Tow Hooks...What are They For?

[Eric Kern]

Every situation is unique but I’ve used the tow hooks to drag people out, get dragged out, never broke one, bent one, blah blah blah...but again, every situation is unique, their have certainly been times where I opted not to use the hooks.

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[Deleted member 30519]

Maximus3 has brackets for the factory steel bumper that allow you to use a shackle

My shackles actually came with my bumper.

 

[SwampNut]

There's a factory steel bumper option that comes with shackles??

 

[Blade1668]

Get that sucker down in the Iowa clay and you'll need an act of God to get the Pull-Pal back out of the muck. A power auger can't even bore through the stuff in my yard. (we tried, wasn't possible)

Ahhh the good old Mid-West clay, I have met quite a bit of it in my youth. To include getting my car stuck due to not being able to see the road from fog when I was leaving from fishing. I ended up being pulled out with a dozer. I had clay up on door's down in river bottoms. I was lucky that I was known as the kid always out fishing or hunting then not the parties of drinking or smoking. I started going out fishing walking or bike to river then with my car after I got a D/L.

 

[ACAD_Cowboy]

So what ARB is actually saying is there is a difference between a towing point and a recovery point aka a hard point.

Down'yonder in ARB country many people wheel japanese IFS/IRS machines and you will see on them a front and rear eye made from light metal welded to the tub. You use these to pull them onto a roll back and the like. These are also used to lash them for transport. This would also include any screw in tow eyes as well.

These are not to be used as a recovery point.

Down'yonder they also do a good trade in vehicle specific fabricated & engineered recovery points for recovery. ARB is telling you flat out to pull from a rated point. These are rated points.

As for the JK,JL and JT, the front and rear hooks are rated recovery points. As I recall the JK fronts hooks are rated at 10k when used as a pair. I assume the rears are likewise. Somewhere jeep has some back patting documentation on the JL and JT points, I have to assume they are at least 10k for the JT based on weight of the truck alone.

Now for fun, take a 3/4 bow shackle and see how very nicely it fits the front hooks, kinda like they intended it to go there. Freaky right? I personally wouldnt' want to use a bumper mounted shackle eye as compared to a frame mounted eye because unless the company can show you verifiable documentation that the eye and bumper structure is rated for the forces and force paths, you start yanking on it and it's liable to deform at the least and become a missile toward the far end of the envelope. I'm not saying the bumpers aren't strong, more that they are mostly designed to work in compression not tension. I've seen very strong things fail badly when used the wrong way.

So to recap: tow points bad, recovery points good, rated points beat bubba said everyday.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

So what ARB is actually saying is there is a difference between a towing point and a recovery point aka a hard point.

Down'yonder in ARB country many people wheel japanese IFS/IRS machines and you will see on them a front and rear eye made from light metal welded to the tub. You use these to pull them onto a roll back and the like. These are also used to lash them for transport. This would also include any screw in tow eyes as well.

These are not to be used as a recovery point.

Down'yonder they also do a good trade in vehicle specific fabricated & engineered recovery points for recovery. ARB is telling you flat out to pull from a rated point. These are rated points.

As for the JK,JL and JT, the front and rear hooks are rated recovery points. As I recall the JK fronts hooks are rated at 10k when used as a pair. I assume the rears are likewise. Somewhere jeep has some back patting documentation on the JL and JT points, I have to assume they are at least 10k for the JT based on weight of the truck alone.

Now for fun, take a 3/4 bow shackle and see how very nicely it fits the front hooks, kinda like they intended it to go there. Freaky right? I personally wouldnt' want to use a bumper mounted shackle eye as compared to a frame mounted eye because unless the company can show you verifiable documentation that the eye and bumper structure is rated for the forces and force paths, you start yanking on it and it's liable to deform at the least and become a missile toward the far end of the envelope. I'm not saying the bumpers aren't strong, more that they are mostly designed to work in compression not tension. I've seen very strong things fail badly when used the wrong way.

So to recap: tow points bad, recovery points good, rated points beat bubba said everyday.

The hooks line up with the frame horns, correct? So pulling directly on the frame?
Just asking... u seemed to know a few things.......

 

[ACAD_Cowboy]

Yes, they do. Bolt right to the frame.

And don't be the chuckle head I saw the other day who removed his plastic shell, cut down the steel inner member and then mounted his hooks upside down... so the rope or strap just falls off once the tension is backed down? Great.

 

[WK2JT]

The hooks line up with the frame horns, correct? So pulling directly on the frame?
Just asking... u seemed to know a few things.......

I just installed the steel Rubicon bumper on my Overland. The factory tow hooks/recovery points are directly attached to the frame horns with 4 studs. The tow hooks have the studs pressed through them like a hub and they sandwich the bumper to the frame.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I just installed the steel Rubicon bumper on my Overland. The factory tow hooks/recovery points are directly attached to the frame horns with 4 studs. The tow hooks are what actually have the studs pressed through them like a hub and they sandwich the bumper to the frame.

Sort of figured but being unSURE, thought I'd ask
- good detailed explanation.

It shows they were serious about those hooks.

 

[Gvsukids]

Every situation is unique but I’ve used the tow hooks to drag people out, get dragged out, never broke one, bent one, blah blah blah...but again, every situation is unique, their have certainly been times where I opted not to use the hooks.

So to recap: tow points bad, recovery points good, rated points beat bubba said everyday

Should the tow hooks be used in tandem as a recovery point? Or should I look at installing frame mounted recovery points underneath the bumper? Should I even retain my steel bumper skid plate?

 

[hjdca]

I have a Rubicon (steel bumper); what if I don't want to swap it out?

I just posted this in another thread... The Warn Bull bar for the Jeep steel bumper will close up the open hooks, so, they are safer for winching/pulling. Here is a pic.

 

[ACAD_Cowboy]

And since I'm still up at this ungodly hour (working 5 to 5 on the over with 2 hours of driving there and back, 600 feet of tower climbing with 8 hours of grinding and 2 hours of cleaning with some over the hub on the devils jungle gym, sun = scary)

To recap a recap, most vehicle's tow points are for the vehicle to be pulled out of a ditch or onto a flatbed etc. While this is called towing and recovery, it is not Recovery!¡!. These small welded eye loops and screw in eyes are strong yes but not winching across the Darien strong.

Jeep hooks, front or rear are rated for 10k of pull per which is nominally 2x GVWR which is typically plenty strong BUT this is in the Z axis only ( longitudinal axis or length of truck) and really only in the 0° horizontal plane. You get maximal strength pulling flat and in-line. Please consult the chicken entrails, billavista or winch and gesr manufacturers to infer/deduce/WAG how much the strength declines as you move away from 0°/0°.

If you use them in tandem doing a bridle pull ( length of rope/cable across the hooks with a eye ring) you can decrease the stress loading on the jeep provided the bridle is long enough. Somewhere in the bowels of the collection is a book on ship board crane and winching operations and in it they discussed fleet angle and sling pitch & length.

Some photos

Short story long is fleet should be between 2° and 4° for optimum loading of the drum and minimization of stresses in the winch mount. In our case this is a function of the distance between the fairlead and the drum. The next tidbit is what concerns us and that is the pitch angle of the bridle. If your leg length is too short, ie a small angle between load and line, the bridle will
transfer compressive lateral forced between the hooks. So longer legs with greater angles reduces lateral loading.

If you were really feeling it you could add your own additional recovery hard points to the frame, obviously how they are designed and constructed would play a roll in how well they perform. Placement and packaging would be the big hurdles, too massive and they become their own entanglement hazard when crawling.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

And since I'm still up at this ungodly hour (working 5 to 5 on the over with 2 hours of driving there and back, 600 feet of tower climbing with 8 hours of grinding and 2 hours of cleaning with some over the hub on the devils jungle gym, sun = scary)

To recap a recap, most vehicle's tow points are for the vehicle to be pulled out of a ditch or onto a flatbed etc. While this is called towing and recovery, it is not Recovery!¡!. These small welded eye loops and screw in eyes are strong yes but not winching across the Darien strong.

Jeep hooks, front or rear are rated for 10k of pull per which is nominally 2x GVWR which is typically plenty strong BUT this is in the Z axis only ( longitudinal axis or length of truck) and really only in the 0° horizontal plane. You get maximal strength pulling flat and in-line. Please consult the chicken entrails, billavista or winch and gesr manufacturers to infer/deduce/WAG how much the strength declines as you move away from 0°/0°.

If you use them in tandem doing a bridle pull ( length of rope/cable across the hooks with a eye ring) you can decrease the stress loading on the jeep provided the bridle is long enough. Somewhere in the bowels of the collection is a book on ship board crane and winching operations and in it they discussed fleet angle and sling pitch & length.

Some photos

Short story long is fleet should be between 2° and 4° for optimum loading of the drum and minimization of stresses in the winch mount. In our case this is a function of the distance between the fairlead and the drum. The next tidbit is what concerns us and that is the pitch angle of the bridle. If your leg length is too short, ie a small angle between load and line, the bridle will
transfer compressive lateral forced between the hooks. So longer legs with greater angles reduces lateral loading.

If you were really feeling it you could add your own additional recovery hard points to the frame, obviously how they are designed and constructed would play a roll in how well they perform. Placement and packaging would be the big hurdles, too massive and they become their own entanglement hazard when crawling.

I liken it to when I picked up a car by the roof with my gantry crane. Granted, I was taking it to get crushed and collect a few bucks for the scrap price, but I started the crush process before it got to my trailer - Yes, you know what happened. There was no engine, no transmission, it was sans-drive train but still, the forces of the straps on each side of the roof and their short length meant the roof was half as wide as original by the time I got it off the ground. (I actually found that fun)
The lateral forces compressed sideways before pulling upward. Had I used a really long strap, it wouldn't have happened but then my gantry crane isn't 30' tall, either and I had to lift the thing high enough to get my trailer under it.
So in short - short straps or cables on those tow hooks will tend to pull them to the center of the pull - laterally, where they have less strength.
I always considered "tow hooks" to be for towing and if I was REALLY stuck, I'd hook onto something more substantial.

I'll never forget the episode of Ice Road Truckers where Alex came upon a car off the road deep i the snow. He handed the driver a chain and said "here, hook this onto something you don't care about" and laughed as he walked back to his truck to pull the guy out.

 

[Gvsukids]

So in short - short straps or cables on those tow hooks will tend to pull them to the center of the pull - laterally, where they have less strength.

So a long strap will lessen the force of the pull on the hooks?

 

[ACAD_Cowboy]

The longer you make that A shape, the less lateral force you will generate. Now, how much force is needed to bend up your frame members is a topic for the engineers but sufficed to say the less effort you waste there means more e energy for winching you out.

If you can, however, try to use both hooks whenever you can, safer overall.

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