Tow Points

Thanks Wayne, Pardon my ignorance but what is a pintil hook and where does it go ?? OK on the front hook, was not aware that it is not rated and will change and add one over the weekend.
We look like meeting others in the party from the west at the north turn off to Kalumbaru about 4 or 5 July. We will return to Kununarra after 10 or 12 days, pick up the caravan and head down to the West coast for 8 - 10 weeks.

GeeTee

Gee Tee,
A pintil hook is a device that goes into the square hitch reciver i9n the tow bar. The shape of the hook is like a ring mounted vertical. The top half of the ring is able to swing up to allow a strap or eye of a chain to be looped over the bottom half of the ring. The top half is then locked shut so that you now have a fully inclosed ring.
There are a coulple of things that I like about it. I have a early model Kaymar Rear Bar and the pin for the tow bar is in a hard place to get to, underneath and at the back of the bar. Having the hook in at all times means that when a strap is to be fitted I just lift the top half of the hook, place the eye of the strap over and lock it down. The other reason is that I can attach a eye of a chain in the same manner. I only use the chain if a tree has to be moved or the Cruiser needs to be anchored to a solid object. The other reason is that the diameter or thickness of the ring,40mm this means that the eye of the snatch strap is not under a shear load. A small pin put a lot of force on the eye of the strap because it has a small radius and therefore more of a shear action.

Wayne

Hi Ray, Yep with the pin but because the insert is solid the is no way you can bend the pin passing thru it.
GeeTee

okay I see your point. The force will be evenly distributed over the whole width of the pin and any bending would have to be at the the points where the force is transfered to the receiver rather than near the middle of the pin which would be the case with a direct strap connection.
Those snatch straps are pretty wide though.

Not sure if it is the same thing. The one I saw was a solid billet of steel about 40 x 40 and 200 long with a hole for the pin to go thru and the other end milled to a tongue to take the gap in a shackle and a hole in that for the shackle pin to go thru...... clear as mud EH ?? and it cost $75 here in Darwin

GeeTee

Thanks for the info. As mentioned above I will change the existing one and add an additional one on the weekend. Could not see the pics of the broken point via the link you posted but can imagine what happened. GeeTee.

G'day Athol,
I had a towbar fitted to the front of my last truck; great for the trailer up the driveway trick as you said.
I don't see why it couldn't be used as a recovery point as long as it's been welded on professionally. However, there will no doubt be others who say you should not do so.
I will also raise a new post about why not use the existing tow bar (at rear) and simply unbolt the towball (or in my case the TREG fitting) and use the hole in the towbar to mount a rated shackle.