see where it bolts to.

 

Hey gaspumpcity, I have the Polaris 3500# winch and am planning on changing to a short rope for plowing, so I pulled mine out also. The rope on mine goes all the way through the spool and has a knot on the other side, it's not bolted.

 

Good to know wonder if its ok to cut the eyelet off on the rope I have now? If so how do I keep the end from fraying?