Shackles at Lidl

[Neeves]

It looks to me from the failure loads that the shackles/chain/etc failed at loads greater than likely to be found on my 30ft lightish boat. Or is that too simplistic an approach? I must admit, very few of the shackles on my boat are ‘name brand’, merely the usual generic 316 stuff from a chandlery.

Maybe a 3/8th" shackle is too strong, some manufacturers only make 3/8th" as their smallest - some go down to 3/16th" (to a G80 specification) - and if you are using 8mm chain then as the WLL is unlikely to be ever achieved - why use 8mm chain, 6mm would be perfectly satisfactory (with a decent snubber)

The trouble is

A good 3/8th" galvanised (so alloy - not stainless) has a WLL of 2t, which reduces to 1t if side loaded (I have tested this its correct). These shackles sometimes are called G80 shackles.

A shackle of unknown origin, and whose testing protocols have never been tested, might have a 1t WLL, reducing to 500kg if side loaded.

No issues - but if you are using G30 8mm chain its WLL is 750kg (and, say, 75m of 8mm chain is not cheap) then your rode is as strongs (or as weak) as the weakest link - your nefarious shackle. A good shackle cost a fraction of the cost of your chain.

Its simple stuff - a 1t WLL is not likely to be realised, nor even a 500kg WLL - but why save a few pence.


The trouble is - there are a limited number of manufacturers making G80 shackles, or trustworthy 3/8th" shackles with a WLL of 2t. Crosby, Peerless, Campbell and Yoke - it is possible to check them (all reputable companies having been in the business for decades).

There are many suppliers of nefarious (or perfectly good) shackles - but would you reply on Lidl to buy from the same sources next year, have Lidl tested them - are Lidl accepted as a supplier of lifting equipment.....etc

There is no in between quality - you either put yourself out, a bit, and sleep well and go overboard in the specification or you opt for the shackle, possibly, designed for securing the pet dog.

Jonathan

 

[Neeves]

Just to correct a misstatement :

Short Ton is the USA Ton ... too often mistakenly stated as Imperial ...

The true Imperial Ton is the Long Ton of UK and rest of world when not using Metric Ton ......

I am well aware that USA measurements are often called Imperial - but that is a 'street based' understanding.

No wonder the Americans disliked our Empire and went out of the way to ensure the Empire was dismantled - we had a better 'ton' than they did.

J

 

[Neeves]

There are, potentially, suppliers of good shackles, 3/8th" 2t WLL, in China. I don't think CMP Titan make shackles - I think they possibly buy them in (from China).

But the chance anyone in the 'west' would buy them is small and I'm not aware of anyone retailing them.

I've declined testing them - as the only Chinese shackles I see either have no name, at all, or Made In China - so impossible to know where they were manufactured.

I don't discount China as a source - I don't feel the need and am twitchy.

Jonathan

 

[vyv_cox]

It looks to me from the failure loads that the shackles/chain/etc failed at loads greater than likely to be found on my 30ft lightish boat. Or is that too simplistic an approach? I must admit, very few of the shackles on my boat are ‘name brand’, merely the usual generic 316 stuff from a chandlery.

In general I agree. Most chandlery bought stainless steel shackles are perfectly adequate. They seem to be manufactured with somewhat better attention to standards than some galvanised steel equivalents

 

[Refueler]

Shackles ... I don;t see much problem there ... buying in the EU as long as you keep to buying where there is a cert and ticket... if for serious work.

What I now find daft - is EU has created a silly situation with 'blocks' .. I'm not talking Barton or other yachting blocks ... I mean serious lifting blocks.

Previously I could buy a smallish block ticketed for 1T SWL ... but couple of days ago .. I wanted to add a 1T block to my HIAB.
My HIAB is rated to max 1T and has an electric winch fitted back on the first main arm underneath .. anyone who has used a HIAB ... the limiting use is that to lift anything - the arm must raise .. this changes the vertical position of the item etc.
To counter this - the winch wire is then led to the HIAB head and then it canj stay static - and the winch wire lifts the item.

Unfortunately my HIAB has never had a block there for the wire - so usually I have just used a smooth shank bolt that can rotate in the head .... lifting my mini excavator - the bolt decided to bind .. wire then was suffering friction grip ... BANG - it gave way.

Off to local shops where gear available for trucks and lifting guys ... could I find a nice sized 1T block ?? Yes - but so big !! Spoke to sales guy and he reckoned that rules change - they couldn't sell the old style half the size blocks ....

 

[fredrussell]

… but why save a few pence…

Because I’m broke and my hobby is expensive! Joking aside, I agree with what you’re saying, but for my type of sailing stainless shackles from my chandler’s will have to suffice.

 

[DoubleEnder]

I think I was the thread drifter. Apologies.
I was really thinking about stainless steel snapshackles.

You can pay £15.95 at Force 4
On Temu £2.65
Or a Wichard at £64

All for a 70mm fixed eye ‘stainless steel’ snap shackle.
I would discount the Temu, goodness knows what that is all about.
But I assume that the chandler’s generic shackle, at 25% of the Wichard’s price, is going to be perfectly safe and useable. Maybe the more expensive brands just mean you can go down a size and save weight?

Apologies, crossed with another poster

 

[vyv_cox]

I think I was the thread drifter. Apologies.
I was really thinking about stainless steel snapshackles.

You can pay £15.95 at Force 4
On Temu £2.65
Or a Wichard at £64

All for a 70mm fixed eye ‘stainless steel’ snap shackle.
I would discount the Temu, goodness knows what that is all about.
But I assume that the chandler’s generic shackle, at 25% of the Wichard’s price, is going to be perfectly safe and useable. Maybe the more expensive brands just mean you can go down a size and save weight?

Apologies, crossed with another poster

The Wichard standard shackles are their HR version, 17/4PH, a good deal stronger than 316. I assume the others are 300 series, 316 or something else.

 

[riverteign]

I think I was the thread drifter. Apologies.
I was really thinking about stainless steel snapshackles.

You can pay £15.95 at Force 4
On Temu £2.65
Or a Wichard at £64

All for a 70mm fixed eye ‘stainless steel’ snap shackle.
I would discount the Temu, goodness knows what that is all about.
But I assume that the chandler’s generic shackle, at 25% of the Wichard’s price, is going to be perfectly safe and useable. Maybe the more expensive brands just mean you can go down a size and save weight?

Apologies, crossed with another poster

Having had an OEM fitted snap shackle on our running backstay go bang in a rather dramatic way in a F7 earlier this year, I would check what you have and that they have good provenance. Mine are now replaced with Wichards.

 

[Thresher]

I think I was the thread drifter. Apologies.
I was really thinking about stainless steel snapshackles.

You can pay £15.95 at Force 4
On Temu £2.65
Or a Wichard at £64

All for a 70mm fixed eye ‘stainless steel’ snap shackle.
I would discount the Temu, goodness knows what that is all about.
But I assume that the chandler’s generic shackle, at 25% of the Wichard’s price, is going to be perfectly safe and useable. Maybe the more expensive brands just mean you can go down a size and save weight?

Apologies, crossed with another poster

£2.50 from Temu? Just what I need for hoisting my radar reflector.

 

[ducked]

No wonder the Americans disliked our Empire and went out of the way to ensure the Empire was dismantled - we had a better 'ton' than they did.

J

Bigger gallon too

 

[Neeves]

Bigger gallon too

If you wear a 10 gallon hat you need smaller gallons.

Or maybe that's why Americans have big heads, to fill a 10 gallon hat.

My exposure now to 'gallons' is a 40 gallon drum, in which anchor chain is shipped.

Is that big or small gallons?

Worse - I don't know how many meter of 6mm chain you would get in a 40 gallon drum - but imagine the confusion ......

I always use a 1 gallon rode. ???

 

[ducked]

If you wear a 10 gallon hat you need smaller gallons.

Or maybe that's why Americans have big heads, to fill a 10 gallon hat.

My exposure now to 'gallons' is a 40 gallon drum, in which anchor chain is shipped.

Is that big or small gallons?

Worse - I don't know how many meter of 6mm chain you would get in a 40 gallon drum - but imagine the confusion ......

I always use a 1 gallon rode. ???

You always rode in a 10 gallon (37.85 litres) hat on a 17 hand (1.73 metres) palomino, being a High Plains thread drifter.

 

[Biggles Wader]

Bigger gallon too

How many US gallons to fill an Olympic swimming pool?

 

[NormanS]

If you wear a 10 gallon hat you need smaller gallons.

Or maybe that's why Americans have big heads, to fill a 10 gallon hat.

My exposure now to 'gallons' is a 40 gallon drum, in which anchor chain is shipped.

Is that big or small gallons?

Worse - I don't know how many meter of 6mm chain you would get in a 40 gallon drum - but imagine the confusion ......

I always use a 1 gallon rode. ???

The funny thing is that a "40 gallon drum" actually holds 45 gallons.

 

[Dellquay13]

You always rode in a 10 gallon hat on a 17 hand palamino

My horse mad missus would go batty if I ever suggested a palamino could be as big as 17hands… (Osmosis of years of horse lecturing means I vaguely recall palaminos are usually Quarter horses, which aren’t actually 1/4 size but fast over 1/4mile for chasing steers, favoured by cowboys and are smallish sprinters as such, 17hands is English Shire sized).

I thought nautical units such as cables or leagues arcane and outdated, but nothing like as ridiculous as equine measurements

 

[Dellquay13]

I looked at the Lidl shackles and carabiners. They look to be stainless of a sort and are a little bit magnetic. I didn’t buy any but thought they would be ok for stuff like rigging a tarp as a cockpit tent or clipping on the tender while anchored.

 

[Neeves]

I looked at the Lidl shackles and carabiners. They look to be stainless of a sort and are a little bit magnetic. I didn’t buy any but thought they would be ok for stuff like rigging a tarp as a cockpit tent or clipping on the tender while anchored.

You go shopping carrying a magnet?!!

You need to also see a Doctor, Zoidberg and you could use the same attention stranger fetish people harbour


I buy nylon cordage for snubbers. I request one sewn eye, the other end left untouched. When the rope, snubber arrives it holds a shiny shackle, sort of pear shaped. Its magnetic and shiny - but looks too shiny for stainless. I don't need shackles on snubbers and the supplied shackle goes into a cardboard box....in case we buy a dog. The shiny surface peels off with time and the salt environment, we live 100m from the sea. The shackle surface appears to be poorly attached to a chrome (?) film and underneath the shackle is 'sort of' harbouring a thin layer of rust.

When I buy now I specify no shackle.

I'm in no way critical of these revealed fetish - after all I can become preoccupied with anchors.

Jonathan

 

[ducked]

My horse mad missus would go batty if I ever suggested a palamino could be as big as 17hands… (Osmosis of years of horse lecturing means I vaguely recall palaminos are usually Quarter horses, which aren’t actually 1/4 size but fast over 1/4mile for chasing steers, favoured by cowboys and are smallish sprinters as such, 17hands is English Shire sized).

I thought nautical units such as cables or leagues arcane and outdated, but nothing like as ridiculous as equine measurements

I looked it up. Top of the range according to Wickipedia, to go with the hat, otherwise you'd look ridiculous and could not project Eastwoodian menace.

 

[Dellquay13]

You go shopping carrying a magnet?!!
Jonathan

The torch I keep in the thigh pocket of my work trousers has a magnet on the bottom, to stick it in place, and for testing suspect looking stainless