Stumpalump
Expedition Leader
A hook is safer. I will never run a thimble or just an eye with a shackle on a winch line.
When a winch is needed it is often needed NOW. A hook can be thrown around a door piller, around a tree or rock in a couple of seconds when a rig is teetering or risks sliding. It can simply be hooked to a bumper shackle or tow hook by anybody thats 4 or older without much if any instruction. it can even be wraped and hooked to it's own line. A shackle can get dropped and you may have yell out the window the instructions to work the shackle because you need your feet on the breaks. "Oh wait it's too tight to loosen by hand can you get me a tool to work this thing while my buddys wife is trapped in the now burning rig?"
"Safty" Thimble they call it ??? Yea right it's safe but only if a shackle with a hook is on it all of the time. Or if everbody in your group is like the trained army and is capable on how to deal with the exta and spare hardware and where to find it. No it's not rocket science but in a panic situation it may be all you can do to instruct an inexperianced person on how to engage the winch and connect the controll line. Next he can't fiquire out a simple shackle and needs a tool. Next the pin goes rolling down the hill so you instruct him to the spare on the bumper but he set the tool down in the dirt and can't get it loose either. Now lets pull the line and do this cluster again when he gets to the vehicle that has a traped bloody human in it or is starting to slide into a worse situation. You may not allways have all day or a spare shacke pin in your pocket.
Now how is a thimble allowed to be called "safety" anything when in actuallity they are the slowest most complicated thing you can put on a safety recovery device like a winch?
When a winch is needed it is often needed NOW. A hook can be thrown around a door piller, around a tree or rock in a couple of seconds when a rig is teetering or risks sliding. It can simply be hooked to a bumper shackle or tow hook by anybody thats 4 or older without much if any instruction. it can even be wraped and hooked to it's own line. A shackle can get dropped and you may have yell out the window the instructions to work the shackle because you need your feet on the breaks. "Oh wait it's too tight to loosen by hand can you get me a tool to work this thing while my buddys wife is trapped in the now burning rig?"
"Safty" Thimble they call it ??? Yea right it's safe but only if a shackle with a hook is on it all of the time. Or if everbody in your group is like the trained army and is capable on how to deal with the exta and spare hardware and where to find it. No it's not rocket science but in a panic situation it may be all you can do to instruct an inexperianced person on how to engage the winch and connect the controll line. Next he can't fiquire out a simple shackle and needs a tool. Next the pin goes rolling down the hill so you instruct him to the spare on the bumper but he set the tool down in the dirt and can't get it loose either. Now lets pull the line and do this cluster again when he gets to the vehicle that has a traped bloody human in it or is starting to slide into a worse situation. You may not allways have all day or a spare shacke pin in your pocket.
Now how is a thimble allowed to be called "safety" anything when in actuallity they are the slowest most complicated thing you can put on a safety recovery device like a winch?