In the case of rigid items, you would be correct in the assumption that the forces would not be equal, but in the case of a cable, the force on the cable does not change with angles. The cable is primarily loaded in tension. There are different forces on the front of the vehicle. You will have the tension component of the force, but you will also have some lateral components, which depending on the angle of the cable, may be trying to lift the rig, pull it sideways, pull it down, etc. But in the case of the cable, you will not have more than the force of the tension, unless you applied some lateral load to the cable somewhere along the length of the cable, then the tension in cable can increase. It can get complicated, but in general, the primary force on the cable is tension from the winch and will generally not be above the rated pull of winch. Bear in mind, you only double your pulling force if you reattach to the vehicle. If you run through a snatch block and hook the cable to a tree, you will only have the pulling force of the winch. If you are winching at an angle, you will have a component of the force pulling the vehicle sideways as well. A lot of winching damage occurs from lateral loads and poor cable practices. If you use a steel cable, always drape a jacket or something else over the cable. This helps absorb some of the energy if the cable breaks. The reason synthetic cables are so popular, they don't have the same ability to store potential energy like a steel cable. They don't have the mass, so even when they do snap, they don't do the same damage. I have snapped a winch cable, and it sent one of the hooks, right through the tailgate of my truck (we were being stupid and had some cables hooked together with only open hooks)! We were lucky that no one died! That cable would have easily gone through one of our heads!! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/shiner.gif" alt="" />