Second tow hook

[havachat]

A hitch receiver on the front is not a good idea and reduces the approach angle. You will see them on vehicles where the driver is too lazy to learn to reverse a trailer!!
As far as portable winches go you cannot overlook the tirfor style winch. Can be used back, front or side with the appropriate straps.

 

[Beachworm]

Does a permanently mounted winch reduce the approach angle? If not, why would a hitch receiver protrude further?

I can understand when the winch is attached it hangs out a mile both front and rear but it would only be put in place when its use is anticipated due to the terrain. You couldn't legally drive with it hanging on the front bar anyway.

To be honest, attaching a winch is only an afterthought. I am primarily interested in a solid, reliable recovery point, whether that be a hitch receiver or a recovery hook (or pair) attached via the front chassis rails.

I've used a tirfor and it's a very slow process that works up quite a sweat.

 

[El_Freddo]

I don't know if that's such a flash idea.. the subframe is bolted to the unibody rails

Understandable as to your position on this - and hey, I'm no engineer. Pls see below for the whole message I sent. The engine crossmember has a lot of strength going for it, linked in further back with some sort of crush device I don't see an issue.

If the bash plate mounts to the engine crossmember this would be the best place for the recovery point as the engine crossmember is one of the strongest points up front. If possible to tie this into the gearbox mount points even better. This could be built in such a way that it could fold in the event of a catastrophic front end crash.

Downers on this idea are:
- mounted very low under the front of the vehicle - not fun hooking stuff up to once already stuck.
- would want/need an engineer on board for airbag compliance ($$$)

Cheers

Bennie

 

[Beachworm]

Hi Bennie,

I did take in all the points of your post. Sorry if I passed over some of them without comment. I'm not an engineer either, just a retiree who spent quite a few years of my working life teaching design and technology but this only gives me the capacity to imagine and design. Certification is well beyond me.

I agree that recovery points attached as you suggest would be strong but one of the downsides you mentioned, that of having to crawl under the vehicle to attach a strap makes it impractical in my book. I've been beached on a high centre of a track and needed a recovery. I looked under the front, thinking of a front recovery only to find that even getting to the tie down hooks was going to involve a lot of digging and that wasn't on my agenda. The only way to avoid this is to attach a distribution strap at the beginning of the run and leave it there until the end just in case. I don't think that's a good thing to do. I shudder to think what would happen if the strap caught on a rock while I was doing 20 Ks or so.