Front mounted tow eye

[Mean Green]

I am looking for a Defender for work, to be used on an airfield to pull equipment around.

We need it to be able to move around 2.8 tons, which is no problem on the rear towbar however, we would want to put a towing eye on the front too, to allow us to nose into areas an pull the equipment out.

So how can you fit a tow eye to the front of a Defender and how strong will it be?

[BogMonster]

Depends what you want exactly - are you talking about shifting a 2.8 ton machine on wheels on a flat paved surface, or an actual "2.8 ton pull"? I'd guess at the former, which is much less of a requirement.

The British International guys here used to (maybe still do) shunt their Sikorsky S-61s round with front mounted tow balls and I'm pretty sure these are just made up drop plates (basically a lump of 10mm thick plate measuring about 150x300mm) bolted through the front bumper,more or less in front of the driver's side chassis member, with a spreader plate on the back of the bumper and the hook on the bottom. Don't know how much an S-61 weighs but I'd guess quite a lot more than 2 tons!

For safety, if you are just moving things at low speed then it should be OK - and I assume you aren't going to be racing if you are in reverse

Your other option if that isn't strong enough would be to get a full replacement bumper made up out of say 5mm steel and a custom made bracket welded up on to that. This would be stronger but obviously a lot more expensive.

But I think the first option will probably do the job you are after.

[Mark90]

If you wanted to add more strength you could brace it up to the jate ring / tie down mounting points in a similar manner to the rear tow hitch.

[minivin]

Fit a NATO hook on the front and stick with hoop draw bars, the MoD and RAF have never had any issues with 'em, tow bar shear pins failing and then a Chinook HC3 having an altercation with an immovable object however is something I won't say anymore on

[western]

I have 2 x 3.5t pins on my front winch bumper, backed up with 10mm spreader plates on the reverse face, use these for recovering rally cars sometimes winch is double lined for long jobs & sometimes they get a lot of grunt passed through them, I've also nosed a very heavy boat/trailer with them without problems, for your intended use I'd would go for a NATO pintle centre mounted then you would get the best arc [180 degrees] of movement both ways.

[Mean Green]

Cheers for the quick answers.

Western,

Are you saying that it is OK for me to simply attached a NATO hook on the centre of the front bumper with a spreader plate?

And presumably the spreader plate is simply a length of 10mm plate inside the bumper.

We plan to move mostly ground power units on flat paved surfaces, but it may also get the odd learjet to shift too

[western]

Cheers for the quick answers.

Western,

Are you saying that it is OK for me to simply attached a NATO hook on the centre of the front bumper with a spreader plate?

And presumably the spreader plate is simply a length of 10mm plate inside the bumper.

We plan to move mostly ground power units on flat paved surfaces, but it may also get the odd learjet to shift too

a similar attachment was used on the 88 Lightweights I worked with when in RAF, i.e nato pintle in centre of the front bumper, which didn't look any different from a non pintle bumper, also have a pic of a S3 hardtop with a 3.5t pin hitch in the same place & most military 90/110's have the built in tow pin which IIRC will take the 76mm nato ring [as used on military towbars] & trailers.

[BogMonster]

Ralph, the centre section of the military bumpers with a pin in the middle is quite a bit stronger IIRC. Your Husky winch bumper will probably be twice as thick as a std LR front bumper if it is anything like the Husky bumpers I have seen.

However for what is proposed it should be OK doing what you suggest but it should not be used for vehicle recovery in off road situations like that or the bumper will very likely bend if a hitch is in the middle - it is only 2mm steel!

IIRC somebody told me the reason the Brintel ones had the hitch aligned with the driver's side chassis member not in the middle, was so that the "centre of push" was right in front of the driver's eye line which makes it easier to push something in a straight line because the driver is looking straight up the towing bar at what he is pushing so can easily see if it starts to go one way or the other, rather than trying to gauge whether it is straight by leaning over the middle seat somewhere or peering at it at an angle. When you are pushing a couple of million quids worth of Sikorsky into a hangar you don't really want to stuff it through the wall by accident

[western]

Ralph, the centre section of the military bumpers with a pin in the middle is quite a bit stronger IIRC. Your Husky winch bumper will probably be twice as thick as a std LR front bumper if it is anything like the Husky bumpers I have seen.

However for what is proposed it should be OK doing what you suggest but it should not be used for vehicle recovery in off road situations like that or the bumper will very likely bend if a hitch is in the middle - it is only 2mm steel!

IIRC somebody told me the reason the Brintel ones had the hitch aligned with the driver's side chassis member not in the middle, was so that the "centre of push" was right in front of the driver's eye line which makes it easier to push something in a straight line because the driver is looking straight up the towing bar at what he is pushing so can easily see if it starts to go one way or the other, rather than trying to gauge whether it is straight by leaning over the middle seat somewhere or peering at it at an angle. When you are pushing a couple of million quids worth of Sikorsky into a hangar you don't really want to stuff it through the wall by accident

I agree, the Military bumper would be OK for towing/pushing back on hard standings but not any other type of surface and those bumpers aren't as strong as the [my] Husky one.