Recovery points

assuming defender and assuming he is referring to the pairs of tie-down eyes (teardrop shaped things bolted to the chassis) then you can use them for recovery/towing but I'd consider it emergency only and only ever in pairs using a bridle. if you indend needing to be recovered often I'd buy a pair of jate rings and again use them as a pair with a bridle.

Regards. Mark.(AKA, Mr.Nice.)

On or around Wed, 23 Mar 2005 15:23:54 +0000, Fred Labrosse enlightened us thusly:

they're OK for occasional pull-out-of ditch style duty. They're not really towing eyes.

they're not safe for recovery from deep sticky mud, winching up near-vertical banks and they're very-not-safe for such advanced stuff as snatch recovery with a KERR - that puts very big loads on all the gear, including the chassis. Mind you, I've seen people get away with 2 KERRs knotted together...

buy proper recovery points or jate rings and fit 'em. Scorpion, Bearmach etc. sell 'em.

Same applies (only less so) to using tow balls as recovery attachments. The tow ball is stronger than the lashing eyes, but isn't truly safe - typically designed for a 3500Kg maximum tow, but to get 3500Kg on the ball you have to for example decelerate a 3500Kg trailer at 1G with no trailer brakes, or have it hanging from the ball off a cliff (seen a picture of such, mind...). I don't know what the failure stress on tow balls is, but there are records of them being broken, and the ball doing a credible impression of a 2" cannonball.

In message , Fred Labrosse writes

I've seen recovery points sheer ... not nice as they project themselves either through or over the recovery vehicle! Tie downs will probably hold on an absolutely straight pull but apply any side-stress and watch them fly!

If *you are being recovered* by all means use them if you must, if *I was recovering you* from anything other then a simple pull along a grass verge I'd avoid them!

as said elsewhere, JATE rings are best

It's worth adding that IF you do use them then always use them with a shackle if you want to use your rope/strap again. The lash down eyes will rotate forwards and make a wonderful scissor action with the chassis. The downside of using a shackle being that if something does give then the shackle adds extra mass to the lump of metal flying towards the recovery vehicle.

cheers

Dave W.

And watch out for how they're attached. One of my colleagues recently had a problem with his trailer which caused it to snatch and bang on the ball rather badly on the way home from a trip across Europe. With no reasonable prospect of getting the trailer serviced before we got home, he just put up with it.

After about 1500 miles like that, we noticed to our horror that the bolts holding the tow-ball onto the Disco were bent and almost sheared off.

They turned out to be of totally the wrong grade of steel. "M4.5" if I remember rightly instead of - and somebody will correct me here if my memory is failing - M8, toughened steel.

If you didn't fit your own tow-ball then this is a mistake you too could be living with. I checked mine, and also carry a spare set of strong nuts & bolts now just in case - the local trailer dealer (Trident) gave me them free when I hired a trailer from them, since they seemed to like my level of responsibility ;)

Trident trailers Maidstone ? Richard