Here is a quick down and dirty on our ropes:
All of these are 12 strand ropes, composed of the ultra strong, yet lightweight Dyneema fiber. This is essentially a plastic fiber, which is why the ropes are referred to as 'synthetics.'
Amsteel Blue- This line works well for a lot of people and has been used for years for offroading. Before that it was used on fishing boats and still is used in that way today. The problem with it is that it is not a very stiff line and is fairly easy to damage or get caught. This line is available from many different places and in a couple different colors too.
http://www.amsteelblue.com/index.cfm
At Masterpull we have a few stronger line options:
MP winch rope- It is slightly stronger then Amsteel Blue and is a little bit stiffer and also more durable then Amsteel also.
http://www.masterpull.com/cpage.cfm?cpid=423
MP Superline- This line is much stronger (21,000 lb breaking strength in 5/16ths line) and much more durable then either Amsteel or MP winch rope. The line itself starts out as a larger line, it is heated and stretched down to a 5/16ths line. This stretching makes the rope seem a little stiffer, which helps to keep dirt and grit from getting between the fibers and deteriorating them.
http://www.masterpull.com/cpage.cfm?cpid=413
MP Superline XD- This is the strongest rope on the market today and also the most durable. It's core is our Superline, with a outer braided cover that makes it incredibly abrasion resistant. Another great feature of the cover is that it helps to keep the inner core clean of even more grit then the Superline.
http://www.masterpull.com/cpage.cfm?cpid=478
Each of our ropes come with a 10ft nylon heat guard on the first ten feat of the rope, meant to go on the first wrap of the drum to protect the rope from being melted if the drum overheats. Some people prefer to use a LCP (liquid crystal polymer) section for the first 20ft or so of the rope because LCP is highly heat resistant. The drawback to this rope is that the fibers don't like being wrapped around snatch blocks, or dragged around. This is why we don't sell full length sections of LCP rope. Now you will see some people, sell full lengths of Plasma rope. Plasma rope is like LCP in that it is heat resistant and doesn't like being bent, twisted, etc. I would recommend that everyone stays away from a full length of Plasma, LCP, or Technora, these are all the heat resistant fibers that I can think of at the moment. Here are our ropes that have a LCP section:
http://www.masterpull.com/cpage.cfm?cpid=424
For any of the lines I would suggest a 3ft rock guard to go along with them. Ours velcro on and off, making it easy to move them around and store in your rig.
http://www.masterpull.com/item.cfm?itemid=9132
Also keep in mind that since we splice all our lines we can do just about any custom combination, length or strange order you want to think up.
-Alex