Recovery Points on 03 onwards foresters

No luck with Superior engineering. They are not interested in developing recovery points for Foresters.

I had a look at a video showing the fitment of a Subaxtreme bull bar and noticed, by pausing it at strategic points, that the mounting brackets may be able to be done differently such as bending in some spots rather than welding and extending the bracket to include and additional mounting point near the tie-down hooks and adding an extension to be used for recoveries. I floated the idea with them and Tony is willing to have a look at it. I'll keep you posted.
 
Subaxtreme made Heavy Duty recovery points for SF Foresters back in the day, I have a set of them here too
 
One of the big strengthening improvements in the SG series was tying the two front frame units together vertically on each side with - wait for it - the "tie down points".

IOW, they form a strong part of the front frame of the vehicle.

In the SF, there were only one frame member on each side. An upper framing member was added in the SG.
 
Beachworm I get where you're coming from. I always cringe when I see a 4wd doing a recovery on a Subaru!!

It's very important that you (and everyone else) get the right sized snatch strap for your Foz. There is now an legal industry standard for snatch straps that states the breaking strain must be 2-3 times the laden weight of the LIGHTEST vehicle in the recovery. It must be rated for the lightest vehicle, regardless of whether it's the stuck vehicle or the vehicle doing the pulling.

For our little Subies, that means 5t breaking strain is best, or 6t at the most. Never let anyone use a 8t snatch strap on a Subaru!

You should also use an equaliser strap fed through the end loopp of the snatch strap & attached to both front recovery points using rated 3.2t bow shackles (not D shackles). If attaching the strap to the rear, the best way is to the towbar by removing the towball (never ever loop the strap over the towball) & using a 4.7t bow shackle with the pin in the towball hole. Or a recovery hitch

This is what I use:


RIDGE RYDER 5,000KG SUV SNATCH STRAP - SCA

Ridge Ryder Equaliser Strap - 8000kg - SCA

BLACK RAT 3.2 TONS 16x19 mm x2 BOW SHACKLES - eBay

BLACK RAT 4.7 TONS 19x22 mm BOW SHACKLE - eBay
 
Good info Nachaluva.

The two bow shackles you referenced have been removed from sale. I have a 5T Ridge Ryder strap so now I need to buy the equaliser. The problem with using a 4T bow shackle replacing the pin in the hitch receiver of the tow bar is that (in the case of mine) the pin is too big to fit through the hole. I'll have to see if I can find one with 3.2T rating. I could use the bigger bow shackle to join the ends of the equaliser I suppose. I resorted to buying a 3.5T rated pin that has served me well in the only instance where I needed to be recovered (by my son-in-law under strict instructions that my vehicle was to be treated gently). I wouldn't expect it would necessarily remain straight in an unsympathetic recovery.
 
Beachworm said:
The problem with using a 4T bow shackle replacing the pin in the hitch receiver of the tow bar is that (in the case of mine) the pin is too big to fit through the hole. I'll have to see if I can find one with 3.2T rating.
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There's been a couple of people say that too. Must have something to do with the brand of shackle.

Don't use a 3.2t bow shackle for this, it needs to be a 4.7t. 3.2t is fine for the front where the load is being shared (halved) with the equaliser strap but not here.

I would use a recovery hitch or the other method is to feed the endloop into the receiver and hold it in place with the pin

I could use the bigger bow shackle to join the ends of the equaliser I suppose.
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Not sure why you're joining the ends of the strap.

The idea with recoveries is to use the least amount of steel possible & to never use steel to join straps.

To join 2 straps, you either feed one through the loop of the other (use a rolled up magazine between them to stop them binding) or use a soft shackle like this:

https://wettechrigging.com/shop?olsPage=products%2F12mm-uncovered-dyneema-soft-shackle-12-uc-dyn-ss&page=2


Or search on eBay for soft shackle (needs to be the ~16t one with protective sleeve)
 
I've never used any shackles up to this point, only the rated 3.5T pin through the hitch receiver, that is, no front recoveries.

From the discussion, I had in my mind, probably wrongly, the idea that the equaliser strap was fed through the two tie-down loops and joined with a shackle to which the snatch strap was also attached. This didn't seem a good idea as the strap would be subject to damage on the tie-downs. I've since looked at some video of recoveries and I now understand I will need two shackles to attach the ends of the equaliser to the tie-downs and the equaliser passes through the loop on the end of the snatch strap.

This means the 4T shackle I have is pretty much useless.

Thanks for helping make this clear for me.
 
Cant you modify front recovery points with some tube peace by connecting them together?
So 5t snatch strap would be ok for 2nd gen outback as well?
About rear what if you need to pull just in one side or in front there is no other way just to attach to one side recovery point.?
 
Beachworm said:
I've since looked at some video of recoveries and I now understand I will need two shackles to attach the ends of the equaliser to the tie-downs and the equaliser passes through the loop on the end of the snatch strap.
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Yes that's right. You can just make out one of the bow shackles here:



scalman said:
So 5t snatch strap would be ok for 2nd gen outback as well?
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Yes, 5t is perfect for all Subarus, even the big Tribeca



About rear what if you need to pull just in one side or in front there is no other way just to attach to one side recovery point.?
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If you can't use both tie down points at the front, then you'll have to use only one. But remember it's now receiving double the force, so be careful with the recovery
 
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