are there any tips out there on training a new winch cable?
Thanks
LeeAnn
Ready Set Tow
Salt Lake City, Utah
Hi LeeAnn, welcome to ITOW Talk.
I've never heard of training a new winch cable. 
Am I missing out on something?
We have had a problem with some drivers who insist on pulling out a lot of cable before hooking up. These drivers always have messy over-wrapped winches. (which must be re-rolled neatly by days end) We train the drivers to pull the winch out by the j-hook, and only pull out enough to make your hook. This keeps the winch much neater. It does however require a well lubricated, free moving winch, otherwise some drivers are not strong enough to pull cable with a fully extended arm. 
I try to load them under tension, dragging a Ford P/U in gear (manual trans) has worked well for me. Of course you need to get a few wraps on before puting any real load on the cable.
You don't want to get the cable loaded loosely, if there is space between the wraps you end up birdnested.
just read your post kinda new to this web site, when wrapping a new wire rope i like to have someone on the controls and a load on the rope while i have a hammer and one really big ass screwdriver hitting the rope as your winding it onto the winch, it puts a tight first wrap on it and i never had any problems with it birdsnesting after i loaded the winch with the new rope, putitng it on tight insures the coils will keep there shape. once they form it will be be like that first wrap every time you pull it of the the spool. 
What i use is a 2x4 board and i will c- clamp that to the end of the bed after i run the cable between the bed and the board , this in turn will put enough tension on the cable to aid in wrapping it nicely around the spool , what will help too is wd-40 on the cable as you wrap the cable