Thread: Crappy bolts...Part II (With Photos!)

Originally Posted by mcrover

In these bad situations I winch as it is easier on everything, I only snatch someone out if it is hung up on something or is just slipping and sliding around and cant quite get there or else it can just do too much damage, Just ask my mate Stu with the big dent in the back of his Pootrol from a broken strap where I winched the bloke out slowly letting air get under the car to relieve the vacuum and not try to pull what is basically like a stump in the ground.

I agree, there is situations where if the car is bogged to the floor pan it may be to dangerous to snatch except in soft sand. This is where you have to make a judgement call. If I decided to have a go I would always take the first couple of snatches steady, and if no luck stop and have a think before trying again.

Sam I am not suggesting you where bogged this badly at the time yours let go.

Originally Posted by ak

I agree, there is situations where if the car is bogged to the floor pan it may be to dangerous to snatch except in soft sand. This is where you have to make a judgement call. If I decided to have a go I would always take the first couple of snatches steady, and if no luck stop and have a think before trying again.

Sam I am not suggesting you where bogged this badly at the time yours let go.

As I mentioned earlier in this thread - the vehicle was not bogged. It was on a gravel track (on a slight incline). The whole purpose of this 'recovery' was to get practial experience in snatch recovery.

Luckilly in this case I found out my recovery point wasn't up to scratch in a situation where the outcome didn't result in my car getting totally stuck.

FWIW, when I was the 'recovering' vehicle in the practice there were no problems recovering off my tow bar hitch.

Originally Posted by Ace

so what about TJM and ARB winch bars that have the recovery eyes in direct line with each chassis rail? These are put there by the manufacturer, and everyone recommends the use of tow bars as recovery points just not the towball.

There just seems to be alot of contradicting info floating around. Matt

hearsay, i would think ace.

to my knowledge neither company recommends them for recovery...

Originally Posted by dullbird

just curious but!
how is this the case when you can make your own bullbar as long as it complies with australian standards (that came from the rta modifications man himself)

the design would have to meet the current ADR's for a bullbar, which is a device to impede a compression incident

the rta man probably wouldnt rate it as a recovery point AND a bullbar at the same time on the same cert i wouldnt think... but will ask my man and see what he says ....

will let you know...

Just to add ... I must when fitting any bull bar or recovery point to the chassies rails is to make shure you use a piece of tube welded through the chassies between the two holes which the high tensile bolts will now pass through thus creating a greater surface area in all directions instead of 2 3mm sides of the chassies which after a few heavy snatches will shear off .. When it comes to recovery it is better to be over engineered.

To clear up the confusion caused by the earlier photos here is a pic of the recovery point now it is all detached from the bar. I can't think of any way to show it any clearer:



It was attached to the chassis using the holes marked 'A' and the bar was in turn attached to this 8mm (ish) thick piece of metal at the holes marked 'B'. The holes are a little over 12mm in diameter. The bar was not connected directly to the chassis on this side.

The scales on the left and along the bottom are cm.

I've not been able to find the old bolts - I think they got chucked in the bin the moment I got home last weekend.

And to restate the facts of the event:

1. Recovery exercise to demonstrate how to attach snatch straps etc. carried out on a fairly flat gravel track. Vehicle was not bogged.

2. Snatch strap attached to 25mm diameter hole with a bow shackle not to the bar.

With all the above in mind it can be seen now that once the bolts through the holes marked 'A' sheared the whole piece (including the bar which was attached to it) carried on going forward leaving the car behind. Since the bar was then being pulled away it bent and then sheared off at the fixing on the other side.

To me thats a tie down point not a recovery point. Way to much leverage on the lower bolt trying to slice it off. A recovery point needs to be more in line with the chassis mounting bolts, not way down there with huge leverage.

Originally Posted by jimbo110

Way to much leverage on the lower bolt trying to slice it off. A recovery point needs to be more in line with the chassis mounting bolts, not way down there with huge leverage.

I agree, way too much leverage and with poor quality bolts it was always going to fail.

Ian