Best soft shackles made in the USA?
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Louisd75
Adventurer
I can't see that you would save money by making your own soft shackles based on numbers.
Let's say we pay a wholesale price of $6.27 per foot on the Ultrex by Yale at 5/8 size.
Estimating the cost only:
$6.27 x 20 feet
= $125.40
Shipping $6.99
Total = $132.39 (plus tax if applicable)
Chafe guard
$1.50 per foot
$1.50 x 20feet
= $30.00 plus tax
Shipping $6.99
= $36.99
You would be at $162.39, Plus the time you spent making 1, 2, 3 shackles etc. Whatever you would pay yourself to complete 1.
1 soft shackle costs $50 to about $85.00 depending on the brand.
So I guess you would spend more money in the beginning, but you would have extra rope for the future. I can see your point
Your 1 soft shackle price costing $50 to $85 is inaccurate for 5/8", all of those are made out of 7/16" or 1/2". The least expensive 5/8" from the vendors listed in the first post will set you back about $180. I don't do shackles out of 5/8", but for 1/2" I typically use about 4'. A good chunk of that will be waste needed to have leverage for tying the knot. Some knots use more or less rope as well, though it's fairly neglible. I always used a version of the Carrick Bend, I'd have to go back through my notes to see which ABOK number it is. I've done them with star knots as well, and they look awesome but it's a lot of work just to make it look pretty. Being stingy, you could likely get 5 shackles out of a 20' piece of 5/8" assuming that you've had practice at it and don't waste more than you need. Step your size down to 1/2" (which is still likely far more than you need) and the price drops considerably. I can pick up 1/2" Amsteel locally for right around $3/foot, 7/16" for about $2.50/foot. It's quite a bit less expensive to make your own. I can find most of these for less if I get lucky and find a spool that doesn't have much on it at the store. Samson Industries is right up the road from me. They used to sell huge boxes (4'x4'x4') of cutoffs, remnants and cosmetic blems but I don't think that they do that anymore. I took a tour of the production facility and they let me dig through a few boxes and take what I could carry. Most of the pieces were in the 10' range but it was great practice material.
I made most of mine on the ship I work on. I'd set the knot with a 5 ton chainfall.
Here's the internet shop for the store that I buy from: https://www.go2marine.com/Samson-AMSTEEL-BLUE-Rope?quantity=1&color=214&diameter=1043&length=1297
Hillbilly Heaven
Explorer
I have been considering tying my own and came across this video. I am curious what the opinion is from the rope experts here, of his method. He make some claims at the beginning about his method. He is making small soft shackles for hammocks but couldn't his method be applied to larger rope?
Hillbilly Heaven
Explorer
Here is the video of tying the soft shackle tested above.
Louisd75
Adventurer
I like that he's changed it so that the knot can't collapse. I haven't done one in the Diamond Knot myself. I like how the tails get tucked back in, I think it's a neater, cleaner finish. I'm not sure about where he's getting his percentages from for 220% stronger. I've read and seen results that show that the knot reduces the strength by about 20%. I figure 50% loss just to be safe, but I'm conservative. My winch line is 3/8, my soft shackles are 1/2, so the shackles are still stronger than the winch line.
I've mentioned before, they're pretty easy to do once you've made one
I totally get buying them, but on the flip side you can save a ton of money if you're willing to spend a few minutes learning to tie the knot.There are a few different varieties out there. I like the 12 strand stuff personally. It's easy to work with, easy to splice, easy to find. There are different braids/treatments/finishes out there, but I don't personally feel that the added cost is worth the ounces that you'll save in a length as short as your typical soft shackle.
MiamiC70
Well-known member
ARB
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Louisd75
Adventurer
ARB
Overlanding & Offroad Recovery Gear | ARB 4x4 USA
Shop here for a wide variety of offroad recovery gear & equipment that pulls through when you need it most while overlanding or crawling a trail.
Title of the post:
Best soft shackles made in the USA?
WOODY2
Adventurer
The knot at the end of the 1" is going to be fun. Be sure to post pic!
Alloy
Well-known member
The pcs is 20' long. Looks to be 28mm. A soft shackle at 200% would be 200,000lbs. Way more than I need. I'll probably make a 9' strap with eyes at both ends
Ragnarok Overland
New member
I've always been super fascinated by all the recovery gear (probably from my days in the fire dept.), so much so I've started designing and building all my own, possibly even to market. To that end, I've noticed that most soft shackles out there are made from uhmwpe NOT real Dyneema products. After having been down that rabbit hole for a while, it appears that there just really isn't any testing or even consistent numbers on the imported stuff, which should be very worrisome to all of us. If it doesn't say made with a real actual Dyneema product, you should be very cautious.
I've started to order some of the import uhmwpe ropes to test and compare how they stack up against Amsteel and Plasma. i Just bought a 25k lb rope dyno (crane scale) that measures max / spike weight, kilonewtons, etc and will be running a lot of this stuff through the ringer. Contemplating building my own break test rack, doing the research now to see if it's feasible to build a unit capable of 50 ton pull. For now I'll just be using a lot of compounding pulleys.
The future is soft rigging with few exceptions (pulleys), but along with this will be making sure you have a proper safety factor, and quality materials.
I've started to order some of the import uhmwpe ropes to test and compare how they stack up against Amsteel and Plasma. i Just bought a 25k lb rope dyno (crane scale) that measures max / spike weight, kilonewtons, etc and will be running a lot of this stuff through the ringer. Contemplating building my own break test rack, doing the research now to see if it's feasible to build a unit capable of 50 ton pull. For now I'll just be using a lot of compounding pulleys.
The future is soft rigging with few exceptions (pulleys), but along with this will be making sure you have a proper safety factor, and quality materials.
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billiebob
Well-known member
aahhh ha ha ha....
no, no, the future for marketing profit is soft rigging til the trend wears out.
Sorry but recovery does not change and very few commercial towing companies are even considering soft rigging unless they are on youtube, being given soft recovery gear, or receiving sponsorship $$$ to pimp the products. Nope sorry but soft rigging is the latest cash cow for marketing to the growing overlanding community..
We have 6 tow trucks, newest is 15 years old. Most of the recovery gear is even older. Used daily. It is ALL steel. I would never trust a 5 year old soft shackle used daily. Anyone in oilfield or forestry or mining trust/use soft shacKles?
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Ragnarok Overland
New member
Sorry, let me rephrase, the future for overlanding is soft rigging. the weight savings alone is worth it, not to mention Amsteel is what, like 7-8x stronger than steel by weight. Sure for a tow company, yea, i get that steel cables are the way to go, but when you are trying to carry a lot of gear, weight becomes pretty critical.