Thanks for that Gmac. Appreciate your expertise regarding chains, shackles and line. Very confusing, especially when you attempt to make an online
purchase. Many will advertise their shackles meet a certain govt standard but do not elaborate with ANY details.
After much frustration and misguided information, I did some digging and discovered the US federal govts "mil spec" standards for chain and shackles. Here is a link to that page.
http://www.landmannwire.com/RR-C-271D.pdf
It appears, at least according to the above link, glavanized ALLOY shackles or Grade B as reffered to by the US govt, offer a higher tensile strength than what they term as Grade A and would be more compatible with the WLLs of G4x chain.
Digging a little more, I found US manufactured Crosby shackles to be one of the most commonly available glavanized alloy shackles though in limited sizes. They're not stocked by many
marine dealers but are readily available from outfits that support the towing, logging,
shipping, heavy lifting and
rescue equipment industries. The color of the pin does not seem to specifically identify any particular rating or strength... only that it MIGHT be rated... to what, who knows or by whom.
As an example, below is a link to a 4
wheel drive house that
lists what they describe as G40 shackles with a red pin showing a 1/2" with a WLL of 6000lbs. Little other data available other than a
photo. Other red pin 1/2" shackles I found were only be rated at 4000 lbs WLL. Also noted that some highly rated alloy shackles have only galvanized pins.
http://www.awdirect.com/awdirect/fin...fm?itemid=8551
Onward through the
fog.