actually the one test is the one on KingKongs's truck be pulled HARD on a D2 that was stuck in a mud hole. Although I did not know it's supposed to be mounted to the frame/bumper bolt hole. I would venture to say with a double shear joint the bolts going to fail before the frame or the welds.

Depends on how good the welds are my friend. It takes actual pull testing on some built that way to validate/certify the welds will hold.

Cheap knock offs and those made off-shore most like do not have much of an inspection/certification process in place.

Eh I have a couple of these on my front bumper OKoffroad.com Recovery Gear - HD Bumper Shackle Mounts and the hitch mount for the same 3/4 shackle I think I should be good :D

That may be, but the three piece one will fail long before the one pice one will. And if the bolt is the correct strength, it should hold as well. Like I said the three piece one is inherently weaker by design based on piece count alone. It introduces failure possibilities that do not even exist with one piece forged assembly.

I fully agree Jake, those look excellent, and the backing plates also improve the strength tremendously as well.

Depends on the thicknesses being compared also. All the forged ones I have seen look to be considerably thinner then the welded one in the pics. Of course it does depend on the weld quality I agree. This is why I generally stick with stuff that has been tested.

On that note you guys used the new Lucky 8 soft shackle yet?

Yea I need to get some backing plates for mine. They are mounted on my SG bumper but always extra piece of mind. Usually when I am stuck somebody is pulling from my hitch because I was the test dummy

Yeah, if you snatch it thru the bumper, that would blow your good day on the trail.

I had some formal reliability training in the past, so that made me more aware of potential failures based upon part counts and associated things that a lot of people just never had an exposure to some of those concepts and principles. That and a background in analyzing failed parts from the Cruise Missile Program.

Sometimes people mistake some of my comments as being a smart ass running off at the mouth. Sometimes I am a smartass running off at the mouth. You may never quite be sure.

Yea I am pretty good at breaking **** too so I havent ruled it out yet. At least then I would have an excuse to buy a new $1300 RTE bumper.. Like I said though I used the rear more than front.. and when I pull myself out it's all winching.