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Recovery points Lets see them


white90

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Rear the is a direct fitment to the Southdown rear tow pack with 8 seperate chassis fixings

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Front are a part of the Bumper made by D4x4 then fixed by Southdown after a tree incident

the bumper has 6 seperate fixings.

These are mine lets see any others out there.

people can then see what's good and what's not.

On my hybrid I had

a Nato hitch on the rear and these on the front

coiler_7774365.jpg

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Front are built-in bumper a la D44,but thicker (to match the clevis)

bumper_.jpg

at the rear I can mount either

1)a NATO hitch as Tony

or

2)a minimalist recovery point custom made (s/s as the bumper etc)

wich was nicely and fully welded to a slotted plate.

A backplate (as originally designed by Stephen a looooong time ago-remember that thread on the LRE forum??) suits both of them.

Sorry I don't have a pic of the rear recovery point...

:(

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OK

here is a re-post of something I put on the old LRE forum, it was fitted to my old 1995 300Tdi 90, haven't managed to sort anything near as good on the tinfoil crossmember of the new one yet :(

Just out of interest the quoted tensile strength of a NATO hitch is something like 22 tonnes and the tensile strength of 4 M12 8.8 bolts is 21.35. This is the sort of overkill you want when dealing with snatch recovery :)

As for the bad/ugly: worst I have seen is a NATO hitch held on to a winch bumper with four bits of mild steel stud bar.... :o:unsure::blink: deeply scary :huh:

---Original post---

Note that this post only applies to pre 99MY Defender and 90/110 vehicles, later models (Td5 age onwards) have an entirely different rear crossmember, far weaker in its design, and need a different approach to make suitable for snatch recovery. You must also be absolutely certain that the rear crossmember of your vehicle is 100% sound.

To start with you need the following heap of bits:

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1 x NATO 4.07 tonne military spec towing pintle (shown here in bits, not all the bolts are shown in the picture)

2 x bits of good quality steel plate approx 190x110mm and at least 8mm thick

4 x M12 high tensile bolts, 8.8 grade or higher, nuts and washers to match

1 x Defender (obviously )

The above size of metal plate is as big as can be fitted in to the inside of the crossmember, which is what you need, as big as possible to spread the load. My bits were pre-drilled to suit a NATO hitch. I used 8mm steel plate and 8.8 grade bolts; to make it even stronger you could use 10.9 or 12.9 grade bolts, and thicker plate (although this is only really worthwhile for the inner bit) - you'll need longer bolts as well of course. It goes without saying that the nuts need to be the same grade as the bolts.

Fit the blue plate inside the rear crossmember. Why is it blue you ask? Because I had some Stratos Blue paint left over from my old 90 which I thought I might as well use.

Put the bolts through the NATO hitch, then through the outer plate (the black one in my photos) then through the crossmember, then through the inner (blue) plate, then some washers and finally nuts. I used Nyloc nuts but you can also use doubled up ordinary nuts locked together. Do everything up just tight at first to get it all seated in place, then wind the nuts up about as tight as you can get them with an ordinary combination spanner. You won't distort that bit of 8mm plate, and you really don't want them to come loose!

After this is all done, it is best to give the whole lot a good coat of paint. This will prevent moisture getting in - there was a lot of surface rust on my crossmember under the NATO hitch when I took it off, although nothing serious. I used some matt black brush on paint, which gives a finish I like for the crossmember and hitch.

The finished product from the inside:

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and from the outside:

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The function of the outer plate, for anybody who might be wondering "what is the point", is to spread any sideways forces generated on anything other than a straight pull back, and stop the crossmember distorting. Otherwise you can bend the crossmember slightly, then the bolts are loose and that's when large lumps of metal can start flying round rather too quickly to be healthy!

Now go and pull something ... but be wary of others because yours is probably now stronger than theirs which means if theirs isn't up to scratch, it'll be you getting the bumper round the back of the head

Always use snatch recovery with caution and preferably only if you know what you are doing, and know the other vehicles towing points are as good as this.

But if you manage to rip this setup out of the back end, you're either using a chain or trying far too hard! I know from experience that I can take off absolutely flat out in 3rd low difflock on the end of 10-12m of nylon rope and this won't even blink.

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Tonk - Very nice design! You could sell them you know! :)

Si

ta :D

yes i know, it would rely on peoples own welding as to how good they are though and wot they welded them to, i could always sell them as paper weights :huh:

i've got a couple of other things in the pipeline that people might wanna buy aswell :) , dont worry its not a disc handbrake conversion ;) i wouldn't tread on other peoples toes

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mine are way bigger than scrap irons attempts, i could add doubler plates inside your bumper cos i've seen a few (read Mr Warnes) fitted with no doubler plates and they start pulling through the bumper.

either that or make some weld on front caps to make them more secure, the little bolt they use would still be the weakest link though.

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I have these on the IIa:

d-rings.jpg

The lightweight came fitted with this on the back:

rear_nato.jpg

And I added this to the front:

front_nato.jpg

Note: Lightweights have a strengthening bar between the dumb-irons which is drilled to take the hitch, and I have also added a 6mm spreader plate on the front and a similar 8mm spreader on the rear.

For future reference these are NOT recovery points:

lashingpoint.jpg

Just need some decent suggestions for the Disco now....

Cheers

Mark

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Another quick thing that proabably needs mentioning is around fixings. If the bolt isn't stamped then don't use it - go and get some that are (8.8 or equivalent or above).

I am lead to believe that normal studding comes somewhere equivalent to 1.something! High tensile studding is available, but isn't stamped. Essentially, Bolts are better....

Mark

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I have these on the IIa:

d-rings.jpg

Cheers

Mark

I may be wrong but I was under the impresion that these are Lifting eyes not tow points which are very difrant things.

please don't hesitate to correct me if I am wrong its just from work the two names meen very difrant things

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jules,

afiak these are lifting eyes:

lashingpoint.jpg

ie meant for tying down or unslinging vehicles for air transportation.

These are called D-Rings and are meant for recovery. Mine came from the hallowed Mr Bowyer himself:

d-rings.jpg

I'm no expert, but that is what I have been lead to believe from covering this topic a number of times on both this and the old forum... ;) Happy to be corrected though. :rolleyes:

Cheers

Mark

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My rear point is via the Hayman Reese tow hitch, which attaches to the crossmember as well as both chassis rails.

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Removable hitch was run up in the mill from 50mm x 50mm solid bar.

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Front points are made from 1/2" plate, bolted through both the ARB bar, and the 10mm x 150mm winch cradle behind it.

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Despite being a slow-mount, the winch is fitted up feet forward, like an 8274, and the U shaped cradle bolts throgh the chassis rails on each side. You can just see the four bolts for the left recovery point coming through the cradle at the front.

PC210008Small.jpg

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Thanks to all who posted so far,there are some excellent pics here.

All posts unrelated are in the mods forum, if you need/want thm , please say.

just trying to keep it relevant for people to read/refer to.

Nothing has been deleted.

Edited by white90
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  • 3 months later...

Ok, here are a couple of Bushranger recovery hooks that I fitted to my front bumper.

They have a safe working load of 8000lbs and cost around a tenner each.

I fitted a plate in behind the bumper to add a bit more support.

The 4 bumper mounting bolts are 12mm grade 8.8, and the hook bolts that are supplied with the hooks are 13mm grade 8.8s.

I`ve just have to remove the bumper again and give the plates a coat of paint to finish it all off, I was hurry to get em fitted for a trip into the desert.

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They have done a few kinetic recoveries so far, and there are no signs of the bumper distorting, I was a bit worried about the strength of the standard bumper, but it does`nt seem to be a problem.

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