Mike Costa, president and lead engineer at Factor 55, explains the importance of using load-centering spools in a video posted below.Factor 55 has released an instructional video on a winch component that keeps stirring up questions: load-centering spools.
Sometimes mistakenly called a pulley, a load-centering spool—like its name implies—keeps a tube-thimble or looped cable centered on the load pin of a winch shackle mount.
Without the load-centering spool, a smaller tube-thimble can slide to one side of the load pin and result in uneven load distribution on the shackle.
“Under tension, the wire rope finds the center of the pin,” Mike Costa, Factor 55 president and lead engineer, explains why demonstrating the spool in the video. “This is going to achieve the greatest strength of this particular rigging component.”
The load-centering spools come standard with Factor 55’s FlatLink XXL, the world’s first foldable winch shackle mount. After folding flat against a winch fairlead, FlatLink XXL sticks out only 1 ¾ inches.
