Differences in Synthetic Winch Lines

There are multiple different types of synthetic winch lines available today, many of them are made from Dyneema fibers, while others are made from, Technora®, Vectran®, Spectra®, or Kevlar®. Each fiber has benefits and disadvantages and can be chosen depending on your unique application.

Technora® and Vectran® fibers are very heat resistant but are susceptible to bend fatigue. This is not ideal for off-road winching since winch lines are repeatedly bent around radiuses, such as a fairleads or snatch blocks.

Spectra is similar to Dyneema fiber, but is not as strong or as durable. Because of its strength and durability, Dyneema is the premier synthetic fiber for winching applications. There are multiple different types of Dyneema fiber, with the two most popular being Sk75 and Sk60, Sk75 being the stronger of the two.

Regardless of the fiber, all winch lines are braided in a 12 strand construction. Each strand is composed of many fibers and 12 strands are woven together to form the rope.

All Master Pull winch lines are made with Dyneema Sk75 fiber ropes for superior strength and quality. We offer three different versions of winch lines of varying performance.

Basic

The Basic Series winch line offers all the advantages of synthetic lines at an affordable price. The line is made of genuine Dyneema fiber in a 12 strand open weave construction.

Superline®

The Superline® synthetic winch line has breaking strengths that are unrivaled by any other synthetic line or steel cable. The Superline® is made with pre-stretched and heat set Dyneema synthetic rope. This is a special process of heating and pre-stretching a larger diameter rope into a smaller diameter. This gives the rope a very high breaking strength when compared to steel or other synthetic winch lines in the same diameter. The pre-stretching also makes the rope more dense, which helps prevent chafing materials, such as dirt and sand, from getting lodged in the strands of the rope, which over time will degrade performance of the line.

Superline® XD

Comprised of the high strength Superline® as its core and a Dyneema overbraided cover for unrivaled abrasion resistance, the Superline® XD is the ultimate synthetic winch line. The overbraided cover makes it the most durable winch line available. When rigging a vehicle extraction, winch lines are subject to dirt and sand getting lodged in between fibers and strands of the line. These abrasive elements start to wear down the fibers of the rope, decreasing the performance and breaking strength of the line. The overbraided cover on the Superline® XD prevents this type of abrasion, which greatly increases the longevity of the winch line. Even after years of use the inner core of Superline® can still look brand new thanks to the outer braided XD cover.