Safety Thimble for Steel Cable?

98 SNAKE EATER

Adventurer
Did a search and this is the only one I came up with....


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Looks good, but at $130 bucks, it's pretty spendy :(


Any other options out there?
 

Antichrist

Expedition Leader
I know they are safer, but honestly, if you pay attention to what you're doing I don't see a real need for them. In over 30 years of winching I've never even come close to sucking my hand (or the cable end) in to the fairlead.
 

98 SNAKE EATER

Adventurer
I know they are safer, but honestly, if you pay attention to what you're doing I don't see a real need for them. In over 30 years of winching I've never even come close to sucking my hand (or the cable end) in to the fairlead.

There are a number of reasons why I want one (besides safety)....


1) Flat base...

The flat mating surface won't get stuck or damage a fair lead when winched in like a hook or D-ring....


2) The standard hole will force me to go into my recovery gear and use the proper sized hook, clevis or D-ring for each pull....

A while back, I had to pull a buddy out of a deep mud hole where he had been stuck for days...

Handed him the cable with a standard hook and had him make the connection cause I wasn't about to go waste deep in muck for anyone :eek:

Thing is, his tow loop was slightly larger than the hook, so when I started winching him out, it snapped in place :(

Took 4 minutes to winch him out and over 40 minutes trying to get the damn hook off his tow loop :mad:

Had to bash it off with a mini sledge and ended up ruining the spring latch :rolleyes:


3) No rattles

4) Looks cleaner than a crooked hook or one connected to a recovery point...
 

crismateski

American Adventurist
try contacting Ver Sales in burbank ca, they do theatrical rigging and supply steel cable and just about every accessory you can think of. If they dont have it in stock they should be able to get it. http://versales.com/
 

crazyeyez

Crazy EyeZ
Good points, snake. Something like that is why i'd rather use good strap to loop onto the tow point of the truck.

And the pic of the two strap ends on the hook? Pretty dumb move anyway. Put the strap ends on a shackle then hook the shackle.
 

Antichrist

Expedition Leader
And the pic of the two strap ends on the hook? Pretty dumb move anyway.
It's called marketing. A vendor has to make out that there's no other way than their product. ;)
Though I know some people hook things up like that.

This is why I like the thimble as it forces you to use the proper gear for the job rather than taking shortcuts
Recovery discipline will as well and is, in my view, better than a person buying things to force themselves to do certain things they should be doing anyway. There will always be places, no matter what they buy, where they can take dangerous shortcuts.

This isn't to say you shouldn't get one if you want it, but I do think using the "it forces me to be safe" logic can actually be dangerous.
 

98 SNAKE EATER

Adventurer
Recovery discipline will as well and is, in my view, better than a person buying things to force themselves to do certain things they should be doing anyway. There will always be places, no matter what they buy, where they can take dangerous shortcuts.

This isn't to say you shouldn't get one if you want it, but I do think using the "it forces me to be safe" logic can actually be dangerous.


The same can be said for just about everything else in life :eek:

I know I shouldn't break the speed limit, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't take full advantage of my radar detector ;)

I can be the most disciplined person in the world when it comes to winching, but since I'm not the only one handling the gear, I try to make everything as safe and goof proof as possible :cool:

That being said, as I stated before, not being able to take short cuts isn't the only reason for getting one :ylsmoke:
 
If I'm going to be using any of my equipment I do all the rigging. If someone's in to much of a hurry to let me do that I tell them maybe the next guy that comes along will help them out. The only exception is when someone is stuck in deep mud that I don't feel like walking into then I tell them where, and how to hook up to their truck. This takes care of alot of problems and leaves me with only myself to blame if I did something wrong.
As far as the thimbles they are nice but I don't think I'd pay that much. You could replace the entire cable with synthetic or a new wire setup the way you wanted for not much more than that. Steel cable on a hard pull eats up the rollers enough that you'd never be able to tell if the hook scratched it up anyways. I never tightened my hook into the rollers on any of my vehicles. I always found a nice solid place up above the Fairlead for it to hang and never tightened it enough to put any real pressure on the cable. When your the one stuck it makes it easier to get if the hooks not under snow/mud/water etc.
 

Awkragt

Adventurer
Actually in those photos you've got, the steel line already has a thimble on it. It would be better to get the aluminum block out of the equation and just use shackle through the thimbled eye. Rigging for cranes you just put a shackle in the eye of the wire rope. Thimbles are only added when you want more wear protection.

In my opinion the most useful setup would be a thimbled eye on the rope and a self locking gunnebo hook.

http://www.gunnebojohnson.com/gunnebo-classic-alloy-chains-and-fittings/hooks/self-locking-hooks/
 

98 SNAKE EATER

Adventurer
If I'm going to be using any of my equipment I do all the rigging. If someone's in to much of a hurry to let me do that I tell them maybe the next guy that comes along will help them out. The only exception is when someone is stuck in deep mud that I don't feel like walking into then I tell them where, and how to hook up to their truck. This takes care of alot of problems and leaves me with only myself to blame if I did something wrong.

As I said in my second post, I'm not always willing to get muddy for just anyone ;)

Also, I'm not an expert in knowing exactly where to hook up on all vehicles (especially when covered in mud or surf) :eek:

Like this one guy I helped out at the beach a couple weeks ago....



****** kind of SUV doesn't come equipped with tow loops???

With the tide coming in, I didn't have much time, so I just grabbed a large J-hook and slipped it over sumthin solid :rolleyes:





Actually in those photos you've got, the steel line already has a thimble on it. It would be better to get the aluminum block out of the equation and just use shackle through the thimbled eye.

That's what I'm currently running instead of a hook...

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The problem with running a regular shackle is that the thimble eye on the cable has to sit vertical, like this...

frontwinchdring3.JPG


Tension on the cable is needed to keep the shackle from rattling, but due to the small cable slot between the fair lead, the vertical thimble eye gets crimped :(

The Safety Thimble would allow the cable thimble eye to sit horizontal so there's no chance of damaging it :cool:





In my opinion the most useful setup would be a thimbled eye on the rope and a self locking gunnebo hook.

http://www.gunnebojohnson.com/gunnebo-classic-alloy-chains-and-fittings/hooks/self-locking-hooks/

All of which will still rattle unless connected to something else (tow loop) with some tension.
 

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