A certain tensile load in the rope is required so that ropes on cranes can be securely wound up or unwound even when there is no load on the crane hook. A hook weight arrangement is provided through which the rope is stretched in order to generate the required tensile load. The hook weight is usually two percent of the breaking load of the rope. Accordingly, at a breaking load of 10 tons, the hook weight is 200 kilogram. When the crane rope has a double pull only half the weight acts upon each strand so that the weight is to be doubled in this case. Such large weights are manageable only with corresponding machine apparatus, which makes their use more difficult.