Any winch can run synthetic line safely. The picture below is of synthetic winch line that was brand new at the start of the day and was being used on winch that only comes with, and is designed for synthetic lines, a Warn 9.0 RC winch. I switched to running nothing but synthetic lines since they came out for vehicle winches 15+ years ago, maybe even longer ago than that :thinking: Basically here is what I have learned and it's really kind of a Captain Obvious statement: It really just comes down to how much and how hard you are going to use them. This is the major determining factor of life span of any winch line, steel or synthetic. Higher quality synthetic lines like Viking and Master Pull will definitely last much longer and are certainly worth their price over cheaper brands. This line in the photo is neither a Viking or a Master Pull, and saw its complete life cycle of use over the course of one King of the Hammers Stock Class race. But again, how much and how hard is what killed it and we used the hell out of it in just a few hours to the point that it basically melted it to the drum in one big bundle. What we could free and unspool towards the end of the event was just crystalized, glass like fibers that would break in my hand. The amount of use this thing saw is what an average line might see in a 20-30 weekends of jeeping and getting stuck multiple times each time you were out and each use considered a "hard pull".
By no means am I trying to change your mind about switching from a steel cable to synthetic line, the benefits of synthetic still out weigh any steel line usage to me. Just remember each type of line has its own level of abuse that it can safely withstand, and each has a certain amount of required maintenance that will definitely extend its lifespan. Spend some coin and get a quality synthetic winch line :thumb:
