How strong is the steel cable (wire rope) that comes with your winch?… Not very.

It turns out that there is little margin of safety with steel cable equipped winches. Why is this? Unlike the lifting industry, the recreational pulling industry is unregulated, consequently winch manufacturers typically equip winches with steel cables with minimum breaking strengths that are very close to the max winch capacities. The lifting industry requires a 5:1 safety factor due to the overhead dangers. The pulling industry does not. In fact many steel equipped winches possess a safety factor of less than 1.5!

Take for instance common 5/16 steel cable supplied on most winches up to 10K capacities. The working load limit (WLL) on common 5/16 steel cable is only 2000 pounds. The minimum breaking strength is approximately 10K pounds. So in many cases a 10K winch can be supplied with a steel cable with a minimum breaking strength of 10K. Take a look at the steel cable writeup from our friend Tyler at Roundforge (Roundforge.com) for more comprehensive data on steel cable types and classes.

One of the reasons that cable failures are relatively infrequent is mostly due to vehicle recoveries being in the 4-5k pulling load range, well below the cable breaking strength. Also, often times steel cables can possess ultimate strengths above the minimum breaking loads. So what’s the takeaway here? Due to the little margin of safety in steel cables, make sure you properly maintain the cable and be on the lookout for weakening factors like kinks, broken wires etc., and when possible use a snatch block to reduce the cable load.

Yes, we often end up breaking wire rope slings during the pull testing of our products.

Picture supplied by our friend James Pickard. James snapped his steel cable while using the UltraHook. The UltraHook possesses a breaking strength of 31,000 pounds(hook opening) to 48,000 pounds(shackle pin mount). Engineering facts matter.

Factor 55 – Engineered, Tested, and Made in USA

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You asked for it and we listened. Many of you wanted more information on the UV degradation of synthetic winch rope. For off-roaders, UV damage to winch ropes is secondary to the more damaging abrasion and impacts we subject our lines to. But with regard to UV damage, the web is full of anecdotal information about this subject, but what are the real facts? Many will claim that winch ropes are coated with UV inhibitors that prevent ropes from getting UV damaged, others say that all polymers are subject to some level of UV damage. Since we don’t have the facilities to conduct an accelerated UV exposure test ourselves, we turned to our friends in the cordage industry as well as scoured the web for any real test data. Here is what we have discovered. You can extrapolate the data as you wish. 

First of all, a majority of the winch rope manufacturers do not manufacture the individual UHMWPE fibers that ropes are comprised of. These rope companies purchase spools of the fibers/yarns from companies like DSM which owns the Dyneema trademark. The real fiber knowledge resides with these fiber companies. In the images below we have included UV test results direct from the fiber source – DSM. We have also included data from the sailing (coated and uncoated fiber) and the climbing industry.

As the exposed outer layer of your rope sustains UV damage, the damaged fibers become opaque which attenuates further damage to the inner rope fibers. The problem is that the UV damaged outer rope layer is weaker and abrades and rubs off easier when used, exposing fresh undamaged fibers beneath. This is not as much a problem with a static application like standing rigging in sailing. However, this can be a problem in a dynamic application like off-road winching where we are repeatedly rubbing and abrading the dirty gritty winch lines across our fairleads.

So how do we tell how much strength our winch ropes have lost due to UV damage? You can’t. So what’s the take away then? All fiber and rope companies agree that prolonged UV exposure will damage UHMWPE fibers to some extent. In some cases up to a 20% strength reduction can occur in under a year. Take a look at the UV data charts and decide for yourself. The simple fix is to cover your winch line from the sun. Winch covers work well to cover the spool, and because silicone is inorganic, an opaque RTV silicone can be used to cover smaller areas of winch line as well. Common Cordura abrasion guards can also protect the last portion of your line from UV damage, but don’t rely on these guards for winch line protection when rock crawling.

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#buyamerican #winch #winchsafer#winchsafety #vehiclerecovery

#trailridesmatter #racerecovery #innovationnotimitation

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We like what we see, but we really like what we don’t see even better ……exposed synthetic winch rope.

Let’s face it, if any of your synthetic winch rope is visible on the front of your rig, then it’s also vulnerable to damage from the sun and impact or abrasion. No one ever argues this point.

If you can see it, then you can ruin it, plain and simple. So where is the best place to stow the end of your synthetic winch line? There is only one place, behind your fairlead where the sun and rocks can’t get to it. Our ProLink family of products have always provided this type of complete rope end protection, and now our Rope Guard equipped Flatlink family of products does the same.

So, if you are running synthetic winch rope and you can see it, then get it out of harm’s way and behind the fairlead where it belongs.

Engineered, Tested, and Made In The USA

#factor55#closedsystemwinching #shadebrigade
#precisionengineering#professionalrecovery#itsyourwinchonlysafer

#madeinusa#madeintheusa#buyamerican#winch#winchsafer#winchsafety

#vehiclerecovery#trailridesmatter#racerecovery#innovationnotimitation

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Our new Rope Guard products come with installation instructions but many of you asked for an installation video as well. Well here it is. Please remember to remove the FlatLink and UltraHook products from your winch cables so that you can properly place them on a horizontal surface for easy drive rivet installation. Have a great weekend everyone! #justthefacts

CHECK OUT THE NEW PRODUCT HERE:

http://factor55.com/product/flatlink-rope-guard-new/

Several of you have recently inquired about the function of the load centering spool that comes as standard equipment on our FlatLink XXL product. The spool is not intended to be used as a pulley since there is no type of bearing in the spool. The spool provides a self-centering feature for cables and ropes that are considerably smaller than the cable opening in the FlatLink. We shot a quick video that hopefully answers most of your questions.

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