Edit:
Looking at your photo, from a strictly visual perspective, the two protruding eye attachment points look a bit unfinished or whatever. Like you should have a tow bar attached.
I am adding an s8 light bar to fill in a bit, but I agree, it is a very unique look. Would I buy it again? For the price it is amazing and it will do the job. If I had a looser budget I'd have gone ADD just due to fit and finish.
And I’ll add—my shackles are under the seat.
I get what you're saying, but the end of the rope is covered/protected by an additional slip over wrap/cover the whole way to the shackle with little to no exposure. And the winch itself and the rest of the line are covered up by a winch cover...because it's synthetic. Pic was taken without cover, but the cover makes it look not as cool
. Same reason I like the hook on the shackle, coolness factor, at least I think it looks cool.
. It's not a rat's nest now, but it doesn't look perfect by any means. But I don't see any reason to carry additional gear inside that can otherwise be mounted outside. I don't think having shackles mounted outside says mall crawler at all. Now maybe the colorful ones do
Doesn't fit there, but again, I don't see any reason to not have the shackles mounted on said holes, zero reason to not mount them there and be ready to use.Maybe through the hole the shackle is attached to
I keep the shackles off the rig. Unless they have the safety pin to keep the bolt from backing out, they shouldn't stay on there full time.
In my environment, there are rocks and stuff to hit as part of working thru a trail, and the rope can end up damaged from contact (well, and 100+ sunshine). Run that exposed rope into a rock a few times, and you'll need the Factor55 fid kit for a field repair.
Awesome! Experience for the win, and good on you for actually working to understand the gear BEFORE you need it. I am "official" recovery for Trail Hero events, and have been doing recoveries for 30+ years...practice helps keep recoveries fast and clean. I've had some entertaining ones
[/QUOTE]In my environment, there are rocks and stuff to hit as part of working thru a trail, and the rope can end up damaged from contact (well, and 100+ sunshine). Run that exposed rope into a rock a few times, and you'll need the Factor55 fid kit for a field repair.
Awesome! Experience for the win, and good on you for actually working to understand the gear BEFORE you need it. I am "official" recovery for Trail Hero events, and have been doing recoveries for 30+ years...practice helps keep recoveries fast and clean. I've had some entertaining ones
So, tip: I run my synthetic winch lines at 80% capacity, so a winch that normally holds 100' of line now has 80'. Lots of reasons for it, the two biggies are: 1> the max capacity of the winch is the 1st/bottom layer, so you are more likely to be winching with the max power since most recoveries are short/close pulls, and 2> Less likely to overspool one side of the winch during a recovery - I have witnessed "exploded" winches when the operator kept winching, even tho the line was bound up on one side of the drum. Pretty rare that a line winds up perfectly during a recovery, and equally rare that your anchor is perfectly straight ahead.
Add a 50' extension line to your recovery kit for longer pulls.
[/QUOTE]In my environment, there are rocks and stuff to hit as part of working thru a trail, and the rope can end up damaged from contact (well, and 100+ sunshine). Run that exposed rope into a rock a few times, and you'll need the Factor55 fid kit for a field repair.
Awesome! Experience for the win, and good on you for actually working to understand the gear BEFORE you need it. I am "official" recovery for Trail Hero events, and have been doing recoveries for 30+ years...practice helps keep recoveries fast and clean. I've had some entertaining ones
So, tip: I run my synthetic winch lines at 80% capacity, so a winch that normally holds 100' of line now has 80'. Lots of reasons for it, the two biggies are: 1> the max capacity of the winch is the 1st/bottom layer, so you are more likely to be winching with the max power since most recoveries are short/close pulls, and 2> Less likely to overspool one side of the winch during a recovery - I have witnessed "exploded" winches when the operator kept winching, even tho the line was bound up on one side of the drum. Pretty rare that a line winds up perfectly during a recovery, and equally rare that your anchor is perfectly straight ahead.
Add a 50' extension line to your recovery kit for longer pulls.
IMO, a rear winch is near useless....I have one on my comp crawler to suck down the rear suspension,, but it will never be used for recovery. In 30+ years of wheeling I've had TWO situations where a rear winch was needed, and in both cases I ran the line under the vehicle. Each needed a short backwards pull to un-jam the front and then a front pull to winch to the side and clear the obstacle. Both were in snow
You Sir, have too much time on your hands. Leave them on and worry about more important things like where next adventure is going to take you and yours in that beautiful Bronc! Tommy Bronc
