Soft vs. Hard Shackles

[mshred]

Hi all, first post and new to the world of wheeling/overlanding (but not new to motorsports- drag racing and motorcycles) After going wheeling for the first time ever in my 4x4 03' Tundra and also getting stuck, I am starting to put together some recovery gear for my truck. My friend pulled me out trouble free using a tow rope and d-ring shackle attached to his hitch, but in coming to put together my own kit, I have read about how dangerous the solid D ring shackles can potentially be if they fail.

I have been looking at something like these soft shackles, except I guess I am missing how I would use them if I was the one recovering another vehicle- through my hitch hoops where trailer chains would mount or ??? I was eyeing these soft shackles below"

Set of Two 7/16" Synthetic Soft Rope Shackles w/Free Storage Bag, 34, 000lbs+, Shackles - Amazon Canada

Set of Two 7/16" Synthetic Soft Rope Shackles w/Free Storage Bag, 34, 000lbs+ in Shackles.

www.amazon.ca

Even though these seem to be more common...

Trimax TDRRHR Receiver Hitch D-Ring (Red), Receivers - Amazon Canada

Trimax TDRRHR Receiver Hitch D-Ring (Red) in Receivers.

www.amazon.ca

And just for criticism sake, considering these other 2 items...

Ranger 3" x 20' Tow Strap Tree Saver for Winch Recovery Heavy Duty with Reinforced Loops + Protective Sleeves 30,000 lb Breaking Capacity 13.6 Tons, Recovery Straps - Amazon Canada

Ranger 3" x 20' Tow Strap Tree Saver for Winch Recovery Heavy Duty with Reinforced Loops + Protective Sleeves 30,000 lb Breaking Capacity 13.6 Tons in Recovery Straps.

www.amazon.ca

AC-DK Recovery Boards Traction Tracks Mat with Gloves for 10Ton, Set of 2 Traction Boards Offroad with Bag for 4X4 Jeep Off-Road Mud, Sand, Snow Traction Ladder, Track Tire Ladder, Tire Traction Tool(Red), Ladder Rack - Amazon Canada

AC-DK Recovery Boards Traction Tracks Mat with Gloves for 10Ton, Set of 2 Traction Boards Offroad with Bag for 4X4 Jeep Off-Road Mud, Sand, Snow Traction Ladder, Track Tire Ladder, Tire Traction Tool(Red) in Ladder Rack.

www.amazon.ca

I am not planning to do anything too crazy, just simple trails and basic overlanding/camping, but I do want to have some gear for unplanned surprise situations, and I just want to make sure I am making a good choice (yes, I know amazon is knock off and far from the best, but for the frequency of use I think it would serve its purpose).

Opinions and experience appreciated!

 

[WOODY2]

Regarding item 2 the tow strap I would suggest you investigate a kinetic recovery rope instead. They are intended to stretch as opposed to tow straps. Bubba ropes and Yank'm are 2 sources. On another note notice the receiver hitch has holes allowing a 90 degree orientation if an offset pull is required as opposed to a pull straight out the back.

 

[mshred]

Regarding item 2 the tow strap I would suggest you investigate a kinetic recovery rope instead. They are intended to stretch as opposed to tow straps. Bubba ropes and Yank'm are 2 sources. On another note notice the receiver hitch has holes allowing a 90 degree orientation if an offset pull is required as opposed to a pull straight out the back.

Thanks for the reply, not getting email notifications, have to figure that out still.

I did a little more research last night actually after posting and learned about kinetic rope, definitely looks like the better option for what I am after. Thank you for that insight.

As for the hitch receiver, after posting I was watching some videos on soft shackles, and one way they were being used was sliding in to the receiver portion of a hitch and using the hitch pin as the anchor to keep it in. Is this not recommended? Seems like it would be ok, and work for offset pulling as well (if I am understanding that correctly)

(at the 3:10 mark)

 

[WOODY2]

In some offset pulls it would be better to rotate the hitch receiver 90 degrees to allow the shackle to operate in it's strongest position by not "side" loading it.

 

[1stDeuce]

FWIW, If you break a hard shackle, you are doing something REALLY wrong. That, at least, is not a concern if you're using decenly sized (5/8-3/4") shackles. Generally, what fails is what they're hooked to...

I have a few soft shackes now and they're nice for some things. I would recommend picking up a few for your kit, as they're pretty cheap on ebay/amazon. But I'd also have a couple of hard shackles in there, as there are times for them too, IMO...

Hooking a strap or soft shackle to the pin of a receiver will work, but is not something I would do for a seriously stuck vehicle, only a quick and easy pull on snow or ice, or something like that.
If you have a 2" reciever, I would recommend at least a $20 straight hitch insert and a hard shackle over a pin through a soft clevis, strap, etc. Just let it the insert ride in the hitch to keep your "kit" weight down.

In general, I use soft shackles to connect ropes/straps/winch cables together, because if something breaks, it's likely NOT to be the hitch of your truck (assuming your hitch isn't rotted to heck...) but rather a strap or rope somewhere along the line. With the soft shackle, you're won't slingshot a couple of pounds of steel shackle at 100mph into anything or anyone.
You can also use soft shackles to hook to vehicles that don't have tow points, but be sure to hook to solid points, not tie rods, sway bars, etc. Cast or forged lower control arms work well. Ford and newer GM tow hooks also work nice with soft shackles, and I prefer them there to a hard shackle, again to keep "flung" weight to a minimum should the hook let go. (not likely either...) The 1/4" plate steel safety chain holes in some hitches can be used with a hard shackle for easier pulls. I'd worry about cutting a soft shackle on a sharp surface like that. If the hitch has round bent loops for safety chains, I'd opt for using a pin and soft shackle or strap... The little round safety chain loops are pretty weak generally.

I use a hard shackle with a reciever mount of some kind at the hitch end on my vehicle, and I use the lightest setup I can for the other vehicle end of the rope/strap/cable. This keeps "flung" mass down should something let go.

I do not own a kinetic rope... yet... but I'll probably end up with one eventually, and if you're starting from zero, that would be my recommendation over a strap of any kind. With a kinetic rope, you can extract vehicles heavier than yours, or extract yours with a lighter vehicle. Or at least it ups the odds in your favor...

Sounds like you're on the right track!!

 

[vtsoundman]

Keep one hard shackle in your kit - there are places / uses for them (i.e. abrasion, cuts etc). Get several soft shakes - you can use them 90% of the time.

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

 

[Metcalf]

I use soft shackles almost exclusively now. They are much more convenient, lighter, faster, and can be used to do a lot of interesting stuff.

The limitation is that they need to be used over a gentle radius to maximize life and strength. They do no like hard sharp metal corners.
On most vehicles, this requires some kind of adapter device of upgrade to use them correctly.

 

[Hillbilly Heaven]

MaxTrax has a soft shackle comparable hitch receiver adapter.

https://maxtraxus.com/product/maxtrax-hitch-50/

Notice rather than a straight hole it has a more pocketed approach to increasing the radius for a soft shackle.

 

[billiebob]

I really like the soft shackes but cannot justify the price
Top of the line from Warn Epic shackles are often half the price

 

[Metcalf]

I really like the soft shackes but cannot justify the price
Top of the line from Warn Epic shackles are often half the price

Looks like my soft shackles are 10-20 less than the Warn Epic units.

I'm not a fan of the hard inner corners on the Warn units. I think they missed the mark there.

 

[WOODY2]

Looks like my soft shackles are 10-20 less than the Warn Epic units.

I'm not a fan of the hard inner corners on the Warn units. I think they missed the mark there.

I agree on the hard inner corners, what were they thinking(

Looks like my soft shackles are 10-20 less than the Warn Epic units.

I'm not a fan of the hard inner corners on the Warn units. I think they missed the mark there.

Van Beest Green Pin hard shackles for the win, either 3/4 or 7/8"

 

[DaveInDenver]

Van Beest Green Pin hard shackles for the win, either 3/4 or 7/8"

Van Beest (green), Crosby (red), Gunnebo (yellow), Columbus-McKinnon (CM, orange) or Campbell (blue) are probably the brands that can be trusted to be what they claim (e.g. comply with ASME B30.26 or the equivalent for design margin, proof test and WLL rating for overhead lifts, which means it far exceeds our needs) and the only gotcha will be trusting the supplier to be sure what you're getting isn't counterfeit. I'd trust Warn as a company but, I dunno, with well established options for rigging not sure there's any reason to risk it.

 

[Metcalf]

At what point are we over-rigging things? I can't see needing a 3/4-7/8 shackle on anything in my 3k-7k vehicle stable. I've been taking a hard look at if overhead lifting FoS factors are creating more issues than they are solving in the off-road recovery market. I haven't seen a single recovery point in recent memory that would come even be close to withstanding loads from shackles this size. I have to ask myself if we aren't creating a larger risk in potentially failing the recovery point ( adding it's mass ) to the larger heavy metal shackle. It seems like a dangerous evil circle.

I can see a 2-3:1 FoS in vehicle recovery being a safe margin....but ~6:1 seems to be getting ridiculous to me.

 

[WOODY2]

At what point are we over-rigging things? I can't see needing a 3/4-7/8 shackle on anything in my 3k-7k vehicle stable. I've been taking a hard look at if overhead lifting FoS factors are creating more issues than they are solving in the off-road recovery market. I haven't seen a single recovery point in recent memory that would come even be close to withstanding loads from shackles this size. I have to ask myself if we aren't creating a larger risk in potentially failing the recovery point ( adding it's mass ) to the larger heavy metal shackle. It seems like a dangerous evil circle.

I can see a 2-3:1 FoS in vehicle recovery being a safe margin....but ~6:1 seems to be getting ridiculous to me.

I don't know if I would call it evil but ******** happens and it's all about ones risk management and willingness to expose their assets. I would be the last one to claim others choices are bad without offering options and let them make the choice. To your point however there is a video out there that shows someone ripping his front bumper off trying to use a snatch strap.

 

[DaveInDenver]

At what point are we over-rigging things? I can't see needing a 3/4-7/8 shackle on anything in my 3k-7k vehicle stable. I've been taking a hard look at if overhead lifting FoS factors are creating more issues than they are solving in the off-road recovery market. I haven't seen a single recovery point in recent memory that would come even be close to withstanding loads from shackles this size. I have to ask myself if we aren't creating a larger risk in potentially failing the recovery point ( adding it's mass ) to the larger heavy metal shackle. It seems like a dangerous evil circle.

I can see a 2-3:1 FoS in vehicle recovery being a safe margin....but ~6:1 seems to be getting ridiculous to me.

How is margin bad? I know your point is always you want to reduce mass but that only matters if you've exceeded your known WLL and are expecting the piece will break. If a rigging system is all within capacity, in good condition and has margin there's no reason you must assume it'll fail. The chance a 4.75 ton shackle is going to fail is exceptionally rare.

So there's always the possibility that an unknown will fail and that's probably the connection on the vehicle. But if that fails with all the rigging still attached then there's nothing more you could have done to reduce that risk. But if a receiver hitch or bumper comes loose of it's truck its inertia is working for you, not against. High inertia means slow acceleration. A 100 lbs bumper isn't going to readily accelerate and as a result can't travel far before digging into the dirt.

Connecting to a sketchy clevis is risky regardless if it's a hard or soft shackle. If a couple of pound clevis tears its crap welds from a bumper it's still a violent projectile even if you used a soft shackle. Maybe you then make the shackle a fuse by intentionally under sizing? That seems like a risk of having an uncontrolled failure point. And despite the popular belief even light weight stuff can be accelerated to dangerous velocity. There's plenty of Youtube videos of synthetic winch lines not just falling to the ground like everyone thinks it will.