You have all heard the recommendation of attaching winch hooks with the hook opening facing upward towards the sky. There is a belief that with this arrangement, any rigging failure will result in a downward force to the assembly and scattered parts. But why is this? There are plenty of stress models showing the stresses and forces in loaded winch hooks, but little empirical data showing the failure outcome. When a winch hook (with opening up) is loaded in true horizontal tension, the software models predict a resultant downward force caused by a torque and ramping force from the hook attempting to straighten out as it yields. We prove this theory. Below is a short video sample of our destructive testing of our new UltraHook Product. With the GoPro slowed to the max, you can observe the hook breaking in half and the shrapnel flying downward. In the real world, breaking a winch hook is rather rare, but winch hooks are usually attached to a tow point, shackle, tree strap, tow strap etc. or other type of hardware assembly. These other assemblies experience failures often when the weakest point fails. Even if one of these other mentioned pieces of hardware fails, the loaded winch hook with opening up will still experience a small resultant downward force , increasing the chances of your failed rigging staying low. Remember, due to other unforeseen dynamic loads, there is no guarantee your failed rigging will stay low, but a hook with an opening upward arrangement will increase the chances of doing so. Be safe out there. MADE IN THE USA
