It doesn't prevent that; nothing can prevent that, should you create the conditions for that kind of injury to occur.
Factor 55 flat link vs standard winch hook
- Thread starter jazngab
- Start date
It doesn't prevent that; nothing can prevent that, should you create the conditions for that kind of injury to occur.
I would ditch the heavy metal shackle and just get a few soft shackles. TRE sells them in sorts of sizes. Just run the soft shackle through the thimble and go from there. You can attach a strap as need be. I'm not sure how well this would work with your specific thimble, but I've looked the one on my old Warn steel cable and it appeared to me as if ditching the hook for a soft shackle through the thimble would work just fine.
I'm currently in the process of converting my winch gear from the heavy, steel Warn stuff I have to lighter options such as soft shackles and lightweight snatch blocks. My TRE synthetic was the first step towards that. I'm going to order a bunch of soft shackles soon.
Safety first and foremost. First for your hands, then to protect the winch and stall it out in the event of a stuck solenoid when the flat base of the thimble hits the fairlead. It also doesn't have to be load rated since it is a thimble and the rope goes around the eye. It is as strong as it needs to be to keep the rope's ultimate strength in play and the deep groove protects the eye from abrasion. Doesn't sound important be we find ourselves tossing a few coils of rope with the thimble up waterfalls fairly often and the catcher don't always catch so well. It is also built to be as light as possible and still do the job, again, not of importance until bad things happen accidentally and it becomes a projectile.
It actually does. The impetus behind the design was due to a video of a guy holding a hook and the winch didn't stop. It sucked his hand through the fairlead.
One more question. Since the bow shackles should not be pulled from the side, when hung on the front of your bumper by the “bolt” part of the shackle. Would you suggest soft shackles as a better use here? Guessing soft shackles should be used whenever possible.
I had no idea that most people have been using shackles incorrectly, until reading up on it a bit.
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Yeah, I guess a hook would do that, if you hold it in such a way. I'll consider this my mistake for the 5:00-6:00 hour.
I remember being taught to always hold the hook by the back of the curve with the point away from my hand. That way if things went sideways you can always let go and not get pulled in... That explanation really stuck with me.
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There must have been a time
when we could have said no.
I would need to fashion a way to keep the cable taught while stowed. If one could fashion a backer that butts up against the thimble crimp and acts as a stop to the rollers? I'm picturing drilling a hole thru a hockey puck and feeding thru the length of cable to the thimble.
ftgiles over on JF has posted pics several times of what you are describing.
Warn gives those out like candy. If any event calls them up asking for sponsorship they will send out a box of them.
—
There must have been a time
when we could have said no.
Get a stock front bumper tow hook, mount it through the two bolts in the photo, and just hook the thimble around it. The hockey puck method would probably work as well, just seems like a lot of effort.
I did something similar when I had a hook. Imagine it would work just as well as a thimble.
Put a HD washer in front of the puck with a ID big enough to slide the cable thru and small enough to make it difficult for the washer to get past the crimped ferrule of the thimble. If you have to toss a line to your helper, you aren't tossing a heavy hook or shackle and the puck could help protect the thimble if line catch gets iffy.
That's kind of what I was saying, earlier: if you create dangerous conditions through stupidity, there's no way anything can help you. That's why I don't treat anything as an inherently safe object: anything can be misused, and even if you rubber-mulch the entire world, people will still find ways to hurt themselves through stupidity. Or, said another way: as soon as you idiot-proof something, The Universe will immediately invent a better idiot.
My stuff came in today...
TRE does a nice job with packaging, using a coozie to protect the safety thimble and all. Nice way to give away swag. They also included a plastic Fid...though its not as long as a "normal" fid. It will make the splice easier and I thought it was a nice touch.
I was thinking about the soft shackles I got and looking at my bumper anchors. They have sharp edges. Should I break those edges with a die grinder or countersink (if I can find a 3/4" one to borrow) to protect the soft shackle or is it not necessary? This is my first experience with them.
TRE does a nice job with packaging, using a coozie to protect the safety thimble and all. Nice way to give away swag. They also included a plastic Fid...though its not as long as a "normal" fid. It will make the splice easier and I thought it was a nice touch.
I was thinking about the soft shackles I got and looking at my bumper anchors. They have sharp edges. Should I break those edges with a die grinder or countersink (if I can find a 3/4" one to borrow) to protect the soft shackle or is it not necessary? This is my first experience with them.
I would use a soft shackle without putting my hand through the loop. The problem with the wimpy straps is you can't hold onto them well enough to tension the line spooling in.
Good point that I realized through use before I got the Safety Thimble years ago but forgot about. I was going to order a box of them from Warn to use as giveaways for the next Calico cleanup but I just crossed that off my list thanks to your reminder that they're not all that useful. Thanks!
