Replacing Wheelhouse Cables

Remember about 10 or 15 years ago when wheel houses first became real popular? At that time the thought was the cables had to be replaced every couple years if they were galvanized and every four years if they were stainless steel, my house has 5/16 galvanized cables on it. What is everyone’s thought now about how often they have to be replaced? I’m on about four or five years now on my galvanized ones and they don’t show any signs of wear, corrosion or fraying. I’m starting to wonder how long these things would really last, although I don’t wanna be the guy with a broken one out on the lake either. Replacement time probably has a lot to do with how much time you spend on the road with your house, the more salt exposure, the faster the corrosion. How often are you guys replacing cables now? PS-I used to do it every two years.

3
the correct season is coming soon! I would replace the cables before you take it back on the road. I agree that you dont want a broken cable out on the ice. JMO

I always just kept a spare or two in the fish house when I had a crank house. It’s about a 5 minute job to replace them on the lake. I just replaced them when they started looking rough which can happen what seems like out of nowhere.

I wouldn’t replace them unless they showed signed of crushing, bird caging, severe distortion or 3 broken wires per lay or 6 random broken wires.

Question, do guys ever replace these with straps instead? Or how about something like a synthetic winch rope from an atv winch? I dont have a wheelhouse, but I was just curious.

I’ve thought about it, but not done it. The rope sure seems like a good idea but I keep doing steel. I’ll watch and see if others have.

My house is a 2018 with stainless cables and I have never replaced them. I have a metal hack saw and cable clamps in the house in case one breaks. I also keep an eye on them and when I notice fraying I will replace them. The ATV winch cable sounds interesting even if just for backup since it would probably be easier to work with. I did just replace my tires this year due to weather cracking.

All I know is my dad did a lot of plowing with his atv and busted the steel cable more times than he could count. He got a synthetic rope from AC and didn’t have near the issues just if he winched it in too far because he never replaced the fairlead.

Kind of along the same lines but make sure you are greasing your pivot points. Grease, grease and more grease! I’m not sure if they’ve gotten any better but that crank house I had was a 14 and you could grease that thing as much as you wanted and they would still lock up. Ended up grinding grooves in the stub shafts so grease could get all the way around and never had another problem. Just kind of a weird poor design all around but I haven’t looked at a newer one to see if they’ve gotten better.

I’m seeing more and more crank downs with the straps. On my UTV plow I went from steel cable to synthetic rope to finally a strap this year. The synthetic rope was an improvement over the steel cable and I think the strap is an improvement over the rope. The rope was starting to fray so I replaced it with the strap before a problem occurred.

That rope got a workout though between plowing in the winter and pulling out docks in the fall.

fins wrote:

Ended up grinding grooves in the stub shafts so grease could get all the way around and never had another problem. Just kind of a weird poor design all around but I haven’t looked at a newer one to see if they’ve gotten better.

Good advice I have heard of others doing similar to this.

Fins. I did the grooves too, AND put 3 grease zerts in the top and 3 more in the bottom. Replacing a cable is one thing, but having those axles rust in one position or the other would be pure hell