Cable comes off drum

[FordyceCreekTrail]

This is something that will happen to all winch owners, its only a matter of when. Some winch cables are attached with a little chewed bubble gum, or a cheesy little clip.( the latter takes forever to get put back on) This seemingly absurd connection is unfortunate, but done for a simple reason. They don't want you winching directly from the drum. The drum will not be able to handle the stress of pulling straight from it. The drum needs a wrap of cable, to distribute the load. In the case of our 2018 and prior Power Wagon winches at least they have a nicer connection. The connection utilizes and copper terminal to connect to an allen wrench screw on the drum. The copper is extremely delicate however. In my case I went to winch a couple of Christmas trees up a hill and "sproing"! The cable pops off. The copper connector had been pinched and folded over on the drum by the cable. One of numerous possible failures. An attempt to bend the terminal connector back open resulted in the copper simply tearing. Of course we gave up long before this and dragged the trees up the hill. But....then the Open Diffed Frontier slid off the road and pulling with a strap became impossible. So we had to fix the winch in the snow. Once the connector broke we used a small piece of webbing with loops from a carabiner helping to keep the winches wireless remote module from falling and made a noose around the cable end, then screwed the webbing to the drum and carefully pulled the cable in. Once you have a full wrap on the drum the cable should stay in place, despite the crappy connection. However the chances of failure are great until I get a new cable end( or some synthetic line) so I will keep a wrap plus on the drum until then and keep the cable very tight. In a pinch you can also use a shoe string, with a prusik knot around the cable. When you need your winch, you need it....and that is when the cable comes off.....

[verdesardog]

Well of course! That little connection is just to get the rope started on the drum, when winching you need to keep at least 6 wraps on the drum!

[Bill2014]

Just like dental floss - if you don't wrap it around your finger a few times....

[FordyceCreekTrail]

Was interesting how the connector got crushed by the cable. Problem is when the connection is broken the cable will sort of spring back sometimes and pop off, even with 6 wraps on the spool. Of course I need synthetic line, that will come. But not my first winch to lose the cable on over the years. Never happens at a good time. Once someone is stuck against a tree off a cliff, its winch time, not strap time.

[RustyPW]

This is what I did with my cable. I soldiered the cable end to the connector. Now I don't have to worry about it coming apart. The next thing I did. The last wrap of cable on the drum. I painted with red paint. Plus the 10ft in front of that. I painted yellow. When I'm unspooling. When I see yellow. I know I'm near the end. I see red. I've gone too far.

[FordyceCreekTrail]

Seen that Red Wrap before, very cool trick! What length of synthetic line are folks getting away with? 100'?

[Low_Sky]

Seen that Red Wrap before, very cool trick! What length of synthetic line are folks getting away with? 100'?

I like 80' on the drum, and using extensions if you need more reach. Trying to fit maximum cable on the winch drum just means you have to pull more line to get to the lower wraps on your drum (for more pulling force), and have less margin for off-center pulling stacking the line up on one side of the drum.

[FordyceCreekTrail]

I went with 92' of 15K Smitty Built line. Warn line was crazy ridiculous. Should have ordered it sooner but thought I could sneak by for awhile. The shoe string broke and cable spun on drum again when I went to clear up a hill side pile up the other day. Did you guys that upgraded to synthetic switch to a Hawse or not?

[KevinABQ]

I didn't, but I had never used the steel cable. Synthetic line was about the first thing I did to the truck as soon as I got it home.