Winch ropes are made from Ultra High Molecular Polyethylene (UHMWPE) and made as a single braid with a long pitch.

The winch ropes are made with a long pitch to keep the fibre orientation as close to straight as possible while still being able to be spliced.

Brummel splices are recommended and instructions how to do a Brummel splice are included here. Just click the link here to learn about Brummel Splicing.

Winch ropes strands are twisted with minimum twist (a compromise  between durability and low stretch). Using low twist keeps the fibre orientation as close to straight as possible.

Winch ropes are made from 2mm to a maximum of 30mm. Talk to us if you want a finer braid because we can do thinner diameters (e.g. 0.5mm) for special customers!

Testing of Winch Ropes

UHMWPE creeps and as it does so gets stronger before loosing strength as it gets thinner.

As it creeps the orientation of the molecules in the strands are straightened which increases its strengh.

This same effect can be achieved by heating the finished rope to close to its melting point and stretching it. A number of manufactures do this to claim additional strength, Nautilus does not. The same effect can be achieved by loading the rope to 60% of its estimated break load and cycling this a number of times.

Nautilus Braids published break loads are the breaking load on the first cycle which disadvantages us when compared to published results from competitors, but we feel is more honest particularly when used in a safe working load for a life sensitive application.