Pig tail on steel, machine-mounted winch cable

[JonnoR]

Hi all,

I've been thrashing around with my Lennartsfors iron horse and the first 50cm (12 stone) of the steel winch cable resembles a Datsun Sunny front spring.  Two questions - 1: have I overloaded the winch to have it shit itself to this degree and, 2: will spooling out and putting the winch under tension fix it?  

Ta,

Jonno

[openspaceman]

1 hour ago, JonnoR said:

Hi all,

I've been thrashing around with my Lennartsfors iron horse and the first 50cm (12 stone) of the steel winch cable resembles a Datsun Sunny front spring.  Two questions - 1: have I overloaded the winch to have it shit itself to this degree and, 2: will spooling out and putting the winch under tension fix it?  

Ta,

Jonno

It seems to me you may have loosely spooled the wire onto the drum  and then winched in hard causing the loose bits to buckle under the now taut rope as it wound on. Spool it all out and attach it to a heavy but moveable load and slowly winch it in under steady tension, weaving the iron horse so that the cable lays evenly on the drum.

 

If however you mean the rope has sprouted hairy bits then you have damaged it and someone will end up getting spiked.

 

To me a pig tail is when one passes the wire through a socket and then unwinds and splays out all the individual strands prior to pouring molten metal onto the wire to fix it in the socket.

 

 

[Doug Tait]

I don't think overloading would cause this but maybe been laid back on the drum loosely, got twisted and the subsequent wraps on top squished it?

It doesn't sound like you'll be able to 'fix' it but you might improve things.

 

For me it's good practice to regularly unspool the cable fully, inspect, and spool it back on the drum under slight tension. Preferred method for me (with tractor mounted winch) would be unspool fully, attach hook to something ideally incorporating a swivel, then let the winch pull the free wheeling tractor to the anchor to keep it under tension.

Another thought is, I would always keep a wrap and a half or two wraps on the winch drum for security, if your damage is on the first 50cm it sounds like it gets fully unwound so if you spool it back in loose it's likely to twist up. Even holding it in your hand will help lay it back on neatly.

 

In your situation I'd unspool fully, respool with tension making sure it was neat, then not unspool the damaged half meter in future.