Fun little package in the mail

gannonrt

gannonrt

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My last wheeling adventure (fiasco) made me realized that the tow hook isn't great if you have to recover frequently. (Recovering frequently made me realize other things, but that's a different post). So I ordered some Smitty Bilt 3/4" D-ring shackles for both shackle mounts on my front bumper and a receiver hitch mounted one for the rear (until custom bumper is installed but who knows when that is). Got them installed today and am looking to go get stuck to break them in. However, I did notice that the D-ring is substantially wider than the mount. What do you do for that? Just get some washers or bushings from the hardware store?

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I'd like to see it pull from the middle although it may not really matter, Do you have access to a welder? If so... you can stack washers then weld em together so that you're not fumbling with them when you need to use them. Nuther approach is to get some 1 1/4 .120 wall tubing and cut spacers. If you don't have a steel supplier near by, I know a guy who can hook you up with these if you give me the dimensions. Imma bet you need a half inch either side of the tab. cool thing would be to have the spacers welded on either side of those tabs so that you never have to mess with them again once installed.

Get back to me asap if you want me to cut and send you spacers as I will only be able to do it tomorrow or you'll hafta wait till next week.
 
Big John - I'll get the dimensions tomorrow morning before work and email you what I need. Thanks for the assist. What do people do to prevent the shackles from flopping up and down? The tubing would center it, but not prevent rotation. I'm thinking of just gluing a rubber washer to the end of the tube prior to installation on both the d-ring and shackle side to stop most rotation. Does that sound like a good plan to you?
 
I think I have a better idea for you... Get a stack of washers that take up the space either side of the mount. Cheapest washer possible. Then just JB Weld them together so they don't take off every time you use the shackle and you can paint em black and yer done. I like the idea of the spacers being solid so that you don't get a tube spacer twisted in there during a hard side pull.

If you want to take the idea to the next level, take said washers to any shop that has a MIG welder and have them weld the stacks together then weld them to either side of the tabs. Any well trained monkey should be able to do this very cheaply.

As for rotation, They usually stick out far enough to not rattle. But I've seen guys stick magnets to their bumpers which worked quite well. I'd run em first to see if they even bother you.

Or... if you have a winch, run your hook to one of them and you've solved half the problem.
 
That link from BigFishAllDay above should work. It seems like you could weld them eventually, but if you put steel washers and then some sort of pliable material you should be good forever, as long as you don't want to take them off and on.
 
if you plan on leaving the D-rings on, Id suggest putting a zip tie on them, as they will vibrate lose, and you could lose them, ask me how I know, :)
 
Wonder if some blue loctite would solve this problem? Ordered some of what the OP ordered and dont want to take them off and on all the time.
 
I have some spare wire rope that I'm going to use instead of the tie-wrap that I'm currently using. I might use a lock to make sure the legs that are grown aren't attached to a human.

And yes, I'm responding to each comment separately to shamelessly bump up my post count........ 1000 posts here I come....

tbst said:
Wonder if some blue loctite would solve this problem? Ordered some of what the OP ordered and dont want to take them off and on all the time.
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Here's what I did on my old truck. Cut down a short piece of rubber hose that has just enough tension in there to keep them from flopping around. Then when I put the on I tightened the crap out of them to the point it took a big ole wrench to get them off. That kept them from just walking off in parking lots. Of course if your going to do that you need to keep more on hand for when your doing a recovery. I always kept 4 on the truck (2 mount on front, 2 on rear) then I kept about 6 more in my tool box.
 
fire931 said:
Here's what I did on my old truck. Cut down a short piece of rubber hose that has just enough tension in there to keep them from flopping around. Then when I put the on I tightened the crap out of them to the point it took a big ole wrench to get them off. That kept them from just walking off in parking lots. Of course if your going to do that you need to keep more on hand for when your doing a recovery. I always kept 4 on the truck (2 mount on front, 2 on rear) then I kept about 6 more in my tool box.
Click to expand...

I went with fire931's idea and here's pictures of how it turned out. Thanks for the ideas!

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