FACTOR 55 News

Is laboratory destructive testing of vehicle recovery products important?

We just received an update from our friends on the BFGoodrich Tires East-West Australia Jeep Expedition. The team has been fully off the grid for seven days and successfully completed the crossing of the Simpson Desert. This area has been closed to the public for decades. The group is attempting to locate and follow Ian McDonald’s original tracks from 1969 and is moving west toward Uluru and the Olgas. Factor 55 USA Made winch safety products are equipped on every Jeep. Follow their progress at Seven Slot Expeditions as the head for another 6 days of off grid travel. Best of luck to the entire team!

NEW PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENT- Factor 55’s 5/8″ x 20′ Extreme Duty Kinetic Energy Rope rope is coated with a flexible, durable, weather-resistant polymeric coating. Rubberized rope eyes further increase durability at the wear points of the rope. Rated at 14,800 lb MBS, Factor 55’s 5/8″ x 20′ diameter Extreme Duty Kinetic Energy Rope is designed for use on increasingly popular UTV/ATV/POWERSPORTS machines. While smaller than some of the other Kinetic Ropes Factor 55 offers, the 5/8″ x 20′ rope still packs a lot of performance in a compact package.

Earth Anchors, Ground Anchors, Deadman Anchors, whatever you choose to call them, sometimes there simply is no available winch attach point so you must use one. Check out the various types of anchors we have seen used offroad. Note how all of these users are practicing the more secure CLOSED SYSTEM WINCHING™ attach point to their anchors. Have you used one? Which do you prefer?

Take a look at our booth from the 2021 SEMA Show with @Warn Industries and @FabtechMotorsports . We review our 8 New Products and some other big items, as well as...

A little Friday reminder for those of you that would like to eliminate the traditional steel tube thimble on the end of your winch line and run a “soft loop” termination instead. We manufacture billet aluminum load spools for this purpose. The load spools simply fit over the titanium shear pins on our winch line shackle mount products and provide the minimum bend radius dictated by the Cordage Institute (CI 1500). Take a look at some of the IRT workshop presentation slides and note that to properly tensile test rope eyes, the standards dictate minimum D/d ratios from 1.5 -2. If you follow this CI standard, the winch line will never fail on the backside of the pin, but instead will fail at the end of the buried tail.

We had the opportunity to meet up with Will from  @Venture2Roam  at a recent event. He filmed this quick clip to give us the chance to share where the name FACTOR...

Our offices will be closed Friday, July 3rd, in observance of the 4th of July Holiday.

Recently we were honored to take part in some battle exercises. In this training exercise, soldiers were being instructed on Personal Security Detail Recovery. The objective of PSDR is to be able to extract a disabled vehicle quickly and safely without soldiers having to exit either vehicle. These battle conditions include vehicles damaged by IEDs as well as taking on other enemy fire. In the attached photos are examples of how these Humvees are prepared prior to entering hostile territories. Note how vehicle recovery straps are coiled and pre-attached to the front and back of each vehicle. Also note how the ends of the straps are also easily reachable through the Humvee side windows.

We have received many requests about the ability to customize the Rope Guards on our line of foldable winch line shackle mounts like The FlatLink, FlatLink E,...