Wire Rope Questions

[boustany]

Hello All

Somehow, the wire rope on the winch on my ATV which holds up the recently installed plow snapped, only a couple days after the install. It boke on the cable, about 1' up from the hook.

Of course, my son claims "it just broke" while he was driving along, so I'll never gain any insight as to why it broke.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

In any event, I had some some spare sort of little U-bolts so I cut off the fray end with a hand grinder and made a new loop.

My (main) question is, there are two ways of joining up a wire rope, namely those little U Bolt things and sort of aluminum sleaves which are supposed to be squished in place. I had the U bolts handy, but I noticed that all the professional uses of wire rope seem to use the sleaves, so, supposedly, thats the way it should be done.

Still, it must make a great deal of difference how you squish 'em. How is this supposed to be done? I haven't seen any purpose built tools, so maybe vice grips or something are what you use.

How do you know when its been done correctly? A slipping wire rope can be dangerous.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Inspector507]

Cable bought with the loops on them, the sleeves are pressed by machine. They do sell a hand swager to do it. Home Depot sold one to me for $20. Sleeves are less than a dollar usually, depending on size.

 

[SPIKER]

You forgot about un-twisting the cable about 24" back so that there is 2 main halves, then looping the two ends back adround and re-twisting them together to form a loop at one end, though it is not as strong and you need to re-capture the loose ends with some sort of hold, we use some small wire and wrap it at the joint end and a coating of tape...

works great in a bind. it does take a little practice to get the ends to come out in the right spot where the two halves have stopped being unraveled and look good but with a few tries you'll be amazied how nice they turn out.


Mark M

oh we don't LIFT with them this way but light pulling it works like a charm! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[JerryG]

The sleeves are normally installed with a tool that looks like a pair of bolt cutters. The size of sleeve has a corresponding slot for that size in the tool.

 

[rdbrumfield]

there are several ways to make a loop with cable. The "farmers eye" as Spiker explained above, a crimped eye, spliced eye, cat hookers eye, a some I most likely have not heard of. When using the "U" bolts, remember, never saddle the tail. Meaning that the part under the nuts, the saddle, goes on the line side, not the end of the cable. Use at least two.

 

[MikeIA]

The place where you buy the swaging tool should also sell a "go-no go" gauge....it's a piece of metal with slots that are the right width to check the diameter of the crimp. A properly crimped ferrule (the aluminum or copper piece) will maintain 100% of the strength of the cable. There are guidelines even for the number of crimps per ferrule. You can do an internet seach for "nicopress" for more information.

A cable clamp will reduce the strength of the assembly by at least 20%. You need to be careful to apply cable clamps correctly: "Never saddle a dead horse" is a catch phrase to help you remember which way to install Crosbys-- The dead end of the cable is the end not supporting any weight, the saddle should always be towards the live end. More information is available at www.thecrosbygroup.com. In their catalog, look for "Wire Rope End Temination", then "Application Information"

 

[vicashoe]

When you put a loop (flemished eye) to the end of a wire rope and marry it evenly, the loop and marry is actually 2X the strength of the wire rope itself. Putting the loop on the end of the rope is the preferred way. crosby clips and "squished" furrles are ok but inferior to the flemish eye.