After much use and frayed cable (cut hands) I finally decided to improve my hand winch by going synthetic.
To my surprise it goes ok
Pros
It is easier to work with.
Its lighter.
I put more cable length on it.
The steel cable tended to splay the drum apart jamming the rachet, this no longer happens.
Cons:
The cable is fatter and theres the splice so less cable fits on the drum
Heres the mods
1 enlarged the drum opening to splice round the main shaft
2 Weld a section of pipe to keep the cable inline
3 Tape and splice the hook
4 Sand everything with wet and dry so its all smoth.
Done