No More Steel Shackles?

jjvw

jjvw

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Looking in my back seat tool box just now, I see a few steel shackles that I haven't used in a long time. Next to them are an equal amount of soft shackles that do get used.

Space is precious in a TJ and steel shackles are heavy. Who here has been comfortable moving on and relying entirely on the soft stuff?
 
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toximus said:
I keep one in each recovery kit because not everyone else in my group has soft friendly recovery points and because you never know who you might come across on the trail that doesn't.

If your entire group has soft friendly recovery points than ditch it.
Click to expand...

Good point on soft shackle safe attachments. You've settled on one steel shackle per Jeep?
 
jjvw said:
Good point on soft shackle safe attachments. You've settled on one steel shackle per Jeep?
Click to expand...

I started with 3 per and have settled on just 1 per Jeep is all that I've found I need. There's one guy in our local group, who is honestly a fun and nice guy to have around on the easy trails and gravel road cruises, he always buys the cheapest junk he can find and bolts it onto his even cheaper rusted out Jeep. He packs so much junk in the back that he can never find his winch (which he remounts every time) or recovery gear fast enough. Obviously he also doesn't understand the benefit of soft friendly recovery points. So it seems that 9 times out of 10 I'm using the steel shackle on him.

I also keep 1 hitch pin per Jeep so I can recover most other vechicles that end up in snow banks and ditches that have a receiver (of course half of those already have a ball rusted in).
 
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i own 2 steel, they fit on the rear bumper, to be carried there and/or used for rear retrieval.
once the winch wire is swapped for synth line and a thimble, i'll planned use/have 2 softies to use with it.

but those 2 steel's will always be there when/if needed. and will come in handy if i need to rig my strap to something.

anybody bother with snatch blocks or pulleys?
 
I keep my steel shackles around because of non-soft-shackle-friendly recovery points as well. I typically keep one in my Jeep along with a couple soft shackles. I also use my Jeep for moving the little race cars we make here at school around a good bit. Using the hard shackle on simple, low load stuff keeps the soft shackles in better shape for when I need them.

I've pulled a couple people out of the mud in Wyoming who had recovery points with 0 appropriate recovery gear. I wouldn't have been able to pull them out if I only had soft shackles.

One thing I want to get rid of for sure is my huge heavy Warn snatch block.

I think I had a steel shackle rigged up in this somehow.

IMG_0011.jpeg
 
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I used to have 2 steel ones on my bumper and got tired of hearing them banging around on the trail. It always sounded like something was clunking, so now I only carry one steel under the seat if needed and have 2 soft one wrapped around my roll bar much quieter :) and safer.
 
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