Wire winch cable

[Trigger82]

Hi all,
Just curious as I have nothing to compare it against been my first Winch. When I freespool the winch it basically unravels itself on the drum, which in itself is a pain due to no tension when winching myself out and not been able to fit all the wire back on the drum.

The winch in question is an ironman 12'000lb so is it just a cheap cable or is this prone for all winches running wire cable??

[SeaComms]

There should be adequate resistance in the drum in free spool mode to stop the cable from unspooling on its own like that. You should have to pull the cable out, not hit freespool and have the drum spin on its own.

Once some has been pulled out though, if the cable is let go slack it will unspool on the drum, thats the nature of cable as it trys to straighten itself out. If this happens you will need to completely unspool and reload back on to the drum with mild tension on it.

[Trigger82]

Thanks for that, id say at least half the time i freespool it generally the first layer or two unravel, and most of the time as soon as i pull some out it generally all unravels unless someone puts there hand on the drum,

hmmm, some sort of synthetic rope may be my next mod then for shear ease of use and safety.

[MR EXTREME JEEP]

A low mount that has so little resistance in freespool is grouse. My guess is that the cable hasnt been wound onto the drum with enuf tension. If the cable is on tight it will help your situation. I hook a tyre onto the end of the rope when winching it back up.

[SeaComms]

The synthetic rope would definately reduce the problem... I am not familiar with the iron man version, but a call to the suppliers might be in order to see if the brake is supposed to be still engaged to some extent when in free spool mode.