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By: John Nutter - 7/1/2003

Protect Your Winch Rope From Damage

No wear marks were visible on the fairlead after a day of hard use.

Two socket head cap screws hold the fair lead to the winch. The screws are counter sunk and there is a cover to keep mud out of the holes. (The cover is removed in this photo.)

Winch rope is expensive, no matter who's winch rope you buy. If you buy a winch rope, you will want to protect it as much as possible. After years of cursing the steel cable on my Warn 8274, I finally broke down and bought an X-Line winch rope. I intend to make mine last as long as possible. My roller fair lead was scarred from years of use, with burrs that were just waiting to fray my new X-Line. To prevent this, I went with the X-Line fairlead from Off Road Only. The fairlead is anodized aluminum and installation is incredibly easy. Just 2 bolts. That's it. Really.

You're probably wondering how well that block of anodized aluminum will hold up. I was wondering about that too, so I held off on this review until I could find out. I got my chance to find out in the middle of June. I used the X-line and the fairlead a lot on a day when we were building trails. I spent the morning winching logs into place to repair a bridge on one trail. After that I winched myself up a water fall on another trail that we had just opened and then dragged my Jeep on it's side the rest of the way up that ravine. The next guy up the ravine starved for fuel and ran out of battery for his winch, so I turned around and pulled him out as well. The pictures on the right are the "after" photos. I couldn't see any wear on the fair lead at all.