Thread: Tow ball as a recovery point? The answer is NO !!!

Originally Posted by Rosco

I tend to tread lightly in that regard. I've never bent the pin, tho I've heard of some who have. Once bent they're a f*&^%$#*ing mongrel to remove. Nigh on impossible in the bush.

A shackle through the hole where the tow ball goes will do the trick, if you don't have one of the other gizmos.

Cheers

All of the above...but remember that to take the tow ball off requires a largish shifter.

Yeh, thats a good point about bending the pin, might just buy one of those bush hook thingys and be done with it.Since I drive a Defender i dont worry too much about recovery anyway, but I'm sure there are plenty of Disco and Rangie drivers out there with a wealth of experience in this. (sorry, couldnt help myself.)

Do we deduce from this Mr Crump


that the spotlight install, seen here
http://www.aulro.com/afvb/showthread.php't=27692
was less than successful

and did you also notice the acoustic cover off the engine with the tunnel chewed thru it by mice, what ever happened to privacy?? Oh yeah, GTF outa my shed.

Originally Posted by Greylandy

If you think about it ... no strap will pull a hith receiver, tow hook or shackle off a vehicle ....

i beg to differ GL,
about 12 yrs ago, some mates and i were up at goulburn river near sandy hollow. at the time i was 4wd-less and was riding my trike thru the river crossings etc. we went with a bloke by the name of Dave Goss, he used to do those conversions on mitsubishi L300's back in the '80s and 90s. he brought along 2 other L300's, his brother in law and a bloke that just had his converted. (newbie)
it was getting late and we were trying to get back to camp before full dark. as it was we were driving with our lights on.
the trike could get across bits of silt and down track the 4wd's couldn't, and do it a lot faster too. the newbie made the mistake of following my track rather than the formed track and got himself horribly bogged in the silt.
gossies brother in law went to the rescue, hooked his strap onto the newbies recovery point, an ARB hook, shackeled the strap to the back of his van and took off. what they didn't pick up was that the newbie had put his recovery points on, himself. with bolts he picked up for "the right price" at BBC. the bolts snapped, the strap, shackel and hook went flying toward the recovery vehicle. it hit the rear door about 50mm below the window, perforated the outer skin, perforated the inner skin and dented his engel. 50mm higher and it could have been very messy given he had his kids in the car.
although, i've never seen a towball come off, i have heard the horror stories and even though just about every recovery we used to do (before we heard of the towball problem) we would often use the towball, with luckily, no accidents.
there is no way i would rely on a towball for a recovery, towbar, yes! but not towball.
those inserts with the big yellow shackle are great. if you can't find one long enough (shop around) you may be able to get someone to whip one up for you at a machine shop.

Yeah, I've seen a couple of good ones.

About 3 years ago on the Newnes Plateau we were passed by a red Disco 1 travelling (from memory) in the company of a Hilux (or some other forgettable make). About half an hour later we came across these guys. They had been playing in a rhino pit and the D1 got bogged and they'd tried to snatch it out. Talk about unlucky. In one of nature's rare moments, the Hilux managed to overcome its chronic asthma and mustered the tractive effort to pull more than the skin off a rice pudding. Whatever they had mounted the snatch strap to tore off the Hilux, and strap and shackle came through the windscreen of the D1 and inflicted serious head injuries to the driver. There was blood everywhere. By the time we got there his head was taped up like a mummy. Not a pretty sight.

About 6 years ago we were coming around Indian Head when a 75 series TT towing a car trailer with new Camry for the Toyota fishing comp came up off the beach and promptly bogged itself to the gunwales (not an unreasonable outcome given the circumstances). I saw it coming and pulled over to make way. It bogged right beside me. An 80 series backed up and attached a snatch strap with shackle through the "jacking eye" of the ARB bull bar on the 75. The 80 took off, shackle tore out of bull bar, and implanted itself in the tail gate of the 80. Oh what a feeling!

SneakyPete

Recovery, especially dynamic recovery is an activity with a lot of potential for serious damage or injury. In recovery with a winch or by towing you deliberately avoid using any recovery gear that is elastic and can store a significant amount of energy, so if anything breaks things are not likely to go flying, although if the ground is not level the potential energy of the lift can have a similar effect.
But in dynamic recovery, you are deliberately using a snatch strap that is going to store the kinetic energy of the towing vehicle and apply it to pulling the bogged vehicle. This means it is storing a very large amount of energy, and if anything comes loose, the energy will be transferred to the object that came loose. As this is a lot lighter than the recovery vehicle, the energy is going to accelerate it to a much higher speed - and it is going to be heading straight for one of the vehicles, which one depends on which end let go. The potential for disaster is only added to by the fact that everything happens so quickly.
So when thinking recovery, especially dynamic recovery, there is no room for any suspicion of any part being faulty or not strong enough. I have heard of cases where an entire rear crossmember came through the windscreen of the vehicle being recovered, the result of unsuspected (or ignored) rust.

Nice photo's Crump!

But, how did someone manage to get bogged inside your shed??