This is what actually shows up at your house.
What I notice immediately is that the end knot is apparently heat molded into a spherical shape. It is rated to 32,000 lbs.
Ive used these a couple times and they work great, specially when attaching 2 snatch straps or 2 tow straps together. lower risk of injury if something lets go compared to a steel shackle.
The line they use is a different brand of Dynex - we use this stuff all the time in similar soft shackles for large sailing / racing yachts. Excellent in use as you can always hook a hard point with a soft shackle reducing wear. My front recovery bridal is Dynex Ducs and works great.
Do you guys use these as shackles in bumpers? Seems like connecting them to "hard parts" would wear them out. I think I'd still prefer a metal shackle to connect to metal stuff, but these look excellent to chain straps together (tree saver, longer strap needed, doubling up when a close pull)
that is really when they are most appropriate, because you can hook two recovery straps together without having to find something to stick in between so they don't get stuck, and you don't add a 1lb projectile to the middle of your recovery strap. I agree that i wouldn't be sure about sticking one through the shackle mounts in my bumper since they have sharp bends in the edges that would lower the ultimate strength of the shackle, but they sure beat a steel shackle if you're hooking up to a more stock truck with closed loop recovery points like on the full size trucks these days.
For hooking two straps together, why not thread the two straps through each others ends so they lock together in the middle? No shackle of any type needed and it's not going to break unless the strap breaks.
Sticking a rolled up magazine where the two straps join together is supposed to make it easier/possible to get the two straps back apart. No personal experience with this yet, but I saw it work on the interwebs. I threw an old magazine in the map pocket on the back of the driver's seat in case this situation comes up for me.
Or a decent size stick on the trail. at the very least you can break the stick which then gives some wiggle room to free up the straps/rope.
But I have seen it once where someone was pulling out a stranger, they latched straps together, then couldn't get them undone. One guy finally just said "take it as payment for pulling me out."
we used a different brand of soft shackles at xtoberfest last weekend. Worked great and VERY easy to use. I have my shackles cranked down so tight that you'll never get them off without tools. I'm going to grab a couple of these so I don't have to take the metal ones off.
I've done the rolled up magazine thing before, usually the really thick ones full of ads my wife brings along on trips work the best. it is also best if you don't tell her there won't be much left of it when you're done with it.
have tried sticks, usually the stuff on the ground is old and rotten and doesn't work very well, or takes a while to find a suitable one.
Deltaphi, I know someone that can help you out with soft shackle needs ccasion5:
Hi,
this is Jim from Bubba Rope. Glad you are all talking about our Gator-Jaw synthetic shackles. We wanted to answer a couple of questions: First: we up-graded the original all-green Gator-Jaw to the new green and black ones last year. The design change made the Gator-Jaw better and stronger. Sounds like you got a pair of the old ones. If you would like to trade them in on a new set for free let us know. Second: Every Gator-Jaw knot is pre-loaded with 1,500 lbs of pressure before it goes out which gives it the tight molded look. We do not apply heat at anytime during our manufacturing process. Lastly, we decided against any kind of covering because the material (HMPE) the Gator-Jaws are made from is stronger and more cut resistant than any covering and we didn't want dirt and sand to get inside the cover.
If you have any other technical questions please let us know.
Bubba Rope company and Jim are standup people.
He sent me a tracking number for a UPS shipment of 2 new BubbaRope Gator-Jaw® synthetic shackles today.!!
WWWWWHHHHOOOOOO HHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
as a side note: regarding the older all green version.
"The new design eliminates the legs popping out if the shrink wrap breaks. The legs popping out doesn't actually affect the strength of Gator-Jaw"
Special thanks to Jim Flowers at Bubba rope for sending me these.
Just to reiterate..... the original green ones had no issues with strength or functionality.
The newer ones have a some black woven in color and the shrink wrap covers the rope legs that have now been woven in to the shackle