Help me pick a hawse fairlead

I don't have a thimble - just a big yeller hook.

I sent an email to Poison Spyder last night asking how thick their hawse fairlead was. They replied back this morning - 0.75". Which was too bad - if it was an inch I mighta bought it (blingy).

winch line synthetic.jpg
 
I saw that. Most of these fairleads I'm looking at have a 10" center-to-center mounting hole distance. So I don't trust those numbers (9"?) if this is for a full-size winch mounting system.
The TRE I have is 3/4” thick. I have the basic one, not the one that holds the thimble pointing up.
 
The PS fairlead is probably the same Chinese fairlead you can buy on ebay for $25 with their name engraved on it.
Which I bought from "Amazon Warehouse" for about $10. Its fine except the black is turning dark coffee brown in the Florida sun - but I think pretty much anything will change color in the Florida sun. Even my red TRE safety thimble is now turning pink.
 
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Ok... to end the suspense.

I went ahead and ordered the Factor 55 hawse fairlead ($73 from Quadratec). I ruled out the Warn one (it was a close second) because I wasn't sure about the clear coating that may be on it. I considered one of the cheaper Amazon ones that were supposed to be raw aluminum (no clear coating?) but then there was the concern about oxidation and pitting or yellowing (if there was a clear coating). The one from GoFab looked good - I figured even if the coating on it was just as good as the one on the Factor 55 one, it was a bit more expensive even before shipping, and Quadratec has free shipping over $49, and I should be in their system for a military discount. Amazon wanted $99 for the Factor 55 mount (with free shipping).

And sorry for all you TRE fans - theirs' is only .75" thick, and it sounds like nobody has any in stock anyways. And I have a light bar mounted above my current fairlead (shown below), so even if I did have a thimble, I don't think there would be enough clearance if I got the thimble holding one (I know there wouldn't). Maybe I'm just a boomer, but I just haven't got into the whole thimble thing or see the great advantage of them when I've got a perfectly good HD hook on the end of my winch cable.

Kayak on Jeep.4.jpg


I'm hoping the coating on the Factor 55 one is as good as they say it is. We'll find out.

I may have to enlarge the cable opening on my winch mount for this new hawse fairlead. I'll find out when I go to mount it up. And since my hook is permanently attached to the winch line (see pic in post #22 above), I may have to unspool the cable before I can mount the new fairlead. There's always a domino effect it seems.
 
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I don't have a thimble - just a big yeller hook.

I sent an email to Poison Spyder last night asking how thick their hawse fairlead was. They replied back this morning - 0.75". Which was too bad - if it was an inch I mighta bought it (blingy).

View attachment 332846
Be glad you didn't like the PS version. They should know better than to run that tiny radius on the front of the opening.
 
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Which I bought from "Amazon Warehouse" for about $10. Its fine except the black is turning dark coffee brown in the Florida sun - but I think pretty much anything will change color in the Florida sun. Even my red TRE safety thimble is now turning pink.
No, the Savvy tail lights in black won't turn. In fact the only color that won't turn is the UV black. All others will turn including non UV black.
 
Ok... to end the suspense.

I went ahead and ordered the Factor 55 hawse fairlead ($73 from Quadratec). I ruled out the Warn one (it was a close second) because I wasn't sure about the clear coating that may be on it. I considered one of the cheaper Amazon ones that were supposed to be raw aluminum (no clear coating?) but then there was the concern about oxidation and pitting or yellowing (if there was a clear coating). The one from GoFab looked good - I figured even if the coating on it was just as good as the one on the Factor 55 one, it was a bit more expensive even before shipping, and Quadratec has free shipping over $49, and I should be in their system for a military discount. Amazon wanted $99 for the Factor 55 mount (with free shipping).

And sorry for all you TRE fans - theirs' is only .75" thick, and it sounds like nobody has any in stock anyways. And I have a light bar mounted above my current fairlead (shown below), so even if I did have a thimble, I don't think there would be enough clearance if I got the thimble holding one (I know there wouldn't). Maybe I'm just a boomer, but I just haven't got into the whole thimble thing or see the great advantage of them when I've got a perfectly good HD hook on the end of my winch cable.

View attachment 333238

I'm hoping the coating on the Factor 55 one is as good as they say it is. We'll find out.

I may have to enlarge the cable opening on my winch mount for this new hawse fairlead. I'll find out when I go to mount it up. And since my hook is permanently attached to the winch line (see pic in post #22 above), I may have to unspool the cable before I can mount the new fairlead. There's always a domino effect it seems.
Why was your 1" thickness the determining factor?
 
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Why was your 1" thickness the determining factor?
The radius factor. I figured a little thicker would be a greater surface area and less of a sharp bend for the winch line. I figured 1" was a step up from the bare minimum of 0.75". Would 1.25" or 1.5" have been even better? Maybe - I don't know. You know more about this than I do mrblaine. Factor 55 seems to be a well-respected company in the Jeeping world, and if they figure 1" is good, then I can go along with that. And Warn's upgraded hawse fairlead is 1" thick, and they kinda know winches.

Of course I could have been overthinking it, but that was my reasoning.

$75 to $100 for these fairleads seems like a lot of money for a chunk of metal with no moving parts. Oh well - pay once/cry once. You've gotta pay to play when you own a Jeep.

This July/August I'll be running the Idaho BDR, and then after hitting the Canadian border I'll heading back south a bit to Arco, ID and taking the TAT across ID and OR to the Pacific Coast. I'll be putting about 4000 miles on the Jeep and trailer. Now's not the time to cheap-out on gear, especially recovery gear.

https://www.overlandbound.com/forums/threads/idaho-bdr-and-then-some.42950/

Overland Adventure.1.jpg
 
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The radius factor. I figured a little thicker would be a greater surface area and less of a sharp bend for the winch line. I figured 1" was a step up from the bare minimum of 0.75". Would 1.25" or 1.5" have been even better? Maybe - I don't know.

Of course I could have been overthinking it, but that was my reasoning.

$75 to $100 for these fairleads seems like a lot of money for a chunk of metal with no moving parts. Oh well - pay once/cry once. You've gotta pay to play when you own a Jeep.
The radius factor is the correct reason to use thicker material. Unfortunately, that does not in and of itself mean the designer took advantage of it and created a larger outer radius around the opening. The PS version is one which didn't even use what they had to make it as large as it could be.

The Warn version is one of the more desirable shapes but they have an issue with the material. Not sure what they did but we see ALL of them that have any use on them loading up the radius with melted rope and then that just keeps building up and abrading the rope more.
 
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No, the Savvy tail lights in black won't turn. In fact the only color that won't turn is the UV black. All others will turn including non UV black.
I'm not losing any sleep over the color change of either my now pink TRE thimble or the cheap-ass Amazon now mocha colored hawse - but good to know.
 
I'm not losing any sleep over the color change of either my now pink TRE thimble or the cheap-ass Amazon now mocha colored hawse - but good to know.
If I put some items back into production, they will ONLY be offered in 2 color options, UV black hard anodized and natural bright dip. If that turns a customer away because they can't match the piping on their seats, that's just how it will be. I despise color fade and change that anodizing does and I absolutely refuse to do it.
 
If I put some items back into production, they will ONLY be offered in 2 color options, UV black hard anodized and natural bright dip. If that turns a customer away because they can't match the piping on their seats, that's just how it will be. I despise color fade and change that anodizing does and I absolutely refuse to do it.
You can have any color you want as long as its black! Works for me.
 
I'd go with black myself. All TJs have black bumpers at the very least.
Black bumpers at the very least, eh? Anything is better than pink.

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