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Advantages of Synthetic Soft Shackle and How to make it 1

Synthetic Soft Shackle is made of UHMWPE fiber(also be called as dyneema soft shackle), normally it’s the fiber strop with an eye splice at one end and a stopper knot at the other. A synthetic soft shackle can handle just about every function performed by a steel shackle, Since the hardness of metal shackles may cause damage to other places (such as the decorative wooden surface of sailboats/yachts), this lightweight and safe soft ones are used for the replacement of metal shackles in more and more cases now.

The synthetic soft shackle also has other advantages besides lightness, for example: it can be used in places where metal shackles are not convenient to use, and it will be more flexible when connecting with metal objects; because of the flexibility of the rope, soft ones reduce Wear resistance metal connections, etc.

UHMWPE is known as the strongest and lightest fiber in the world. In terms of weight, its strength is 15 times that of steel wire cable. It also has other excellent characteristics like waterproof, floatable, chemical resistance, UV resistance, etc., so the shackle made of the UHMWPE is much better than the metal shackle.

When using the shackle, as the force increases, the pressure on the soft one will accumulate on the “diamond knot” of the rope head. While the rope breaking strength is unchanging,the breaking strength of the soft shackle depends on the strength of diamond knot.

It is particularly important to pay attention to the fact that when the “diamond knot” is tightened at the end, in addition to the correct method of knotting, it also need the pliers to give it more strength on it, so to make the diamond knot much tigher and stronger and also can avoid the potential danger while using.

If the diamond knot is defective or imperfect, the soft shackle has a high probability of breaking in many cases. So be sure to complete in accordance with the requirements while making. the well done soft shackle is very durable and reliable.

Advantages of this method: 

1. This method requires the least length of rope.
2. It is easy to make the soft shackle and seldom have mistakes.
3. Since a string is left in the shackle: one end of the string remains in the body of the soft shackle and one end is outside, so it will be easy to tighten or loosen the the shackle.
4. Because this method is simple and easy, there is minimal change on its intensity.

Disadvantages:

1. This style of play will leave the rope tail on the top.If you regularly install and remove the soft shackle,it may be troublesome. So you need to use electrical tape to entangle the tail.
2. It is very difficult to open this kind of soft shackle without the auxiliary small string in the rope.
3. This method has the smallest intensity change,but it also has the smallest intensity compared to other methods.

Soft Shackle Applications:

4×4 recovery/Sailing/Yacthing/Rigging

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