Originally Posted by
nanok
for the tarp, you really need not worry about the strength (actually, they will be too strong, decent 2mm braided nylon should be good for about 50kg force line strength (about 100lbs), a poorly made soft shackle should hold at least 150% of line strength, a properly made one with the button knot and tails burried properly will be over 200%, for a hiking tarp (lightweight stuff, not too big) imho anything above 20kg (50-ish lbs) is just "more than needed"; if the shackle will break under load, before the tarp does so, you will be happy, as the shackle is a much easier fix in the field (but it won't, which issomething i'm working on, but more on that later).
for more "critical" uses it is recommended to load the soft shackle slowly multiple times, taking it up to 50% expected working load or such in the last pulls, this is to tighten the button knot slowly and safely. again, for your application you probably don't care much about that, but the bucket could indeed help with that.
as a side note, the pic i linked to shows an alternative kind of shackle which you might like to consider for your use: the idea is the capture loop is in the middle, instead of at the end, so that you can for instance attach the free loop to one object (say the tarp in this case) and close the button knot of the soft shackle through the second object (maybe prusik loop on the ridgeline or what have you in this case), this way the shackle can stay attached to one object, and thus is much easier and tidier to use (doesn't tend to "run away" as you try to close it). you can go evne further, by making the friction hitch (like a prusik, or a VT) directly with the free loop of the soft shackle, and the closing the shackle on the tarp tieout, thus making everything a lot more compact and simple.
have fun
Bookmarks