Re: Trailer winch wont get tight..
I'm loading a 1,000 lb boat and a 1,500 lb boat, both do the same thing. It got better once I added a set of guide ons to the small boat but I still have to guide the strap with one hand and crank with the other or it folds over or abrades on one side of the spool. To get it tight, I crank an additional 10 or 12 cranks before it tightens up, and by the time I get home, about 5 miles, its loose again. The strap seems to compress on the spool or stretch. Both straps are from well known makers, one is a Sea Sense, the other I believe is from Boater's World, not sure of the brand. I also oversized the bolts on both since the 1/4" and 5/16" bolts that fit the spool kept bending under load. I put in 3/8" grade 8 bolts on both. I also find that with a strap, I have to run a much larger winch than I normally would need just to fit the entire 20 or 25' strap onto the spool. On my 19' boat, the strap is 3" wide, 25' long, I had to buy a 5,500 lb winch to hold the whole strap, the next size down had too small of a spool. On the larger spool, the strap barely comes to 1/3rd spool. I've also had several straps pull their stitching out where they attached to the bow hook, I've had 4 of the 3" wide straps fail so far, those that failed gave out in the yard and never once winched in a boat. They gave out when I first tightened up against the boat. All are marked Heavy Duty, 10,000lb rated. So much for a rating I guess. Having so many fail like that made me so leery of them I went back to cables. I do use only high end Stainless steel aircraft cable. The good cable will last for many years, won't rust, and is much softer than cheap factory installed winch cable.
Of course, none of my boats will ever even come close to stressing any cable. Cable also don't degrade in direct sunlight as a strap can.
