Soft Shackles

[Hemlock121]

 Good Morning,

I was talking to a buddy who is an avid 4 wheeler about moving logs around my place and he suggested that I use soft shackles instead of my snatch block when using my electric winch or come along. Has anyone used soft shackles when moving wood around your place or up onto the mill?  My buddy said that soft shackles will be faster to connect and are rated for heaver loads than my snatch block.

[WV Sawmiller]

    I had never heard of soft shackles. They sounded like something in a kinky movie or such. I looked them up and they look simple to use but I can't help but wonder why that knot does not pull out of the loop.

[Walnut Beast]

A soft shackle is very strong but it's used in place of a metal shackle. But you better not have any sharp edges. There not going to replace a snatch block

[beenthere]

See them used a lot in recovery videos. 
Matt's Off Road Recovery - YouTube

also
Amazon.com : soft shackle

[Resonator]

They are two different things.
A soft shackle is a short length of rope manufactured with a loop (noose) on one end, and a knot on the other. It is designed to be be wrapped around an object to be pulled, with the knot going through the loop to form a shackle loop, that is then connected to a winch line. 
A snatch block is a pulley built into a bracket that is connected anywhere a winch line is to be doubled up (over the pulley) to increase pulling power. 

Side note there are good and bad soft shackles. A good one will have a large, mushroom shaped knot, and a small loop that will "lock" onto the knot to keep it from coming apart while winching.

[Joe Hillmann]

I cant imagine using soft shackles in place of snatch blocks.  Did he mean in place of the metal shackles?

Soft shakes are very nice to use, but the dont handle narrow or sharp corners(like a snatchblock may have)  and the ones I have used melt as soon as there is any sliding friction.  So you need to be careful in how you use them.

I also had problems with them for repeated work in cold snow.  The heat up in use, snow gets on them, melts then it freezes stiff making it difficult to use.

[Southside]

Sounds like a Hondo.

[OlJarhead]

We use them to winch out jeeps.  You can also get snatch blocks for them

[OlJarhead]

WARN 92097 5,000 lbs. Epic Snatch Block | Quadratec
Here is an example of what we use with our synthetic rope winch ropes and soft shackles.

[TSAW]

Soft shackles are nice if you have lots of equipment to lug around as they are quite a bit lighter than the equivalent rated metal shackle.  The down side is they are a bit more expensive to purchase and they don't take the same beating and dragging that a metal shackle will.  IMHO.

[Crossroads]

We use them to winch out jeeps.  You can also get snatch blocks for them

Whaaaat? You mean Jeep's get stuck? Say it isn't so! 😎

[Rhodemont]

Not familiar with soft shackles.  Looks like a good thing to have in my truck rather than hooking a chain to it for the once in a while times I use it to pull something like a tree off the road.

[OlJarhead]

We use them to winch out jeeps.  You can also get snatch blocks for them

Whaaaat? You mean Jeep's get stuck? Say it isn't so! 😎

Other peoples jeeps do lol ;)

[Hemlock121]

Here is an example of a soft shackle.  You run your synthetic rope or cable through the aluminum ring, then push the knot through the loop that self tightens around your tow strap or tree saver.  Provides you with mechanical advantage and is lighter and faster to connect than a snatch block.  Maybe this would be a good tool while in the woods and then use a snatch block around the mill.

[Walnut Beast]

I hadn't seen the shackle with the aluminum groove ring with the padding under it. 

[Walnut Beast]

No way faster than my shackle and no way better. I put my tree saver around the tree, hook and the knob unscrews the plate to put your cable in screw plate back. There is a reason these snatch blocks are 450 bucks  apiece new.

 

Guarantee these will take double or triple the load. They are a serious snatch block. With a serious price 😂

[beenthere]

WB
What are the weights of each? 

[Walnut Beast]

They are pretty beefy. Put them on the scale and they are right at 13 pounds each

[memopad]

No way faster than my shackle and no way better. I put my tree saver around the tree, hook and the knob unscrews the plate to put your cable in screw plate back. There is a reason these snatch blocks are 450 bucks  apiece new.

 

Guarantee these will take double or triple the load. They are a serious snatch block. With a serious price 😂

So here's the beauty of trying new materials. You could build a soft shackle snatch block to replace those monsters at a fraction of the cost and have a much higher working load with no moving parts to fail. Never mind how much lighter the entire setup would be. Something like what Hemlock posted above would do the trick, ideally paired with synthetic cable instead of steal. Try it, you won't go back.