Good question and good guesses, but what that cable does is it actually pulls the lower portion of the gear leg back into the upper portion when the gear is retracted. In other words, the gear struts extend so far (because they're built to land on carriers) that if they weren't pulled back "in," the tires would meet in the middle when the gear is retracted. Does any of that make sense?
Howard Pardue's -1 Bearcat has a spring loaded mechanism that looks more like a shimmy dampner that you'd find on a Spam can or something.
Also, the Corsair and the Helldiver have a very similar setup, using cables to "compress" the gear upon retraction, so it will fit in the wells. NEVER let a line guy convince you to air up the struts on your Corsair, Bearcat, or Helldiver, by sight, as this will potentially put enough pressure on the strut that it can break the cable, causing the gear to "miss" the wheel well and make your sheet metal guy pretty mad.
Gary