Winch spooling - too long?

I've got a Smittybilt X20 with synthetic line that I have waited for months to mount. My bumper is finally done today and I have the winch mounted and ready to go on the vehicle. Something I noticed when I was free spooling before, and again today, is that I have entirely too much line left over when I reach the outer guards. Like at least ten feet.

I figured that this would resolve when I put tension on it when I do my initial wind on the vehicle, but honestly I don't know at this point. I'm using the line that came with the winch, nothing aftermarket.

 

How did you spool the initial line spooling? I have the same winch. My first spooling consisted on consistent line tension. I parked my truck at the top of a small incline, had another tacoma attached to the other end of the line in neutral, and spooled it for 45 seconds, then rested for 1 minute, spooled for 45 seconds, rested for 1 minute and repeated until the line was completely spooled on the winch. No issues with mine.

 

What was the reason for the 1 minute breaks?

Was this because the winch was new?

 

You do not want to put a long consistent load on the winch or the battery.

 

I haven’t put it on the truck yet, I was just spooling by hand so everything stayed together. Probably something no one does, which is why I hadn’t found an answer.

 

So the best thing to do is to take the line off if the winch, install the winch on the truck, and spool the line under a small load while it is on the truck.

 

I spooled mine by hand to mount it and then drove out to an empty parking lot to do it under tension. I wrapped a tree saver around one of the huge concrete light pole bases and winched the truck in neutral up to it while guiding the rope side to side to wrap consistently.

 

This is another good way to do it.

 

That was the plan, but there’s so much leftover I’m going to have to wrap it around the hoop or something. That’s why I decided to ask.

 

What is the diameter of the rope and what does the manufacturer say about the drum capacity with that diameter? If it’s the factory rope then tensioning it onto the drum properly will really compress it. If it doesn’t fit after that I’d double check the rope diameter and length.

 

Once you put it on under load you'll be fine. If I need to drive with the line undone at all, I run it up my hood, do a loop around the mirror and then put the rest on the passenger floorboard. I'll just shut the door on it, it won't harm anything.

 

As everyone stated, once it was tensioned it fit fine. Guess that's what my inexperience gets.