Thread: Opinions on LRA recovery points wanted

There are only a handful of rated recovery points on the market. First up, confirm they are rated recovery points. If not , they can only be described as tow points. AFAIK, ARB are the only firm who have engineered rated recovery points, but not for all 4x4's. Hope this helps, Bob

Try APT Fabrications they have a steering guard with recovery points or just the recovery points on there own.

This was discussed a couple of years ago, here is ARB's take on the matter. [ I have nothing to do with ARB, but it is interesting] MR Auto sells good points, they used to call them recovery points, but now call them tow points, for legal reasons, I'm told. Bob

From ARB
"It is an unfortunate fact that no 4x4 vehicle available in Australia comes with a factory recovery point. There is a good reason for this that all owners should understand.
When we talk of 4x4 vehicle recovery, we are referring to the use of either winches or kinetic energy recovery (snatch) straps. Winch recovery using either single or double line pull methods exert significant forces on mounting and recovery points, however the loads exerted by recovery straps are far more significant.
If you consider the engineering challenge here, you begin to understand what sort of recovery point we should all be looking for. That challenge is to ensure that the recovery strap is always the weakest link in the ‘recovery train’ as we call it.


We definitely do not want anything the strap is attached to (or with) failing and being catapulted about at high speed. Many people have unfortunately been killed around the world from such failures.

A recent death in Queensland saw their government legislate a set of standards for recovery straps, and these have now been adopted nationwide and are now a mandatory standard all straps must comply with.
All very good, however, there remains no such standard, guidelines or regulations on which manufacturers or users can base an appropriately rated recovery point. Typical of governments who want to be seen to be doing something, they chose the wrong product to regulate. It’s what the strap is attached to that is the issue.

Thankfully, there are standards for the shackles we all use to attach straps, however their rating system is based on lifting gear standards, and the safety factors in lifting gear mean that the rating is one fifth of the failure point. If we apply that rule to recovery points for even the lightest snatch strap, we need a recovery point that will survive a load of 40 tonnes. And I can tell you there is no vehicle body or chassis that could ever survive the test load of 40 tonnes. Furthermore, nobody could afford to buy the recovery point even if it was possible.
For many years ARB incorporated recovery eyes on our bull bars or their mounts and tested these as part of the winch load test process we go through on every bar. Unfortunately we had to steer away from that concept as we found too many users were buying the larger truck application recovery straps in the mistaken belief that a bigger and harder to break strap was better. This raised the risk of breaking these points in careless recovery operations.




Yes, there are small numbers of commercially made rated recovery points, but rated to what? They themselves may be strong enough to pass a load test in a laboratory environment, but what about the structure of the vehicle they are mounted on? The fact is that modern 4x4 vehicles are ever more lightly built and some present real challenges to mount bull bars on, let alone a recovery point that could be subjected to loads over 10 tonnes and an angled direction of pull at that.
Some two years ago ARB began a process of examining this perplexing subject with the goal of establishing a new Industry Standard and a range of correctly engineered and tested, correctly rated recovery points. And to make things even harder for ourselves, we set out to test both the recovery points and the chassis section they are mounted to. These will be substantial devices, unique to each model vehicle and no two will look alike. Pricing is likely to be in the $200-$300 range due to the complexity and physical mass of the devices.

This program has been a long and gruelling one, with several chassis and prototypes destroyed in the process, but a lot of valuable information has been gathered.
Having said all of this, there’s good news and bad news for you, I’m afraid. At the time of writing we are producing the first production run of the range and it is for the Ford Ranger, and following that will be Toyota 70 Series LandCruiser, Nissan GU Patrol and Toyota HiLux.
We will launch with this range and gauge reaction before beginning the development of further applications. If it goes as I hope, the product will be well received by the market and we will quickly be under pressure for more applications. The next stage would include the Triton/Challenger. Sorry for the long-winded answer, but I hope you now have a better understanding of the issues surrounding this subject.
Greg Milton
Manager National Products & Services "

Originally Posted by kelvo

I'm looking for any opinions on the Les Richmond front recovery points for the D2 ( Recovery Gear bottom of page)

At the bottom it says ENGINEER PENDING, so it's not rated. So don't go snatching on it.

Originally Posted by bob10

There are only a handful of rated recovery points on the market. First up, confirm they are rated recovery points.

I doubt that they are rated as there is the following picture:



I have spoken to the engineer that LRA use though, he seems quiet competent and it is a positive that they have submitted the product for engineering approval as means that they're at least confident that it should pass.

Given that AFAIK there are no reated recovery points for the Discovery 2 it seems pointless for people to say only fit rated points, unless of course you can supply details of rated points (As opposed to 'good points') which will be most helpful.

Given that I know the factory fitted towing point is not rated for recovery, and the LRA ones 'look' well made from a design/size point of view with what looks like rated hooks (Based on the picture on their website) they would seem to be better than the factory points.

Originally Posted by Expatdisco3

Try APT Fabrications they have a steering guard with recovery points or just the recovery points on there own.

Interestingly the photo on their website for the steering guard shows it fitted to a Disco with the LRA 'recovery' points APT Fabrication for Land Rover parts - Steering guard | Discovery 2 | AF1025 . I would not be too keen on using the steering guard as a recovery point, it's only 6mm steel where the shackle would go. The APT 'recovery' points APT Fabrication for Land Rover parts - Recovery Points on the other hand are my other option for 'recovery' points.

But I would rather use a strap looped over a hook than using a shackle, unless anyone has a valid argument that a shackle type point is better than a hook (With retaining spring/clip) type point.

Originally Posted by Roverlord off road spares

At the bottom it says ENGINEER PENDING, so it's not rated. So don't go snatching on it.

So are there ANY recovery points for the Discovery 2 that are rated? If so can you point me in the right direction?