rated recovery points

Gday oz doc
as an instructor with the wa 4wd association driver training programme i must say that this is dodgy advice mainly becauce you are adding projectiles to unrated tie down points if they were to fail you risk being hit by them the tiedown points on the front & rear of your vehicle are NOT rated for snatch recovery.my advise is to find a desent supplier of recovery points & replace your tiedowns with rated recover hooks bolted directly to the chasis with hi tensil bolts, also buy a long handle shovel as in sand this should be your first recovery item,would also sijest you complete a4wd course as all this is covered in the course Regards Bruce

oz doc - if my mitso memory serves me correct you'll find that your pa challenger chassis is the old nj pajero chassis, therefore rated points should be the same, ask your local mitso dealer, they'll know - good luck

OZ Doc, Tim's thicket is a good beach to get started (that was my first behind the wheel) heaps more in pasanger seat. Also try White hills a little further south and can get a good run up if needed. If your tyres are down( me 12psi) then you won't need run up I can crawl up anything at that presure. Most people use servo at Preston Beach to fill up tyres but I recon you should cary your own as 3 weeks ago in Lancelin with the fires the power was out and I saw people with hand pumps at the survo re inflating there tyres, Hard work if you ask me.

Hi Oz,

Your advice sounds dodgy to me. No way would I use the tie down points as recovery points. We had a NH Pajero and if your Challenger tie downs are similar to ours, they look like they could easily bend or tear off.

I recently rec'd some blatantly incorrect advise from a leading 4WD outlet (no names) so your comments don't surprise me. I'd invest in some rated recovery hooks front and rear. Be surprised if they set you back more than $80 fitted.

As Rox said, Tims Thicket is a good place to get started 4WDriving. Make sure you let your tyres down to about 15-20 and you should have few problems although the going does get soft in places. I'd recommend carrying a long handled shovel and an air compressor because the nearest servo's from TT is about 10 km's away now since the road diversion.Preston Beach servo is 22km's south of White Hills via a beach run. Again not too bad but the beach narrows in places and can also get rather steep with some big sand "drop-offs" that could potentially cause a 4WD to roll if you dropped a wheel off. Rocky headlands at the southern end of Tims Thicket beach and at Seal Rocks are impassable at high tide. There is a alternative route behind the dunes around the TT headland, but none at Seal Rocks.

Have fun!

:o) Melissa

Early vitara has virtually nowhere suitable for rated recovery points and chassis rails are too weak to cope with a 4t load if it were possible - HELP.

Fitting the bullbar has already reduced chassis flex (before it was possible to badly bow the bumper bar leading to "sex" between strut towers and struts - with the shape of the rails and their limited strength means that there's no way in hell that they'll take 3 1/4 or 4t (hey this is a 1t car remember). The only spot sauitable I can find to bolt up is is chassis but not rail mounted (and probably still wont even take 3t). At the back there is a point which will mount on the rail, but will only be useable only after heavy modification which may reduce it's strength (still questionable to 3 t load).

Fine if I'm towing out Sierra's but not so good when I drag out Troopies....

I've pulled out a 3T troopy before with no harm but avoid it where possible - I can't really see any solution.

Andrew

Nahh - recovery points or not I still kick your ass! Lol