Winch Kit

It's sized like a standard 3/8 inch synthetic winch line, about half a millimeter thicker, and rated at 20,000 lb. If your winch already runs 3/8 inch synthetic, it fits. Coming off steel cable? Check that your drum holds 90 feet of 3/8 inch line, and look at your fairlead: synthetic line wants a smooth aluminum hawse fairlead, and an old roller fairlead that ran steel cable often has burrs that will chew it. Not sure? Email your winch model to sales@sandycats.com.

Use your winch's set screw, or skip it and use the line holder, your call. With the line holder: clean the drum down to bare metal. Peel the red liner and press the pad flat on the drum, running side to side, with one loop against a flange. Feed the tail of the line under the drum and through the inner loop from the top, lay about 8 tight wraps over the pad toward the flange, then pass the tail through the outer loop. Then the part that matters most: the line has to go on tight. Hook the end to a solid anchor, a tree or another rig parked with its brake set, put your rig in neutral at the bottom of a gentle slope, and winch yourself up toward it. The weight of your rig puts real load on the line, so every layer lays down tight. A loose spool lets the top layers bury into the bottom ones on the first hard pull and crush them. Keep your hands off the line while it's loaded; if a layer needs guiding, stop and set the parking brake first. After a couple of real pulls or proper tight spoolings, the line softens up and gets easier to handle. Whichever way you mount it, keep at least 8 wraps on the drum: stop paying out line before you reach them.

It sits on the line just outside the fairlead and stops the thimble from being pulled into it when you spool in, so you're never cranking the eye into the fairlead. It comes off quickly when you need the eye free to rig.

Shackle the pulley to the stuck rig's recovery point, run the line out through the pulley, and bring the end back to a rated recovery point on your own rig. That nearly doubles the pull at half the speed. The Anti-Tip Block keeps the pulley upright on its shackle while you rig, and the 50' extension gives you the length when the stuck rig is far out.

Every Kinetic-X rope and shackle is pull-tested to failure by an independent lab in California before we publish a rating. Every piece carries its manufacturing date, so you always know how old it is.

Every piece carries a lifetime warranty under proper use, within its published service life, which starts the day it's shipped. The winch line and the extension are good for 10 years in service. The full rules and the claim process are on the Warranty and Service Life page.

Run the whole line off the drum after every heavy pull and check it end to end before it goes back on. Retire it if you find torn strands under the sheath, melted or glazed spots, a section crushed flat from a bad wrap, or chemical contact. Not sure what you're looking at? Email a photo to sales@sandycats.com.