I found some less expensive soft shackles and synthetic winch rope at customsplice.com. Although they are all currently sold out. https://customsplice.com/collection...line-synthetic-winch-rope?variant=38956040207
With all due respect, do you have any idea how much it costs to patent something as well as run a battery of testing?
You may want to review the Factor 55 FAQ on thimble damage. Take it or leave it. I don't care what you do to your own equipment. You paid for it.
I believe Factor 55 products are hard anodized which I think may cost more than powder coating. But there are costs beyond aluminum and anodizing. Machining costs money. Engineering costs money. Other finish materials and hardware costs money. Packaging costs money. Property, plant, and equipment cost money. The people who answer the phones and process your order get paid. It all adds up.
I agree I would never just have the rope and gator jaw on the end.
If someone is worried about the cost of the soft shackles, a few minutes time on the interwebs will result in the ability to tie your own knots on rope that you can get from a marine supply shop and save a few bucks/enjoy that you made it. It is really much easier than most people think.
That is one reason why I would consider the splicer although the original thimble, being made of aluminum wouldn't really have much of an issue, even without the boot. The prolink, however, still suffers from the fact that it is another and very arguably unnecessary possible point of failure, regardless of it having a rubber boot. I also don't like how the original thimble runs through the fairlead, even if it is only that short.
Thanks for the advice @sardog12 I’m considering the splicer for Factor 55 as well However, what do you think about using only a soft eye and soft shackles and a hard shackle only if necessary. Then just connecting the soft eye to a tow hook or hard shackle connected to the bumper only for storage purposes as to not pull the line through the fairlead. To me this seems like the best way with the least amount of fail points, and in the case of something failing, less deadly projectiles.
I think that a soft eye is a good idea. The only thing that I would make sure to do would be to get some sort of tubular webbing (thicker is better) to put in the eye to protect the rope in the eye. However, I would not attach a hook to it. One of the main concepts to keep in mind is that while the rope is great at being flexible, one of the properties of the synthetic is that it does not like extreme bends and the pin on a hook would very possibly weaken the hook at that point. If you look at the different types of soft shackles (ways that the knots are tied), you will find that there are different ratings because of the radius of the loop as it passes around the area right below the knot. The smaller that diameter, the more likely for breakage. Even though this is not a Jeep site, here is the site that I found most helpful to understand exactly what I am talking about and it has links to additional information as well as how to make your own. This site is great too for illustrations on the knots. At that point, it is just a matter of what size rope you want to use. For the rope, I have used go2marine.com to buy shorter lengths and specific colors by the foot but you could even probably get a full line from amazon and cut and make 7-10 shackles if you get good enough and enough people want to go in together. Or they make great Christmas gifts! An additional point about the synthetic rope is that it is very tough to cut. A normal knife won't do it but a pair of electrician's scissors do the job nicely. Just remember to tape the rope with painters tape where you want to cut so the fibers stay tight. Also, while soft shackles are great and I would much rather use them, hard shackles have a place also. There are times that you may need multiple shackles or times where a hard shackle would be a much better solution (e.g. using a snatch block, attaching to another bumper where the clevis points have sharp edges, dragging logs or other objects on the ground).
Awesome thanks again for the help and the sites. I’ll makemsure and check them out. I agree that both soft and hard shackles have there place. It just depends one what you are trying to do. This is what I wasn’t thinking about for the soft eye. Since you bring up the fact about extreme bends would this not be a good idea then since no matter what you attach to it once you start pulling it will basically bend in half whether it be a soft or hard shackle? Also speaking of which wouldnt a soft shackle do the same thing?
I have wondered about that as well and that is why I would prefer to use some sort of thimble for my rope but have also seen where extensions have the soft eyes. When looking at 3/8" rope, if you compare the difference in diameters between the lowest end of the soft shackle eye and highest, it is not a tremendous difference but the resulting strength is much higher. I would think that a soft eye with the chafing guard being passed over a tow hook would be suitable since even the lowest rating of the soft shackle is still theoretically 136% of a ropes breaking strength (approx. 19k on a 3/8" rope) and that is passing around the diameter of two thicknesses of the rope. The reason that I don't like the hooks is that normally the pin or link at the end of the hook where the rope would attach to is a much lower diameter than the diameter of the rope or the bolt in a hard shackle or even the pin in the factor 55 stuff. As that would be a much more extreme bend, I would think that this would have a much higher chance of weakening the rope.Awesome thanks again for the help and the sites. I’ll makemsure and check them out. I agree that both soft and hard shackles have there place. It just depends one what you are trying to do. This is what I wasn’t thinking about for the soft eye. Since you bring up the fact about extreme bends would this not be a good idea then since no matter what you attach to it once you start pulling it will basically bend in half whether it be a soft or hard shackle? Also speaking of which wouldnt a soft shackle do the same thing?
