Towing out snowed in cars - a cautionary tale!

Tell me, what stock car or truck are you people driving that has a 6" frame cross member in the back were we normally would put a license plate. Does this vehicle pass any crash safety standards?

In article , Chris Phillipo writes

Um, Land Rover? What did you think we drive?

Regards,

Simonm.

Well, considering this thread is cross-posted to 3 groups, it's not as obvious as the residents of a.f.l may think :)

In article , David French writes

Sorry. Is there another 4x4?

Regards,

Simonm. (who WAS joking...)

The yanks have always got to tackle something with full on power.

My winch is bigger than yours blah blah blah

Well, I'll stick to a Land Rover. But you might want to look at the products of an American company called John Deere. Or maybe Caterpillar.

But why don't you explain just how you'd fasten that winch of yours to a vehicle you're trying to recover, whether you're using the snatch block or not.

The Americans do like their big engines and power don't they eh.

You obviously haven't ever extracted anyone from the mud before though...

When one uses a winch, the power comes on easy but build up extremely fast if the vehicle is really stuck and not moving. In my case that is

8636 kg with a single block.

Just at what point am I supposed to guess your 3500 kg tow ball is going to go ballistic and try to take my head off or preferably your head off???

As I stated, only a fool would trust a tow ball for an extraction.

Mike

.ca is not short for California.

Exactly, neither of which make a Geo Saturn or a nissan pickup truck AFAIK.

You attach it to the frame or something directly bolted to the frame like a winch mount or tire carrier bumper. If you can do that, STOP, TAKE OUT YOUR CELL PHONE, CALL AT TOW TRUCK. Unless you are some god damn redneck who wants to make a video for the internet.

^^^^^^^^^^ should say can't!

I don't know about him, but I have short straps that can wrap around a frame to give an anchor point if the vehicle isn't equipped with a tow hook or ring bolted to the frame. My long straps are rate for 30,000 lb and I think the short ones are the same. My straps have sewn loops, no metal to fire off.

I won't pull him if all there is is the tow ball. My straps will fit almost anything. They gotta get muddy sometimes to get under, but I bet they buy a proper hook for next time.... LOL!

Most real off road vehicles like Jeeps and Land Rovers either have factory tow hooks or the owners have enough sense to get them. Even our old 88 Cherokee has factory hooks.

I own a couple Jeeps but off road with lots of Land Rovers. They come along on our runs on many occasions.

I mean our favorite 'pull toys' are Discos.... ;-) Got photos to prove it too...

Just kidding, well not really, they go great, but do get high centered easy with stock tires on them.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

oh dear, the MSA should be told they are fools at once!!

(MSA = Motor Sports Association, the UK governing body of motorsport)

Richard

Would that be the above Jeep which you've lifted to fit big tyres and replaced every (rusty?) body panel with 'glass even though it's less than 20 years old? ;-)

Funny, you never see jeeps in the really harsh bits of the world, just old LR's and Toyotas. . . . . . . :)

LOL!!!

Yup, that would 'for sure' be the one!

The frame is the next thing in need of replacement, sooner than later...

I only have a 2.5" spring lift on it so I can run the 33's to keep clearance on the type of trails I run in the Canadian Bush.

Hence my surprise at never breaking a Land Rover on an extraction. I have broken my Jeep and have seen many other's broken...

No argument from me there Julian. When my wife decided we needed a 'real' 4x4 so we could get way back in the bush where we love to go camping, we had those in mind. Found a rust bucket Jeep first in our price range, well cheap so the rest of the money was banked on the rebuild in the future, and I am a decent mechanic.

Any of the others were 'way' up there in price, they 'sure' hold the value good here in Canada!!!

Drove the Jeep for a couple years, then did a frame up rebuild with a nice fiberglass body. No more rust!

Now going on 4 years later the frame is getting ratty.... That was expected.

Love the CJ7 though, it is a nice beast. Did a 4600 mile east coast of Canada up the West Coast of Newfoundland run with it and am planning a James Bay run way up north this summer with a bunch of other Jeeps and maybe some LR's. That should be fun. I am thinking it should be about

5000 km round trip maybe or more from where I live. (sorry for the mileage switch, my Jeep is in miles, my maps are in km....)

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

Canadian Off Road Trips Photos: Aug02

16/02 Easter/02 Trip Misc. build 03

If it's not the FIA, it's just a bunch of rednecks going around in circles.

What about recovery hooks on the front of full size trucks. Suppose you chain the front of the stuck vehicle and vehicle on pavement together? I believe the recovery hooks are welded to the frame.

__________________ Note: To reply, replace the word 'spam' embedded in return address with 'mail'. N38.6 W121.4

Ah but in the example you gave it was the frame that gave way so by your own standards this is dangerous and should be avoided

Andy

On or around Tue, 3 Feb 2004 19:32:52 -0400, Chris Phillipo enlightened us thusly:

more to the point, wherever they'd attached that tinbox, they'd have done damage, due to the way they were towing it. on most cars I've seen the lash-down/"towing" eyes *are* attached to something structural. But the vehicles aren't designed to withstand a snatch recovery (and it's highly likely that the strap they were using wasn't a proper kinetic one anyway, which means it applies a sudden enormous load to it all, which is bound to break stuff. and had they really been bothered, they'd have stopped at the point where they cracked the bumper, having noticed summat was amiss.

'tis a problem on modern cars though, there's almost nothing accessible to attach a tow-rope to, in terms of pulling it that hard - basically, the cars aren't designed for it.

so overall, I reckon yer right - car was worth sod-all, and they thought they could get 250 notes from "you've been framed" or similar.

once heard of someone who attached a tow-rope to a driveshaft on a car, not having realised that it rotates...

You may want to bash American's but when you need us to save your sorry ass we will!

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