D Ring Shackle size?

I replaced my sport loop with this, no longer available but bpf and sos make an aftermarket point

 

Yep I've talked to them a few time and they said around spring they are hoping to have it on the market for all 3rd gens

$250 is what I've heard as well but to me not that bad when like you said its tested and all.

Not trying to discredit fab shops but I'm sorry a fab shop guy saying 'ya this is strong enough' and an reputable 4x4 company that tests, rates and stands behind all their products saying 'this is rated for' means a lot more to me.

Not positive for the US but I know here in Canada very rarely are fab shop guys licensed welders. Sure they can weld great but being able to say they are licensed means a lot more. Here at least getting the license is a test where you have to weld stuff then they x ray your weld to make sure its good.

I'm sure at times those welded ones or stuff made from fab shops is strong, but I've seen rigging fail enough times from guys saying 'it should be strong enough' that when it comes to doing something like a snatch strap recovery where you can have forces of upwards of 15 000lbs applied I want something engineered to take that.

Just from fall protection training I remember how in the videos they show how just a person weighing 170lbs falling 6 feet can put a force of 1200lbs on whatever they are tied off to. Hence why we're told any anchor should be able to support 2000lbs.

one is just for a tie down for when you're on a flat bed. The other one is a recovery point in the sense of a tow truck winching you out or winching your truck onto the bed. They can handle a good amount of load on them but they are not rated for a kinetic rope/snatch strap recovery.

Not a snatch strap/kinetic rope rated recovery point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T_lOsUyepo

 

Get a hitch receiver point. I have a Factor 55 Hitchlink 2.0 and a 3/4 Warn Epic Shackle. Shackle rated at 18,000 lbs and Hitchlink 2.0 rated at 9500 but 51,000 lbs failure. I'll take my chances. May be overkill since I'am sure the hitch on the taco wont go close to those failure limits.

http://factor55.com/product/hitchlink/

https://www.warn.com/truck/accessories/epic_shackle.jsp

 

do yu have a front receiver as well?
This only works for the rear

 

True, not yet. Looking at the BP fab tow point but haven't pulled the trigger yet. Most of what I do or would do right now, a rear recovery would most always be an option.

 

This argument holds true for a lot of things we bolt on and build for our trucks. This exact line of reasoning goes on with bumpers, in particular front bumpers. ARB is a large engineering and manufacturing company is about the only one capable of designing and testing a bumper that does what it says it does. I'm pretty sure they are the only company crash testing them. It's part of the reason I bought an ARB bull bar.

You make a good point. I will say part of the reason I bought the Bulletproof Fabrication part was that it's just a bent and drilled piece, no welding. The rating they put on it appears to be based just on the thickness of A36 steel. Since it's not welded it's not variable or workmanship dependent.

This is an important point. We have to be careful not to confuse tie-down, tow and recovery point and what each means.

A tie-down is just that, a place to hold down the truck while it's on a ship or truck. It's not designed to be used to tow because it's probably not even rated to handle the whole weight of the truck alone (it's usually just 1 of 2, 3 or 4 points).

A tow point is a place to tow or pull the truck. It's probably rated to be the single point of connection and is thus probably rated to carry the whole weight (probably GVWR) in a mostly uniform state (e.g. imagine towing a trailer, you try to minimize shock loads). It's one reason that rear recovery using a receiver is sometimes criticized. A class IV point is rated for 10,000 lbs towing, which obviously is lower than 17,500 lbs of a strap. Is it sufficient? I dunno, the numbers say no but in reality it's probably not the weakest link in the system.

A recovery point is used to recover a stuck vehicle. This usually implies that it's not just a tow but will be a dynamic force to break it free. But as you say recovery could mean just pulling onto a flat bed, so it's fairly broadly defined.

In the end all we can go on is what the rating is and what your assessment of it is. There is no single right solution because there's always a failure point. A 3/4" bow shackle is rated 4.75 tons (9500 lbs) working load and usually have a 4:1 safety margin (e.g. 4x WLL will deform), a 2" strap is usually rated 17,500 lbs, 5/16" wire rope is rated 8,500 lbs min breaking and usually 1,700 lbs working load, etc.

My feeling was that I'd trust a piece of monolithic steel bolted to the factory subframe more than an unknown bumper clevis even with two welds securing it. That's why I chose an ARB bumper (e.g. design and tested as a bumper and winch carrier only) and a bolted on recovery point that /I believe/ is realistically rated. I don't disagree that the ARB when/if available will be an improvement. But I don't feel I'm particularly deficient. I do think that the truck itself or a 2" strap will fail before the part I bolted on will. This is really the crux, you want the soft parts to fail and the hard parts to stay put.

Good discussion, I dig it!

 

Yep they are also the only one that takes the legal stand to say theirs meet airbag standards. Which I can almost guarantee if you were in an accident insurance will love to point at as a reason to not give full coverage if you have any other bar

Good point and I agree, and if I was buying any of them it would be the bulletproof fab one out of the other welded ones.
My only concern with theirs is the bolts that secure it.

Good point, and I do agree it is likely that the shackle may fail first.
Seen them fail from idiots not knowing to how properly use one. one strap on the bow portion one on the bolt portion. I've seen idiots basically be pulling apart the shackle because they are pulling from the two sides.

If I remember the ARB is the only one that doesn't have recovery points and when I emailed them about it they said its because they use the airbag mounts and it could interfere and they think a proper recovery point should be used. It does have hi lift points as well. Either way when it comes time I will likely be getting the ARB bumper as well.

I think those that work in a field with lots of rigging of heavy loads and has seen failed stuff have more respect for the forces you can be dealing with.
Like you said the weakest link is all that matters. about 8 years ago I was on a job where a air handling unit was dropped about 10 stories from a crane. Luckily it was all clear where they were lifting so no one was hurt but the unit was obviously destroyed. At the end of the week long investigation the ministry of labour concluded all shackles that were used were rated, as where the points they were anchoring too, it was the chain that ended up failing. The swamper for the crane was charged as its their responsibility to check all rigging.

Could only imagine if someone died from it what the charge would've been.
Thats the other reason why knowing your working load and what not is vital with recovery rigs. Mind you we don't often run into it much having mid size trucks. but the snatch strap we use might not be good for a full size rig.