Shackles + Rigging Hardware

Shackles are the connectors — the small pieces that join a rope to a recovery point, or a winch line to an anchor. They matter far more than their price suggests, because a shackle that lets go under load becomes a projectile. That is why the industry has moved toward soft shackles: they are braided rope loops, they are stronger than the steel they replace, and if one ever fails it drops to the ground instead of flying through a windshield. If you buy one thing from this page, make it a soft shackle. Size it for roughly four times your winch capacity, so that the winch stalls before your gear breaks.