I got a tip from a buddy of mine who owns a Sportsman 700. I guess the winch is mounted very close to the fairlead on these machines. This causes the ferrule on the winch cable to ride up on the rest of the rolled up cable while in the stored position. He noticed that the ferrule was chewing up the cable on the drum from constant use during plowing. He added a heavy gauge 6" long by 1-1/8" spring. Adding the spring seems to keep the ferrule off the drum and the diameter is large enough to stay put on the outside of the fairlead rollers.

On my Kodiak the winch does not sit as close so I don't have the same issue but I tried it out just to help keep excess tension off the drum while the cable is in the stored position. This allows enough tension to keep the cable taught and eliminates excess slack. I used a 3" long by 1-1/4" spring. For $4 the spring is cheaper than buying a rubber "winch stopper". I'll post a pic when I get a chance.

 

I got a tip from another site about a similar idea.

For about $3 you can pick up a boat trailer roller, the one that goes in the middle of the trailer with kind of a V shape in the middle. Cut it in half, and put it over the winch cable.

You can kind of see it in this photo.

photo

 

I like that even better. I'll have to give it a try once the spring gives in. thanks

 

Look at my pics, you will see i used a dog toy from walmart, which had many colors to choose from, and matched perfectly