Viking Winchlines are Genuine AmSteel-Blue™ with Samthane™, a special coating to help resist abrasion. The raw material in AmSteel-Blue™ is made from Genuine Dyneema® SK-75 HMPE fiber, which is the strongest fiber available, made by DSM in the Netherlands. With a Viking Winchline you can be assured of the best quality US and European made goods.
Ease of Handling: Steel winch cables have a tendency to kink, rust, and have very sharp strands once nicked. They also tend to straighten by the nature of the material making them harder to spool back on the winch properly. Our synthetic winchlines have none of these problems. However, synthetic lines are more susceptible to sharp edges (bumpers in particular) and heat, but they are much stronger, safer and easier to work with.
Strength: Dyneema® synthetic winchline fiber is up to 15 times stronger than quality steel and 40% stronger than Aramid fibers on weight for weight basis. This means the replacement synthetic winchline is typically 35-45% stronger than steel cable! Steel cables are typically sized to match the strength of a winch. For example a 9,500 lb capacity winch will have roughly a 9,500-10,000 lb capacity steel cable. The replacement synthetic line would be 5/16" (7.9mm) or 3/8" (9.5mm). Our Viking Winchlines are rated at 12,300 lb (6 metric ton) for the 5/16" and 17,600 lb (8 metric ton) for 3/8", making them approximately 23% and 46% stronger on the conservative side.