Winch cable overkill?

Putting a new cable on my 9k lb winch. The winch came with 5/16" cable but I can get a deal on 3/8" cable. Would this be an unneccessary overkill for an xj as far as line breakage?

I have the same problem. I think too much. Put the 3/8 cable on if it's a good deal and enjoy the extra strenth. You will cuss it when you have to drag most of it up a steep hill or you realize that you can't spool as much on the drum because it's thicker but hopfully it won't have as manny meat hooks as your old cable.

I another good point. Can you fit 100' on a 9k? What do you have stumpalump?

I took off 5/16" and put on 3/8" equvalant synthetic. My 5/16 was a perfect fit at 90' and the synthetic just barly fit at 85'. You can use a hacksaw and hack some off if it is too much and remember it will not spool neatly when you are using it to winch up a hill so leave some room. Just carry an extra strap or two for times when you need extra. I have an ep 9k Superwinch that I'm liking more and more every time I use it. Oh and one more thing is that if you use synthetic you will knock a noticable amount of weight off the front end and will just plain love handling the soft rope. I'd put the money you were going to spend on a steel cable into a synthetic rope but it's easy for me to spend your money. Grin. Synthetic winch rope is tits.

I ran across this on Pirate when researching synthetic rope.
The diagram refers to "rope". It dosen't specify synthetic or wire, so I would assume either would apply to the equation. However, you know what happens when you ass u me.

I ended up going with synthetic. I used it several times this past weekend at Winterfest and I really like it. I purchased my synthetic rope from Scott at www.rockstomper.com Nice guy.

HTH

Hale

Double post.....sorry.

The synthetic is definetly more appealling, but it would still run me a 3 times what I could get the cable for. Since there are a few things lacking on the jeep now I will probably play it conservative where I can and save the pennies for the ARB's! Thanks for the tip Haleyes I dont see the link but I will go check it out.

I took 100' of 5/16 steel off of my T-Max 9000 and run 70 feet of 3/8 synthetic. It leaves me room to spool uncleanly and keeps me on a second wind pull (more power).

Its very rare that I need to winch someone or to something more than 30-40 feet away.