Experiences with Dyneema

"Ian" wrote in message
news
This started from a thread on winch cable breaks, but I thought I should
start a new thread:

What does concern me is:

- it may be more susceptible to damage due to being mishandled (eg damaged
by rubbing on steel parts) leading to a shortening of its useful life.

- that on high wear surfaces (eg gravel or tar) it will wear out long
before the high capital costs can be recovered.

If anybody has first hand experience, please pass it on.

Thanks

Ian

The feedback I have been getting is that the stuff lasts longer on almost
any surface. The key, as Bob Johnson pointed out, is that the weight
bearing down on the runway is far less with Spectra/Dyneema. On turf, the
stuff should last much longer.

Breaks, when they occur, are almost always due to the material getting
nicked by a sharp edge - usually where the termination hardware attaches.
There seems to be some room for improvements in attachment hardware.

It's clear that with extremely long cables, Dyneema delivers higher launches
but the benefit is much smaller with short winch runs. If you are fortunate
enough to have 2000 meters or more, really high launches are possible.

Bill Daniels