D-ring shackle ratings explained - be weary of cheap Amazon shackles!

[Hillbilly Heaven]

Because it allows mall crawlers to leave their shackles attached and hanging. Most aftermarket bumper shackle mounts are a disaster waiting to happen. Most are just surface welded to the face of the bumper.
Real recovery points should pass thru the bumper and be attached to the frame rails. Being vertical allows for easy attachment to the frame rail. It is something that started years ago because of the easy attachment and no one has ever questioned it.
To answer your question yes horizontal would be better but then limits as to attachment to the bottom or top of the frame rail.

 

[JPaul]

Having the attachment point horizontal is better for side pulls when considering the derating of the shackle for side loads, however you should be pulling in a straight line when doing a recovery except in specific circumstances that require a side or angled pull. If you're doing a snatch or even winch recovery you want to avoid pulling sideways so that you don't damage the suspension and steering, or even the frame.

If you need to pull sideways then the forces applied should be much less than a straight line pull anyway so that you don't break something, especially on a leaf spring front or an IFS. Even if the suspension can handle it, you run the risk of tweaking the frame if too much force is applied, frames aren't designed for much in the way of perpendicular loads, rather they are meant to handle vertical and longitudinal loads.

So the derating for side pulls is a moot point in my opinion since you shouldn't be applying huge forces during a side pull anyway. But if you feel you have a need to yank really hard on your rig sideways then go ahead, but I would never do that to my rig.

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[DaveInDenver]

It's probably the mimic the military explanation.



But if you rotate the shackle 90 degrees then you just change the plane where your "flatness" must apply. IOW, you solve the left-right dilemma but then you'd have to only pull on flat ground not to violate the shackle derating up and down. It's probably a fair argument that it's more likely this is the better orientation.

 

[Mundo4x4Casa]

I'm with Metcalf on this. I've used a lot of D rings, I mean shackles of all sizes over the decades and never had a problem. The cement mixer, 26K pound rated D rings welded to the front of my winch carrier are way over kill compared to the rather weak Warn winch carrier attachment hardware to the frame horns of my RAM.

The Warn 8K winch on a Warn front bumper I had on an FJ-55 in the 1970's I thought was pretty stout. Not so, gear oil breath. After a long afternoon of winching down hill in 4 feet of snow, (never mind, it's a long story) the winch finally pulled itself into a 'V' shape stalling the drum and making for an exceeding long day. I don't think shackles are the weak point in most set ups.

 

[Low_Sky]

1. That’s how the military does it. (It’s for securing vehicles to rail cars, cargo planes, etc, recovery is not the primary purpose)
2. It’s easy to fabricate if you run the shackle mount through the bumper and bolt it to the frame rail.
3. Off-road/overland crowd loves leaving their shackles hanging on them because it looks cool.


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[Mundo4x4Casa]

Low Sky, I'll have to agree about the shackle "Look" so infectious with overlanders. Fortunately, nothing i do with my truck camper set up is for the "look". In my time as a hard core rock crawler I cannot count the number of times we tried to recover someone who had no recovery points at all and no recovery gear of any kind. Unless you have a front frame crossmember or shear plate on your camper/truck, I'm not so sure a domestic pickup's frame could stand up to 25K to 30K pounds or more of winch pull especially on an angled side pull with a snatch block. Ford looks the sturdiest. Dodge looks the weakest, at least on my 2001. I hope they've gotten more sturdy. When using my 15K pound Warn winch I always must deadman to a tree or rock for heavy recovery ops. Otherwise i just slide on all four wheels toward the winchee. On the rear of my truck I use a very heavy D ring that pins into the Class V receiver hitch. jefe

 

[DaveInDenver]

D rings welded to the front of my winch carrier are way over kill

Hard to tell, so this may or may not apply to your bumper specifically since you're a pretty conscientious person I think. But I worry about those D-ring tie downs when used for recovery since they are completely relying on a weldment that in about the worst possible configuration. A lot has to go right for it to be trustworthy.

 

[Mundo4x4Casa]

Dave, i hear you. I bought these aftermarket D rings at a heavy truck equipment place and the salesperson assured me that with a competent weld job, even though it's a butt weld was certainly stronger than my Warn winch bumper's attachment strategy. In other words, the winch attachment will fail before the D ring weld lets go. They also used these D rings for the safety cables on the trailer on gravel trucks welded right to the rear cross member on the truck.
What i worry about is a large, heavy D ring somehow letting go and coming through the windshield of the truck. A few decades ago i saw the aftermath of one letting go and with the hook whiplashing right through the windshield of a Jeep CJ-7 and dead on decapitating the person sitting in the driver's seat. Even now it's a grim vision. I have a lot of recovery equipment and have become much more deliberate and safety conscious after that incident. All hooks have safety clips. No open hooks. No using a ball as an anchor point. 4 sizes of D rings for variety in attachment. I have a 2.5 inch class V receiver hitch which accepts a D ring assembly similar to the orange one above. I have a large hook with a 5 inch opening and safety clip that will fit around most solid axles near the spring hangers when the person to be recovered has no recovery points. 20K tow strap with loops. 30K pound tow strap with loops. Cat Choker. Tree saver. For recoveries close to home I have an extra 150 feet of 3/8 inch wire rope with loops on both ends. Every one of these requires at least one D ring. Two sizes of snatch blocks for wire rope and capacity up to 1/2 inch.
jefe

 

[DaveInDenver]

competent weld job

Belittling the point, but this *is* the crux of my statement. Obviously you don't want to question a safety chain connection but that isn't exactly the same as a recovery point. The joint is a single side fillet in tension on base metal with different thickness and probably different steels - many red flags. So the welder needs to be pretty knowledgable beyond the typical "But look, I stacked dimes!" before I'd trust one. Without a certified welder working and inspected against an engineered WPS and probably a PQR it couldn't be assigned a rating. Safety chains aren't the sole or primary attachment so you have multiple failures with which to calculate risk.