Recovery shackles wont fit.

[GMC4x4]

So over the last couple days I started gathering some recovery gear, just in case.

I picked up 30ft of 1in Manilla rope, that I eye spliced at both end. It's probably more like 27 feet now. The rope should be for 4T. And 2 4.75T Shackles.

I've got the stock loop hooks on my '10 GMC and I can't get the shackles to fit through the loop. There's too much bumper plastic in the way. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to trim out the little pocket where the loops pop though, and take it from the H shape to a full open square.

I was wondering if anyone else had run into this same issue and how they dealt with it. I know I could just get some proper hooks, but I'd rather not. Though I do have some old meat hooks that would make some cool hooks.

 

[La Bestia]

Haven't tried fitting mine on the front but now that I hear your problem I know they probably won't fit so I'm interested to see what you come up with. Had the same problem on the back, the holes on the hitch for the safety chains were too small so I grabbed an old receiver and bored it out a bit to fit the pin part of the shackle through I'll check mine on the front tomorrow and see what I can come up with.

 

[Bernie]

I can't help with the shackle problem, but I would strongly advise against the manila rope as part of your recovery gear. The Safe Working Load (SWL) of 1" manila rope is only 1,280 lbs., not nearly strong enough for that purpose. Compound that with how fast and how seriously manila rope deteriorates unless properly stored and handled and you've got the potential for some serious injury to you and others around you.

Get yourself a proper recovery strap (or two) with a SWL rating of at least 1/2 more than the weight of your truck. (ie: if your truck is 4,000 lbs. get a strap rated at 6,000 as the bare minimum)

Here's a link to a good quality recovery strap, same length as that rope, and rated at 20,000 lbs. And for probably less than the rope cost you. I carry three of these in my truck, and one in the wife's truck, and I had a Master Rigger's license in NYC for over 20 years so I do know what I'm talking about.

4" x 30' 10 Ton Strap

 

[La Bestia]

Agreed on the proper strap, didn't pay attention to that part of the initial post. I have a couple straps that I can interchange, short 12 footer is really just used for pulling logs through the woods rated at 8,000 straight lift. For pulling I use a 30 foot fiberglass rated at 30 ton straight lift just because it was the longest one we had available when I needed it. 30T might be overkill but I'm confident that it is stronger than my truck.

 

[Bernie]

Agreed on the proper strap, didn't pay attention to that part of the initial post. I have a couple straps that I can interchange, short 12 footer is really just used for pulling logs through the woods rated at 8,000 straight lift. For pulling I use a 30 foot fiberglass rated at 30 ton straight lift just because it was the longest one we had available when I needed it. 30T might be overkill but I'm confident that it is stronger than my truck.

Overkill for sure, but damn that's a nice piece of gear to have.

 

[La Bestia]

Sorry not fiberglass, nylon.

 

[GMC4x4]

Wow, that is a fair bit cheaper then the rope I bought. I paid something like $1.30 a foot for the manila. I must have read something wrong some where then, because I thought that it was rated higher. 20kT should be more then anything I could think of pulling. Thanks for the link too, looks like they've got some interesting stuff there as well. I'll have to browse the site a bit before I order anything though, so I don't end up with multiple packages.

I wasn't able to look at the front today to see about what I could do, it's pissing down rain pretty good, so I've no inclination to go out there and dealing with it right now. I'll have to look at the back as well to. I don't have a tow package/hitch on the truck so I'll have to see where I can hook up to and hope everything fits.

 

[Bernie]

Wow, that is a fair bit cheaper then the rope I bought. I paid something like $1.30 a foot for the manila. I must have read something wrong some where then, because I thought that it was rated higher. 20kT should be more then anything I could think of pulling. Thanks for the link too, looks like they've got some interesting stuff there as well. I'll have to browse the site a bit before I order anything though, so I don't end up with multiple packages.

I wasn't able to look at the front today to see about what I could do, it's pissing down rain pretty good, so I've no inclination to go out there and dealing with it right now. I'll have to look at the back as well to. I don't have a tow package/hitch on the truck so I'll have to see where I can hook up to and hope everything fits.

To get 20T breaking strength (not SWL) using manila you'd still have to go up quite a ways. Probably around 2.5", since the formula for the breaking strength of manila line is (900 x circumference2 = breaking strength)

Since the SWL is 1/5th the breaking strength that would still only be about an 8,000 lb. SWL

3.5" would get you pretty close to a 20T SWL though... except that splices and knots reduce the SWL by about 50-60%, so you'd probably have to go to about a 5" manila hawser, and good luck hooking that puppy up to your truck!



Oh, and then you get into the difference between dynamic loads and static loads... but I've probably bored you enough by now.

 

[GMC4x4]

To get 20T breaking strength (not SWL) using manila you'd still have to go up quite a ways. Probably around 2.5", since the formula for the breaking strength of manila line is (900 x circumference2 = breaking strength)

Since the SWL is 1/5th the breaking strength that would still only be about an 8,000 lb. SWL

3.5" would get you pretty close to a 20T SWL though... except that splices and knots reduce the SWL by about 50-60%, so you'd probably have to go to about a 5" manila hawser, and good luck hooking that puppy up to your truck!



Oh, and then you get into the difference between dynamic loads and static loads... but I've probably bored you enough by now.

I think the biggest down side to all this, is that I got all those slivers in my hands, and spliced the rope, with out one of those special tools for splicing rope for pretty much nothing now. I think a rope that thick though is out of the question though, the store also only had one size bigger as well, 1 1/4.

I didn't get bored reading that, dealing with simple numbers is a nice change. I'd like to read more into this but I've got 4 exams over 4 days next week, so anything that isn't Financial Accounting, Cost Accounting, Advanced Corporate Finance, or Economics of Money and Banking gets shunned until they're over.

One question though, I've seen a couple pictures where people are running an older looking brown rope, sort of like the Manila, but smoother. Like the one in the picture below. What type of rope is this? I also thought eye splicing only reduced strength by 5% to?

 

[Bernie]

That's a nylon rope in the picture. It's brown from dirt and mud.

Any splice or knot in a line reduces strength by at least 1/2 because of the strain it puts on the fibers.

That 27' piece of 1" manila with the eyes now has a SWL of about 600 lbs., and a breaking strength of about 3,000 lbs. You can use it for a few things, but you'll want to store it carefully. Never let it get stored wet, keep it somewhere well ventilated and out of direct sunlight, properly coiled, and that rope will last a hundred years or more. Store it incorrectly and it will rot in six months.