ATV Winch question

[tenrag]

When I was letting out the cable on my ATV winch it suddenly reversed direction after about 20 feet and starting wind itself back it. I had a lot of cable left on the spool so I'm confused why this would be happening. I did not touch the direction switch or anything else, i had tension on the cable when this happened.

Any ideas what is going on?

[Norwestalta]

Probably got a turn on your drum messed up. The cable is more than likely pinched so it wouldn't come out the fairlead and started winding in upside down. I think it should unwind/wind from the top. Clear as mud? Lol

[ROY-alty33]

Yep cable overlapped or pinched on itself. Tie it to a tree freewheel the hub and back 'er up slowly is probably a good idea.

[albravo2]

What they said. The winch spool keeps turning the same way but a pinch in the cable means it starts rolling in instead of out.

Must have been a real head-scratcher at the time though.

[Norwestalta]

Yep cable overlapped or pinched on itself. Tie it to a tree freewheel the hub and back 'er up slowly is probably a good idea.

If slowly don't work usually fastly does. Lol.

[Backwoods]

Haha yup, get a good anchor like the boys said, and use as much force as yah need to tug that overlap out.

[Buckmeister]

Once you get the cable running properly, check it over for any damage. Kinks can spell disaster for winch cable and/or cause it to be unsafe for future use.

[SPEYMAN]

To avoid this issue, after you have used the winch, fasten the end to something solid and wind the cable on without making any overlaps. Put a liberal amount of oil on cable. I use the oil I get when I do an oil change.

[Darksith]

To avoid this issue, after you have used the winch, fasten the end to something solid and wind the cable on without making any overlaps. Put a liberal amount of oil on cable. I use the oil I get when I do an oil change.
or just spool the whole thing out and have a buddy put a wee bit of tension on it while you respool it so that it stays nice and flat and organized...will extend the life of your cable. I unspood and wash my cable once a year

[Salty]

Living on the north island for a couple decades where your fillings will rust if you sit still too long I became a big fan of Ship-2-Shore http://ship-2-shore.com/ as the best thing to have a hope at freeing up rusted and bonded parts, its also an excellent preventative treatment. A less expensive and really good preventative treatment would be Fluid Film which is at any of the big box stores and cheap. Both come in spray bombs and would be excellent products to use on a winch cable once in a while to keep rust at bay, and keep them good and slippery so they don't bind up and misbehave on the spool. As said already always wind a winch in with some tension, hook onto a log and drag it in or pull yourself in to a tree or whatever so that it spools nice and tight.

[Darksith]

there are non metallic winch lines out there too fyi

[Phil]

I have had that happen a few times too,, I do the same as previously mentioned to re spool but add paraffin wax to lube the cable. It doesn't mess up your ATV with oil or have dust stick to the oil over time. The extra lube allows the cables to slip past one another without fraying one another as readily. Not a perfect fix but worth doing.

[wideopenthrottle]

one thing mentioned was unspooling it and spooling it tightly...especially at the start cuz if not tight enough when you pull hard with only a bit of cable out the cable will dive deep into the spool and get stuck in there