Make Your D-Ring Shackles Quiet
D-ring shackles are amazing. They're small, strong, and can connect any recovery gear to your rig.
But:
They swing against your bumpers, scratch your paint, chip your powdercoat, and make noise. Solve it with some D-ring isolators. These are simple, inexpensive pieces of plastic that snap into place on your shackles to protect your finishes and silence the banging.
There are lots of reasons to keep your D-ring shackles installed on your bumpers. You might do this because:
- You use them so much it makes sense to leave them.
- It makes you look cooler. Don’t worry. We’re all guilty of this one....
- You are lazy.
- The screw is rusted in the shackle.
However, there are two downsides to leaving your recovery shackles in place:
1) Your shackles will be noisy.
Like noisy, clanky, banging? Neither do we. But as you roll down your favorite trail on a peaceful Saturday morning, your shackles will clank and bang against your bumpers. If you’ve ever had a loose part on the trail, you’ll know what this sounds like. It’s usually the type of noise that makes you get out and start looking things over to make sure that something isn’t being destroyed (like that time our exhaust came loose and started pancaking our rear axle’s brake line).
2) Your shackles will destroy your bumper’s paint or powdercoat finish.
Yeah, yeah. If you’re hardcore, you don’t care about looks. But really, there’s no reason to ruin your bumper’s powdercoat because you’re hardcore. The only way to fix damaged powdercoat is to refinish the whole bumper. Actual trail damage is one thing, but just letting your D ring shackle chip your finish on your $700 bumper is another.
The Fixes - How to Make Your D-Rings Less Noisy
So here we’ve got two ways to stop banging shackles. One is cheap. The other is…also pretty cheap.
1) D-Ring Washers and Isolators
These are perfect for quieting your rattling D-rings. They are sold with 2 isolators and 4 washers.
Rugged Ridge makes the only isolators for 7/8" D-rings that we know of.
These plastic isolators snap on to your D-ring shackles. We've only ever found 2 sizes: Daystar isolators for 3/4" shackles and Rugged Ridge Isolators for 3/4" or 7/8" shackles.
They are easy to put on and take off and they come in a several colors. If you ruin one, they are pretty cheap to replace. They are sold in pairs with 4 washers. That means you can do two shackles with one kit.
The Cons
For serious recovery work, we recommend that you take the isolators off. A metal winch hook can eventually destroy the polyurethane, and a nylon recovery strap or winch hook can make the isolator pop off.
These isolators will protect your bumper's finish and keep the rattling down.
2) Garden Hose
This is our cheaper/free solution. You probably won’t be able to slip the garden hose onto the U, but you can cut it and zip tie it on.
The cons? Well, it will look like you have garden hose zip tied to you truck, so there’s that. It might be a little noisier than the isolators since some hose is somewhat thin. Soaker hose may be a good option - it’s usually black, a little thicker than regular garden hose, and the porosity will keep water from pooling in the U.
Last updated: June 13, 2019
