Posted by Clint Dixon on Sunday, August 19, 2007 at 10:22:59 :
In Reply to: Winch Line, how much is enough ? posted by Mark C on Saturday, August 18, 2007 at 22:08:36 :
The Dodge Dealer Sales Manuals and the Power-Wagon sales brochures all list the Braden MU2 winch as being supplied with 250' of 7/16" cable.
I have run 250' of cable for years on my WDX. If you follow the good practice of winding the cable in tight under load, this length will leave you with enough remaining capacity where you could add an additional one to two more layers before the drum would be full. If you wind it in sloppy and loose, 250' will fill the drum.
I recently had to cut 50' of cable from the length to make room for a crankshaft driven hydraulic pump. I don't like the looks of this. I think 200' makes the drum appear somewhat less than 3/4 full.
Additional information that I find from vintage Braden literature lists the following cable footage for 2/3 of full cable drum capacity:
1/4" cable - 700' length
5/16" cable - 450' length
3/8" cable - 316' length
Using these numbers for as a baseline comparison in doing the math, I find that it would take 225' of 7/16" cable to make the drum 2/3 full. It would take 255' of 7/16" cable to make the drum 3/4 full.
So, 250' of 7/16" cable will, for all practical purposes, give you what you are hoping for.
Junior
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