Warn 3700 12V winch

[jmarkwolf]

I have an older Warn 3700 12V winch that I bought new approximately 25 years ago. It's still working perfectly for the occasional winching of aircraft and lawn tractors onto my trailer.

However, the loop at the loose end of the wire rope is starting to pull through the double-barreled ferrule. I want to swage a new ferrule on, but the manual doesn't specify the type of wire rope (steel vs stainless), nor coating (clear coat vs not), and the very nice young lady at Warn couldn't advise.

After 25 years of use, the wire rope still looks like new, which suggests stainless, in which a zinc plated copper ferrule is specified. Other wise an aluminum ferrule is fine.

Further, if the wire rope is coated, then the coating must be removed prior to swaging a ferrule.

The wire rope is now sourced from communist china so who the hell knows.

Can anyone on the forum advise?

 

[Oregon Dave]

I have an older Warn 3700 12V winch that I bought new approximately 25 years ago. It's still working perfectly for the occasional winching of aircraft and lawn tractors onto my trailer.

However, the loop at the loose end of the wire rope is starting to pull through the double-barreled ferrule. I want to swage a new ferrule on, but the manual doesn't specify the type of wire rope (steel vs stainless), nor coating (clear coat vs not), and the very nice young lady at Warn couldn't advise.

After 25 years of use, the wire rope still looks like new, which suggests stainless, in which a zinc plated copper ferrule is specified. Other wise an aluminum ferrule is fine.

Further, if the wire rope is coated, then the coating must be removed prior to swaging a ferrule.

The wire rope is now sourced from communist china so who the hell knows.

Can anyone on the forum advise?

Find a logging/rigger business.

 

[rlitman]

...After 25 years of use, the wire rope still looks like new, which suggests stainless, in which a zinc plated copper ferrule is specified. Other wise an aluminum ferrule is fine.

Further, if the wire rope is coated, then the coating must be removed prior to swaging a ferrule...

So you're asking if it's stainless and/or coated?

Zinc wire has a dull surface that my eyes can easily distinguish from stainless, even when new, and after years on the shelf in a conditioned room, it takes on a haze that only gets more white and crusty over time. Stainless just looks like stainless. You could try a magnet, but my guess is it would stick to the stainless wire, as drawn and work hardened stainless tends to be magnetic (how strongly depends on the alloy).

A coating would be pretty obvious. We're talking about something thicker than wire insulation, not something painted on.

 

[slowtwitch73]

Ditch the wire and go synthetic.

 

[liliysdad]

Ditch the wire and go synthetic.

Synthetic is horrible unless you need it. For winches that sit more than used, are stored outside, etc…. The juice ain’t worth the squeeze.

 

[slowtwitch73]

Well yeah... if its for looks uncovered outside keep the wire I guess.

For usability, safety, weight, cost, go synthetic... like most rest of the world lol.

 

[liliysdad]

I’ll keep the wire….

 

[jmarkwolf]

So you're asking if it's stainless and/or coated?

Zinc wire has a dull surface that my eyes can easily distinguish from stainless, even when new, and after years on the shelf in a conditioned room, it takes on a haze that only gets more white and crusty over time. Stainless just looks like stainless. You could try a magnet, but my guess is it would stick to the stainless wire, as drawn and work hardened stainless tends to be magnetic (how strongly depends on the alloy).

A coating would be pretty obvious. We're talking about something thicker than wire insulation, not something painted on.

No, apparently the ferrule needs to be zinc/copper if the wire rope is stainless apparently out of concern for dissimilar metals corrosion, and in either case the coating needs to be removed for crimp integrity.

The Warn tech support got back with me and I've learned that the wire rope on the older winches are galvanized. I said, OK, then what ferrule is recommended aluminum or zinc/copper. They declined to render an opinion since they are not a cable manufacturer, they get their cables from communist china, and suggested replacing the cable with one of these.

The original ferrule appears to be aluminum, so I'll go with that, and just keep an eye on it.