Royal Hooks

If you’re into this sorta thing. 40% off entire site.

Royalhooks.com

 

Made of aluminum and looks... “extra”

I will stick to steel

 

Factor55 makes hitch links out of aluminum. 9,500 rating and ultimate failure at 51,000. What’s wrong with aluminum?

 

Nothing. Engineering is all that matters.

 

Nothing wrong with aluminum from a legitimate company.

However in this case a similar forged steel 3/4" pin shackle will carry a 4.75 ton (9,500 lbs) working load limit and one from Crosby, Gunnebo, Van Beest, etc. will have a minimum of 5:1 design margin.

 

Unless it's a forged alloy shackle. Them bitches are bad ass. 7t-3/4"

 

all show, no tow

pass

 

I dunno. Are you saying they are lying about the ratings? Tacoma’s look good, but are also functional, so anyone owning one has also considered fashion on some level. Why not also with shackles?

Also made in USA, which I support, although Canadian myself.

 

they won't see actual hard use, and if they do, cracks will propagate guaranteed due to the stupid design
that focuses stress into the corners.

mall crawl, no haul

you want a hook get some real tackle in my humble opinion.

 

Dude idk, imagine hanging 2 tacomas off one of those, Seems crazy, supposedly you can hang 6 & 3/4 tacomas off one shackle! (Breaking strength) I'm curious why they didn't contour the inside surface. Seems "sharp" for a strap. Those things could very well be good for that weight. They're huge, gaudy and hideous.

 

I wouldn’t buy ‘em, but I’m not going to call foul on someone who would. However, I recognize your point about the less-than-ideal shape.

So much of the aftermarket shit people buy for these trucks has a design element that compromises function. I kinda accept that. For example, forged wheels are stronger, but if they looked like shit, no one would buy them. Same goes for just about anything.

 

I don’t own any of their products and I’m not defending them, but nothing on their hooks or shackles look “sharp”

 

Fair enough

 

They do seem well enough machined with radiuses and corners. I don't like the abruptness of the design but its probably capable of what they say. I would be very weary of cheap copies that aren't machined and relieved well, though.

My view would be why re-engineer the wheel? Shackles are proven. There may be advantage to using aluminum for a different corrosion profile and weight but my guess is these shackles are done for cosmetics mainly.

Might be wrong, I'm not a mechanical engineer. If you want to use aluminum maybe this is how they'd have to look. Dunno. I'd prefer steel since it will have a larger deformation region while as mentioned aluminum tends to crack rather than bend. But aircraft are made from aluminum so flex and fatigue are well understood.