3 Advantages Of Using Steel Cables For Your Off-Road Recovery Winch Instead Of Synthetic
If you're shopping for a new off-road recovery winch for your vehicle, you'll notice that most manufacturers have switched to synthetic cables in their winches. They're made of an incredibly durable synthetic rubber, and are easily capable of towing gigantic amounts of weight.
However, you shouldn't discount steel cables—they still have their place in off-roading. They have better longevity and a higher surface strength, which makes them more reliable during an off-road recovery. If you've found a great deal on a winch and are worried that it uses older steel cables, you shouldn't be—read on for three advantages that they have over synthetic.
1. Steel Cables Have a Stronger Surface, Reducing the Risk of Breakage
When it comes to maximum pull weight, synthetic cable often wins out over steel cable—it's incredibly strong. However, this number rarely matters in practice. The weight rating of your winch is the most important factor in determining whether or not you'll be able to successfully recover your vehicle.
A more important consideration than the maximum pull weight is the surface strength of the cable. Steel cable has a significant advantage over synthetic in this area. When a winch cable snaps, it's usually due to the cable becoming damaged rather than the maximum pull weight of the cable being exceeded. Rocks, trees, and bushes can all cause synthetic cable to quickly fray apart and snap. Steel is much stronger, which allows it to withstand these obstacles—this reduces the chances of the cable snapping during your off-road recovery attempt from scraping against an obstacle.
2. Synthetic Cables Suffer More Damage From the Elements, Reducing Their Lifespan
Steel cable has an advantage over synthetic when it comes to longevity. Synthetic cable slowly degrades while it's exposed to sunlight, since the ultraviolet rays from the sun will break down the materials in the cable. Heat also quickly degrades synthetic cable, and electric winches often become very hot when they're in operation—every time you perform an off-road recovery and the winch heats up, you'll slightly damage your cable. These two factors combined mean that synthetic cable needs to be replaced periodically—older synthetic cable has degraded and is much more likely to snap during a recovery attempt.
Rust is the only thing that affects steel cables, and you can protect them from rust by applying WD-40 to them. This gives them much greater longevity than synthetic cables, which leads to old steel cables being more likely to withstand the forces of an off-road recovery compared to old synthetic ones.
3. Steel Cables Are Just as Safe as Synthetic Ones, Since You Should Always Use a Recovery Damper
If a winch cable breaks during an off-road recovery, a broken cable is very likely to fly off at high speeds—it's placed under an extreme load and is capable of storing an enormous amount of potential energy. This can easily damage your vehicle or seriously injure someone standing nearby.
One of the major selling points of synthetic cables is that they store less potential energy compared to steel cables. This fact is true, but it doesn't have much effect in practice. Synthetic cables still store small amounts of potential energy, and they can still whip around violently if they break during the off-road recovery attempt.
No matter which type of cable you use, you should always strap a recovery damper to the cable when your winch is in use. Recovery dampers absorb the force of a broken cable and prevent it from whipping around if the cable breaks. With the damper on, the cable will fall harmlessly to the ground. Since dampers should always be used during off-road recovery attempts, the advantage that synthetic cables have in this area isn't a very useful one in practice.
Synthetic cables do have some advantages: they're much lighter than steel cables and they don't develop the razor-sharp burrs that steel cables do. Both are perfectly fine choices for your off-road recovery winch. However, don't assume that synthetic cables are the only way to go for a winch—steel cables still have a number of advantages.
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