Safari 4 bolt Rear Recovery Mount - Lesson Learnt

doddzee · Post by **doddzee** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 9:01 am

A few months ago i mentioned in another post that the 4 nuts in the centre rear of the chassis which are commonly used as recovery points may not be strong enough as a recovery point as the nuts are not rated.
My club was going to be doing some testing on this. As far as i know the testing hasnt been done yet but here is a photo i found the other night from when my dad and i were on the 2001 coast to coast when we were fairly new to 4wding, i was about 16 at the time. We were extracting a Swb Mk from a bog with approx 15m streechy rope (lesson learned never used a rope like that again).

As you can see the bracket has bent and hook has straightened as they are supose to. If you look closer you can also see that the bracket has been pulled from the chassis. The top nuts threads have been damaged. If it had been a pintle hook there may have been a rather heavy, quick moving projectile going for the MK.

I am aware we were probly recovering the stuck truck in an unsafe way with the wrong type of rope but theses things can happen. (Also just notced that one of the bolts isnt a rated one either :shock:

)

Im not trying to say dont use this as a recovery point but for you guys using that as a recovery point (expecally with pintle hooks) to be aware of what can happen.

DaveM · Post by **DaveM** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 11:25 am

I've seen this mounting point completely distorted from a recovery using a pintle hook attached there.......

Dak · Post by **Dak** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 11:43 am

One reason why I modified the rear mounting on mine, and why I don't use pintle hooks.

Cheers, Jeff.

coxsy · Post by **coxsy** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 4:26 pm

did it my self mounted a hook there, still hadn't taken off the chrome bumbers, towed a jeep and a disco out of axle deep mud bent the rear member by 5mm , now have two chassis mounted ones

DieselBoy · Post by **DieselBoy** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 4:45 pm

I have done some very heavy recoveries and the hook has straightened and bracket has bent. I am satisfied that the hook and rope are the weak link.

waterboy123 · Post by **waterboy123** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 8:20 pm

Thats kindy of scary, with my old patrol I used to tow a 2.5 tonne boat hanging of those four bolts... It used to bug me but I never did anything abou t it, glad my new Safari mounts to the chassis rails under the truck and those four bolts.

mudchuka · Post by **mudchuka** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 9:03 pm

i changed mine in the weekend , drilled out the old holes to 12mm and put new bolts in.