There will be excess wear on your winch line by doing this. You will still need gloves anyway for other things. The winch line is not a tree saver so you will damage trees. Your still going to need soft shackles or regular ones and tree savers if you need to use a snatch block. I will keep things normal for me but it is a great idea. I got some crap one time using a regular strap on a tree and not a tree saver a couple of times because it was only 2ā wide not the 5ā-6ā like itās supposed to be. I couldnāt imagine how crazy the tree huggers will get if you just put your winch line around the tree. Lol
I apologize, I saw this post about 3 minutes after I put mine out there. I have zero experience with synthetic line, only wire, so just looking to learn.
Uh... The use of soft shackles, including soft shackles integrated into your winch rope, to eliminate metal shackles has been around for a while. Using soft shackles and converting your winching system to synthetic rope as extensively as possible, instead of any metal in your winching system, (no heavy projectiles flying around in the inevitable event of a line or connector break) is your best bet for improving safety.
A lot of us here in North America have been going in this direction for quite a while. Even Factor 55 seems to be on the bandwagon, although perhaps a little reluctantly since so much of their product line is metal. Factor 55's aluminum pulleys (https://factor55.com/product/rrp-standard-duty-soft-shackle-combo/) are a great way to eliminate heavy, dangerous, snatch blocks and get to a lighter, simpler, safer system.
Only the Aussies, who generally really know their offroad stuff, seem to still be hesitant, probably only due to a culturally driven excess of testosterone. But, they're smart; they'll get over it.
I like the idea and appreciate the goal. Way too easy to get overloaded with essential crap.
I worry about damage to the synthetic winch line, from a tree or perhaps metal edges of a tow point not designed for a soft shackle. Much easier and cheaper to replace a tree strap or soft shackle than the whole winch line.
As weāve discussed on a previous post. This is no invention. Synthetic ropes with soft shackle ends are already on the market.
Edit: and they are less expensive than what he is asking for.
Anyone that knows knot making doesn't need any hooks on anything, just a rope and can bypass any hook system. Its not really something new its been there for ages on classic grand ships etc. If the winch has a rope end, you can attach it to anything with a perfection (angler's) loop (or bowline too) knot for example. So he's just using knot knowledges and applies it to the end of the winch rope, the difference being he adds a Ball at the end so that the rope doesn't scroll back into the winch and he can attach it faster to the tree, but making a knot is not that slow . I used that knot regularly on everything at home on the house, car, used it multiple times on our sailboat, when securing trailer items etc. .
You could basicly have a winch stopper at the end of the rope and never use it by making a perfection loop around the hook or tree or anything you want to attached it on and leaving the stopper dangling below the knot so that the stopper is not part of the equation if anything breaks, and if the line breaks, you just do another new knot...
its nice and all, but not worth that money at all for knowledge that existed centuries ago in my opinion. This to me sounds more like selling a fridge to someone living in the artic...
I get the marketing and wish him great success. Personally I don't mind taking to other people and taking the time to enjoy wherever I am taking as much time as is needed to help out or just shoot the breeze. This guy is kind of OCD and while I would take his help if there was someone else I would feel more comfortable asking someone else for help. The video makes him seem like it is more of a chore to help me out and I can do without that - I'm sure it is just the video but I am not his demographic unless someone else markets it to me. Today's times you don't get a lot of personal interaction here in CA and we may soon need vaccine passports to engage others - Unless you are off road