FACTOR 55 CLOSED SYSTEM WINCHING, PROFESSIONAL RECOVERY
Factor 55 Precision Engineering
IT'S YOUR WINCH, ONLY SAFER.
Located in Boise, Idaho Factor 55 LLC is an engineering design firm specializing in mechanical design and analysis. Our staff has extensive experience in the Aerospace and Defense industry and we bring this expertise to the Off Road industry resulting in a new generation of strong and lightweight recovery products.
The ProLink/FlatLink products allow the winch owner to eliminate the traditional winch hook and switch to a safer and stronger screw pin shackle/D-ring. Winch hooks are designed to be used with chains and not the commonly used recovery straps. Hook openings are too small to fit both loops of a recovery strap, and hook latches can cut and fray the synthetic strap material. Hooks do not stow nicely or quietly against winch fairleads. In contrary, the screw pin shackle is a secure method to attach both ends of a recovery strap. The screw pin shackle is 3X stronger than conventional winch hooks and cannot damage synthetic straps. The ProLink/FlatLink provides a strong and safe means to attach a shackle to winch cable ends. The ProLink/FlatLink does not require splicing and is compatible with either steel cables or synthetic ropes. The ProLink/FlatLink installs easily in minutes. The cable loop is retained by retained by a Titanium double shear pin and internal snap ring. The multi-barbed EPDM rubber guard protects alloy fairleads and prevents any rattles.
All Factor 55 products are designed using the latest 3D CAD programs and stress analyzed with Cosmos finite element analysis (FEA). Prototypes are destructive tested for confirmation
All ProLink/FlatLink models are made in the USA from billet 6000 series aluminums. All ProLink shear pins are machined from 6AL-4V Titanium billet. All rubber guards are made from high durometer EPDM rubber.
www.Factor55.com or call 208 639 1674. You can also email us at Sales@Factor55.com.
Some of you have inquired about using soft shackles with our smaller ProLink XTV. Yes, the XTV is compatible with soft shackles up to 7/16 in diameter although 7/16 is overkill for these applications. The picture below shows the hole clearance even with the large 7/16 inserted. All of our ProLink products have a machined corner radius on the shackle mounting hole to reduce fiber stresses on synthetic shackle applications. The XTV is also compatible with 1/2 and 5/8 traditional steel shackles as well. XTV weight - 8.5 ounces. Soft shackle weights vary from .5 ounces up to 6 ounces each. With these possible combinations, it is possible to have 21,000 pounds of breaking strength for about 13-15 ounces in weight. Quality Soft shackles are available from many sources : Bubba Rope,Custom Splice, Southeast Overland, Dragline Offroad, Lucky 8 LLC and many others.
Here is a Youtube link from one of our Australian retailers explaining a little more about our product.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYPjqhLmPT4
Here is a video of the hook being cut off a winch line and replaced with the Prolink.
