Black waxy substance ?

[Die Judicii]

Can anyone tell me what it is ? I’ve just stripped the steel cable out of one of my winches and replaced it with synthetic. The rope itself is black, and is also coated with a black waxy substance. The problem is it transfers to your hands, and is really difficult to wash off, even with detergent and hot water. Anyone know exactly what it is ?

[Flavius Maximus]

What exactly is the rope made out of? & what does it look like? It could well be the plasticisers from the material. I had that happen to me with some cheap, black nylon rope growing up. Specially on a hot day, those chemicals tend to leach out & cause it to be waxy & hard to wash off. Nasty stuff. But, it could well have been pvc. Who knows with chinese junk

[Wapiti]

Great points from Flavius.
You find what he has described on rifle recoil pads of the more recent Chinese manufacture, they start out soft and nice, then suddenly turn tar black and sticky and then self-destruct. It's a deliberate intent from the Land Of China makers by leaving out certain polymer additives that keep the product stable, and make a product fail as they always do from greed.
Isn't their military hardware crap doing well in Iran right now?

Was it a 4wd winch DJ?
They normally do not ever have plastic coated cable, it's usually uncoated because winding through the fairleads and onto the winch drum would destroy any plastic cover.
Even smaller winches for ATV's are uncoated.
Unless someone's lubricated the cable, and it's deteriorated, collected the metal rust and friction particles within the steel strands then degraded as lubricants do and become black and sticky.
I've seen that on tilt trays where the owner has decided that he will lubricate the cable.

Bit of a warning for people who replace winch steel cables with all that pretend-Dyneema poly winch rope that is being copied by the Chinese and sold as good gear by 100's of sellers...
Age will degrade it because it's made of Chinesium, even in the shade. And worse still, any of the rope sticking out of the winch exposed to the sun (usually the hook end) and will snap when you need it most.
A good sign of this is a slight fading of colour, followed by the outer layer showing slight "powdering". That's usually followed by snapping and a tensioned tow strap or tree protector connected to it by a shackle becoming a missile.

[Die Judicii]

Yeah thanks for that.
It was an ebay buy, so most likely a Chineee product, (after all,, our govts have allowed the situation of struggling to buy anything other) I'll keep using it (with gloves) until such time as I can get the dinky di rope.

I don't believe the backlash from woven rope snapping is anything to really worry about compared to steel cable.
As I understand it the woven rope doesnt have the kinetic energy when it snaps.
But if under any real load, I always put a dampener over the line anyway.

[Flavius Maximus]

I don't believe the backlash from woven rope snapping is anything to really worry about compared to steel cable.
As I understand it the woven rope doesnt have the kinetic energy when it snaps.
But if under any real load, I always put a dampener over the line anyway.

Don't be so sure. A friend was using a nylon rope to pull out a shrub with her patrol, & my mum was thrown back when it snapped. Maybe not as dangerous as steel cable, but it can still be lethal. Don't underestimate the woven stuff

[Fester]

The worst part of it is the companies just lie, telling us we caused it by using chemicals so they can just keep selling the dissolving recoil pads at close to $100. Not so bad if they were priced near the $20 they are worth.

My Beretta shotgun one was replaced at my cost.
One of my Limbsavers is looking pretty sad.
If the Airtech one does the same, it may not work so well.
I don't think my Weatherby S2 or Tikka pads will ever deteriorate.
Everything made of plastic is chinesium that would be lucky to last a week in the sun.
An Otto bin can last decades, so it doesn't have to be like this.