{"id":2134,"date":"2018-03-03T16:00:25","date_gmt":"2018-03-03T06:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.4wdsupacentre.com.au\/news\/?p=2134"},"modified":"2018-03-02T17:33:14","modified_gmt":"2018-03-02T07:33:14","slug":"why-you-should-always-respool-your-winch-rope-after-using-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/why-you-should-always-respool-your-winch-rope-after-using-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Why You Should Always Respool Your Winch Rope After Using It"},"content":{"rendered":"

A winch<\/strong><\/a> is excellent insurance against being stranded by yourself out in the bush. It doesn\u2019t matter if
\nyou\u2019re the kind of 4WDer who actively seeks out the biggest bogholes and wildest hillclimbs, or if your
\ntype of 4WDing is exploring and finding beaut new spots out on the bush \u2013 winches<\/a><\/strong> are a beaut bit of
\nbackup that give you the confidence to have a look what\u2019s around that next corner.<\/p>\n

Having a winch<\/a><\/strong> and knowing how to use it, literally is the difference between being stuck for hours or
\neven days, and being able to recover yourself in 30min or less. It\u2019s a great confidence booster, but did
\nyou know that you should always, after every winch<\/a><\/strong> recovery, spool your winch rope<\/a><\/strong> right out and
\nneatly respool it back in again? Doing so ensures that you get the most life possible out of your electric<\/a><\/strong>
\nwinch<\/a><\/strong>, and keeps it in good condition for next time you need to use it.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s almost never the case during a winch<\/a><\/strong> recovery, that you are able to winch<\/a><\/strong> perfectly forwards. More
\noften than not, you\u2019ll be anchored to a tree or to another vehicle slightly off to one side. That\u2019s perfectly
\nokay, and in fact winching at an angle of up to about 25\u00b0 away from dead straight is perfectly fine. We
\nwouldn\u2019t recommend winching at any more of an angle if you can help it, because you\u2019ll end up placing
\nexcess load on the winch<\/a><\/strong> and on the bullbar itself, introducing the potential for damage.<\/p>\n

What happens naturally when you winch<\/a><\/strong> slightly off to one side, is your winch rope<\/a><\/strong> bunches up on that
\nside of the winch\u2019s<\/a><\/strong> drum. If it\u2019s a particularly big winch<\/a><\/strong> recovery, you might end up jamming all the
\nsynthetic rope<\/a><\/strong> up around one side of the drum, making it extremely difficult to unspool again the next
\ntime you want to use it. That next time could well be an emergency \u2013 like when the vehicle is stuck in a
\nbog hole and there\u2019s water coming in the door seals. In that scenario you don\u2019t want to have to muck
\naround trying to unspool a jammed winch rope<\/a><\/strong>, so it\u2019s a much better idea to do it at the completion of
\nevery winch<\/a><\/strong> recovery you do.<\/p>\n

Start by unspooling the winch rope<\/a><\/strong> out as far as you need to until there\u2019s only neatly-wrapped spools
\nleft on the drum. Then, wearing a pair of heavy-duty recovery gloves<\/a><\/strong>, spool the winch rope<\/a><\/strong> back in. Use
\none hand to keep a bit of tension on the winch rope<\/a><\/strong>, at the same time guiding it back and forwards
\nacross the drum so it spools in neatly. It\u2019ll only need a little bit of guiding, as it will mainly feed itself back
\nand forward across the drum.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to keep tension on the rope<\/a><\/strong> as you spool in your winch<\/a><\/strong>. It doesn\u2019t have to be heaps of
\ntension, but just enough so that the winch rope<\/a><\/strong> wraps neatly. If you try and spool it in without holding
\ntension against the rope<\/a><\/strong>, it\u2019s likely that it will wrap around on itself and jam instead of neatly wrapping
\naround the drum. Then, when you go to unspool it next time, all of a sudden it will stop winding out and
\ninstantly start winding in. If this occurs, the solution is to find the spot where it has jammed on itself,
\nand use a bit of muscle to manually pull the winch rope<\/a><\/strong> out from under itself. In extreme cases you may
\nneed to even at this stage connect the winch rope<\/a><\/strong> to a tree trunk protector<\/a><\/strong> around a tree, and gently
\nreverse to tug the rope free.<\/p>\n

Synthetic winch rope<\/a><\/strong> is brilliant because it is so easy to handle. Wire winch cable is a thing of the past,
\nand in fact all 4WD Supacentre<\/a><\/strong> winches<\/a><\/strong> now come with synthetic winch rope<\/a><\/strong>. It\u2019s good strong stuff
\nthat\u2019s made for 4WD winch<\/a><\/strong> recoveries, but it does need just a little bit of caring for to ensure it\u2019ll be
\nready for the next time you need it. With just a little bit of care and thought, your winch will last you for
\nyears to come!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A winch is excellent insurance against being stranded by yourself out in the bush. It doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019re the kind of 4WDer who actively seeks out the biggest bogholes and wildest hillclimbs, or if your type of 4WDing is exploring and finding beaut new spots out on the bush \u2013 winches are a beaut…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2135,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2134"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2134"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2136,"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2134\/revisions\/2136"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}