Soft shackles—proper use and fitting up

Mr. Bills said:
I carry a kinetic rope, the ubiquitous yellow 3"x30' strap, and a TRE Tree Saver aka Giant Soft Shackle along with the other stuff in my recovery bag. I'll bet there's a 3"x8' tree strap in there too.

You can have it all. ;)
Click to expand...
Yes you can as long as you don't mind a rig that weighs 5800 lbs.
 
Mr. Bills said:
Its only 4785# now.

I got rid of the Hi Lift.
Click to expand...
I am working on getting mine down too. I STILL have my hi lift. I have not used it since pre-covid. It is on the short list. I may be able to rig a plate on my slider to hold a jack and use that as a straightening platform, or maybe the front bumper. Wrap the new soft shackles around the tabs and whatever is bent and push from the center of the bumper. :unsure:
 
WSS said:
I jumped in with both feet tonight. Ordered a thimble mount fairlead, a thimble, synthetic style snatch block and three 3/4” soft shackles.

I’m going to weigh in and out to see what I trimmed off. I bet it’s 20lbs. I’ll. Have to do some training and rigging lessons before we get out on the trail. Should be quicker and safer. My passenger always had trouble with the shackle pin threading. Now it should be a simple task and not as directionally important with soft shackle placement.
Click to expand...

20200915_180240.jpg
20200915_181607.jpg
 
  • Like
  • Wow
Reactions: motomick76, jjvw, MountaineerTom and 2 others
Got a bunch of fun stuff from TRE. Very well thought out kit. Came with a fid and fairlead hardware. I worked on the thimble and fairlead yesterday. I took my time doing it.

First thing was to remove the old hook thimble.

I found this writing on some tape under the protective cover. I was so endeared. It must be a message from a little chinese child saying Thank-you! for buying this product, my slave family and I are so grateful.

001(198).jpg


001(197).jpg


This is the net result of the what was taken off:

001(191).jpg


This is the new stuff that is replacing the "dangerous" and "un-safe" tackle:

(edited)_001(200).png


And the fairlead and Thimble too:

(edited)_001(196).png


The end result was good. The rope is Chinese obviously. I thought it was Canadian, as it is a ultraranger from Canada. The rope has a cover/sheath over the entire length that was hard to deal with. In the end I put a 3/4" heat shrink tube over the end by the thimble, very light heat, not enought o completely squeeze but enough to hold the outer cover against the thimble. I had to destroy the original sheath tuck. Over all, I lost 1' of rope. Very happy with the results. Now some training.

001(195).jpg


001(194).jpg


The TRE shackle has a quick release cord attached to the loop. Really nice feature. I added a Boxer shackle that I picked up at the hardware store and the other was a freebie from ultraranger. So I have 5 softies now. The only steel shackles I have are on the rear bumper. Just in case

001(192).jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: Apparition, MountaineerTom and mrblaine
WSS said:
Got a bunch of fun stuff from TRE. Very well thought out kit. Came with a fid and fairlead hardware. I worked on the thimble and fairlead yesterday. I took my time doing it.

First thing was to remove the old hook thimble.

I found this writing on some tape under the protective cover. I was so endeared. It must be a message from a little chinese child saying Thank-you! for buying this product, my slave family and I are so grateful.

View attachment 217040

View attachment 217041

This is the net result of the what was taken off:

View attachment 217042

This is the new stuff that is replacing the "dangerous" and "un-safe" tackle:

View attachment 217043

And the fairlead and Thimble too:

View attachment 217044

The end result was good. The rope is Chinese obviously. I thought it was Canadian, as it is a ultraranger from Canada. The rope has a cover/sheath over the entire length that was hard to deal with. In the end I put a 3/4" heat shrink tube over the end by the thimble, very light heat, not enought o completely squeeze but enough to hold the outer cover against the thimble. I had to destroy the original sheath tuck. Over all, I lost 1' of rope. Very happy with the results. Now some training.

View attachment 217045

View attachment 217046

The TRE shackle has a quick release cord attached to the loop. Really nice feature. I added a Boxer shackle that I picked up at the hardware store and the other was a freebie from ultraranger. So I have 5 softies now. The only steel shackles I have are on the rear bumper. Just in case

View attachment 217047
Click to expand...
Wow in your 3rd picture you show 6 shackels did you really carry that many ? I carry 4 and I don't think I have every needed them all.
 
I just recently got two of the regular size TRE shackles as well as one of the longer ones, all 3/4". They seem really nice. I need to round off the holes on my bumper mounting tabs though.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: WSS
Plumber1 said:
Wow in your 3rd picture you show 6 shackels did you really carry that many ? I carry 4 and I don't think I have every needed them all.
Click to expand...
I have never used one. This new TJ is a super jeep. I’ll probably ditch the hilift too. Two of the steel shackles were cerakoted to look cool on the front bumper, one was always attached to the snatch block. So I really only had 3??

Edit: I forgot about the rear bumper steel shackles!! I had a total of 8 on the Jeep. My old CJ was always stuck or hung up on something, I always had cable out, snatch blocks, changing angles, etc.. The TJ just manages to get through stuff, maybe the difference between 33's and 35's. Most likely though it is the geometry of the link suspension over the leafs.
 
Last edited:
I was contemplating the exposed rope over the thimble, I was going to use some velcro to cover the short section from UV damage:

001(202).jpg


But then I noticed that TRE had included a nice thimble cover (The logo is printed wrong though):

001(203).jpg


Cheers!
001(201).jpg
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: DETOUR, Apparition and (deleted member)
The TRE and Warn use a diamond knot which is much weaker for the same size rope. You want a button knot without the melted ends on top. This shows why. The diamond knot shackles are really not worth the money based on the construction, cheap shackles with the correct construction will be stronger just because of this. If you want the correct type look at Rhino or Harbor Freight, sad to say HF gets it right. It's easy to identify the correct ones once you see the melted ends (look for another brand).
 
  • Like
Reactions: suicideking
suicideking said:
Bumping this thread. What's the best deal for one of these? I needed one on the last trail I was on when the guy in front of me got stuck. Luckily someone had one.

I saw this one from Warn on Amazon for $35, but it's 3/8. The weight rating seems good though.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TJ2NR4W/?tag=wranglerorg-20

TRE has 3/4" for $30. Is that a better option?

https://www.tacticalrecoveryequipment.com/product/3-4-soft-shackles-30000-lb-breaking-strength/
Click to expand...
The Warn version is likely a victim of the New Warn. It is made from 3/8" which equates to a pair of them which is 3/4" roughly.
 
  • Like
Reactions: srimes, Blackjack and suicideking
I did measure a friends TRE 3/4" and I think it was 11mm or 7/16" rope. Don't get me wrong, it'll work just like the Warn, they aren't bad or anything. The numbers vary allot based on what they are measuring and unfortunately the rope strength and the shackle strength don't seem to correlate like they should. I've tied a few from 7/16" at this point, it takes about 90" of rope to make one (23" eye to knot). Compared to making a kinetic strap this is what I'd call easy stuff. Those loops in double braid are painful.

shackle.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: suicideking
Im not a fan of Harbor Freight for anything other than disposable parts.
I purchased a couple items from Rhino and it seems good. They have sales all the time. If you sign up for the email list you get an instant spin and win coupon.
 
  • Like
Reactions: suicideking
WSS said:
I am slowly swimming to the soft shackle side of the pool. Can we get some dialog going about the safe and proper use of them? What do they really replace? Can I eliminate the steel D clevis altogether?

My last bumper, I made the clevis eyes with soft shackles in mind. I rounded the corners after a deep countersink in hopes of threading the shackle through the hole in the eye. I still think it is not enough, compression over that radius is still "sharp" I think. How far do I go? Any and all input including rabbit trails are encouraged.

View attachment 211228

View attachment 211229

View attachment 211230


View attachment 211231
Click to expand...
Looking good,
But if you wanna weave in a soft shackle, you for sure need a way larger, rounded smooth chamfer. I been using my soft shackle only for a couple of years now and weave it trough solid shackles attached to the bumper
 
Top Bottom
Back