Winch Extension Line Ends

Scott B.

Scott B.

Adventurist
I have a winch extension line of Amsteel 12. Currently, it has metal thimbles spliced in at each end.

I have been thinking about changing the ends - remove the thimbles and just have a loop in the line. I would put a protective sleeve over the line in the loop.

The main question is, what is the preferred style of line end? Thimble, cross-braced thimble or soft loop?

I have seen all styles, but never any comparison between them.

Opinions?

PS - whichever end I go with, I will splice it in.
 
An interesting question, and one I confess I had never wondered about before.

A cursory Google search turned up a page on the Samson Rope site devoted to thimbles, where they touted the fact that their thimble: " . . .is a high strength thimble that protects the rope and maintains the proper bending radius when connected to mating hardware."

The question becomes, how important is that proper bending radius?

"
 
That is a very good question.

One that also applies to Gator-Jaws as well. I always see those attached to something that does not maintain the proper bending radius.

IIRC, the proper bending radius is 4x the diameter of the line.
 
Rope on rope like this is fine:

Bubba-Rope-Gator-Jaw-Soft-Shackle-add.jpg


Optimistic Paranoid said:
The question becomes, how important is that proper bending radius?
Click to expand...

IMHO, the "proper bending radius" on synthetic is elusive, but we can all agree that at a certain point bending, pinching or chafing/cutting is BAD.

A gator jaw applied to a Crosby screw pin bow shackle on a frame mounted bumper for instance (a rigging setup that we can all agree is normal use) is maintaining the aforementioned "proper" bending radius by virtue of the shape of the screw pin bow shackle. The same could be said for most factory recovery points on a Jeep or Toyota.

Now look at this:

FACTOR-55-Gator-Jaw-in-use.jpg


I'd say that screw pin bow shackle won't harm the synthetic - the radius is fine. What I don't like is the hole in that thimble - it does not appear to have a radius or chamfer, just a straight hole designed to accept the pin on a screw pin bow shackle. I'd stay away from this setup with my expensive synthetic gear - 45 degree angles are pretty harsh on synthetic IMHO.

Back to the original question, the best type of line end is really up to preference - thimble, cross-braced thimble or soft loop that you mention all work just fine.

Me, I don't know that I'd go to the trouble to re-do the eyes on perfectly good winch extension line. YMMV.

On this topic, this is the new hotness in eyes - a gator jaw built into the end of a winch line? This really simplifies things.

I could see this being the future of extensions as well.

YES PLEASE!

LINK

gator-jaw-pro-line-winch-line_1.jpg
 
Great info here. I have been meaning to get around to upgrading to synthetic very soon before PWIM. I'm planning to run probably 80ft and another 40ft of extension. Nice and simple.
 
I have a winch extension that has the braced eyelets and looking to add a couple of soft eyelet extensions as well. I wouldn't remove the hard eyelets on the existing winch line even if I wasn't adding the soft eyelet extensions.

After an experience last fall, one can not carry enough winch extension line.
 
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