7 July 2021 (before departure to Iceland)
After about one and a half years, the Warn synthetic rope on the drum was so frayed that it had to be replaced. The fraying occurred only after the 10/11 turn, i.e. immediately after the thermal protection. Most of the fibres were destroyed and would no longer have withstood the possible pulling force of the winch.
Presumably the heating of the drum led to the destruction of the fibres, but this could not be confirmed by anyone. We suspect that the effect of heat on the unprotected rope, which was lying directly on the drum, led to thermal bonding and the fibres were damaged during unwinding.
When we complained to the seller of the winch (Calonder/Bergdietikon), we were met with great understanding. The importer of the winch did not show us much goodwill and we had to replace the rope at our expense. We consider the price reduction that was passed on to us to be a good act on the part of Calonder.
The winch installed on the last Jeep (Smittybilt x2o with 5’300Kg pulling power) was superior to the Warn winch installed now and cost four times less than this top model from Warn. Both winches have been in real use several times so far, i.e. without a winch there would have been no progress.
Let’s hope that the newly fitted rope will endure a little longer. In any case, the thermal protection on the rope is a bit longer, so that the rope won’t/couldn’t “stick” to the drum.