Tried using this Reno snatch ring today and it doesn't rotate on the soft shackle. I even tried 3 different generation Bubba Rope shackles. It looks like the soft shackle grips hard on the side of the ring, and the rope just slips in the pulley-groove of the ring.

Is this ring designed wrong, or what? If yes, any recommendations? If no, what could be the problem?

 

I only have snatch blocks and have never used a ring like that, though I have watched videos on those before. My understanding was that the ring does not rotate, hence why you are only supposed to use those with a synthetic line that will just slide right around the ring. Maybe I'm wrong about that. It sounds to me like that is what you're questioning when you say the soft shackle is grabbing the ring and not allowing it to rotate. Curious to hear if others have used these.

**edit - nope, i'm completely wrong above. i really scrutinized those videos I thought it wasn't rotating and it was. learned something new today.

 

Those are not made to rotate like a traditional pulley, the synthetic line slides around it.

 

Looked at some videos, which is sort of like Alice down the rabbit hole...

It looked to me like the rings rotated more often than not in the vids I saw. The description for the ring on the Factor 55 website mentions "oversized hole radius provides a smooth rubbing surface and keeps the legs of the soft shackle from rubbing on the edges of the RRP" (RRP being their acronym for the ring) -- So that sounds like they expect the ring to rotate on the soft-schackle even though it actually didn't in a some vids.

These three particular vids below showed a lot of testing, too much testing .


Roger Pepper did the first two vids, he does an incredible job efficiency testing rings in the second vid. The third vid was a lot of work too, and the comments about ring slip and not slip start at 7:00.

I think the best case is that the ring rotates and the soft shackle takes the wear, but it works regardless. In any case, something has to slip, and the lower the friction the better.

My current soft-shackles are three flavors of the Gator Jaw made by Bubba Rope, and they feel like there's a lot more friction (on polished aluminum) than the winch rope. So it makes sense that the rope slips on the sheave rather than the ring rotating with the rope. Decided to get another soft-shackle for the bag, the softer low friction rope type, and see if the friction difference is low enough for the ring to rotate.

 

What the hell is wrong with a 100 year old design snatch block?

 

Nothing, other than the weight and size difference. Over the years I've been going lighter with synthetic winch rope, soft shackles, and lately with this little ring instead of a snatch block. No bow shackles, or even a hook for the winch anymore. In a way it's going backward in time, further back than 100 years, but using newer materials.

 

mostly that it's a 100 year old design made for steel cable. They use synthetic/dyneema/spectra cable now for many good reasons. Lighter, safer, stronger.