Soft Shackles

[Ian Culbert]

I am negotiating a price for soft shackles made from Plasma 12 strand for AMRO members. They will be available in 9mm and 11mm but I need to provide an internal diameter to get pricing. What would be the most useful sizes for these?

Details of the soft shackles in question can be found here http://www.ruftraks.co.uk

[Fraser Wenseth]

I’ve never used these. What are the advantages? Looking at the pictures on the rufftracks website, they seem to be aimed at the Winch Challenge scene.

[Ian Culbert]

They are Fraser but I was thinking they might be useful on cars where it’s hard to get at the tow eye with a normal shackle. He can make them to pretty much any spec hence my question as to what might be useful.

[John Ellis]

What sort of breaking strain are these soft shackles?

[Fraser Wenseth]

These are also handy for that task.

http://www.recovery-equipment.co.uk/50mm-shortloading-strap-winchstrap

[Anonymous]

they need to be round something soft or round and smooth, put them near a sump gaurd and they will shred in seconds.
personally i dont think any plasma stuff is safe for our use, plasma rope is designed to be static, ie the rope doesnt move but the vehicle moves as it winds in to a fixed point, we work the opposite our vehicle is static and the load gets pulled to us. plasma is a great rope just not for our use, we drag ropes through the ground too much i have seen it snap a few times, including one during a rescue training scenario

[Allan Martin]

I fully concur with Richard’s view on the issue, I do not believe plasma rope or fittings are robust enough for our purposes. I also believe that the soft/flexible tow eyes favoured by some competitors are not acceptable for our job, they are obviously not appropriate for rigid towing so therefore are not acceptable for towing vehicles with brake failure. Despite repeated attempts to influence the MSA on the issue they persist in allowing soft tow eyes to be accepted. Will it take an injury or worse to make them take the issue seriously or will they persist to “slope shoulders” & say not our problem!

[John Ellis]

How would these fair for use with joining say two strops together?

[Fraser Wenseth]

I have to agree. Wore rope is King for our work. Much more predictable.

Whilst I don’t want to totally piss on your parade Ian – I appreciate that you’re thinking of the group here – all of my winching kit is rated, stamped, tagged or what ever. Now I know this is irrelevant after 12 months as it’s not re-tested, however having rated kit is a good place to start from.

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