80 series landruiser tow hooks

Your not wrong and I would steer clear of advice from that shop.

They are not rated.
You can buy and fit rated hooks and points from many places just ask a "Reputable" 4x4 store.

yes they are. A magazine tested them and failed at 8 tonne they failed around where the bolt goes in but drom what i could see it appeared only one bolt was used in the testing. In none of the tests did the loop fail

The Recovery Guys at my old 4WD club said they would be ok as long as I replaced the existing bolts with high tensile ones, which I have done. They have done a lot of recovery work and have had to use these in the past, so I was comfortable with the answer.

Not everyone may be, of course.

They did suggest a better alternative would be to use a short length of rated chain around the area where the bull bar attached to the body to form a sort of A frame.

Jack

thanks everyone. Seems odd that a japanese engineer decided to put 'rated' loops on a 4wd and then make a weak point of the bolts. Wouldn't you look at the whole package?

Anyway, I still suggest putting aftermarket on to him. Any inclination of doubt in regard to safety is not acceptable.

Cheers,

fj404all
Junior Member


Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: newcastle

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i once broke an old snatch strap and it was not pretty at all since than once my strap started to show wear i would get a new one, i also had rated recovery hooks and when snatching it threaded the rated hi tenisle bolts and sent the hook flying into mates spare tire since than i now always use good straps, ttp for back up and atleast one dampner recovery is so bloody dangerous
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I found the post above on the 4WD Action site back in August. It looks like even high tensile bolts can let go. I suppose when you think about it, an 8.8 bolt can be cut easily with a hacksaw so they may not be all that much tougher than a hardware store bolt.

I think the design of the hooks would also increase the load on the bolts. Hooks either turn up or down making the exact point where the load is applied about an inch above or below the attaching point on the chassis. This causes a levering effect which tries to pivot the hooks. I would imagine this would subject the bolts to both a shear and stretching load.

If you go looking for snatch strap failures on the net, there are plenty of examples of factory and aftermarket rated hooks coming off the car. I have only found one example of a hook breaking so far. It was found to have a hairline crack in it. Possibly from repeated snatches.

If you contact Toyota they will tell you they do not support the use of snatch straps and their cars are not rated for them. They will then refer you to the towing instructions in the owner's handbook.

I wouldn't snatch without an equaliser strap. If you are using the 80series loops, then the only safe-ish way is to use two loops joined by an equaliser strap. You halve the load on each recovery point, and if one were to break, the equaliser strap retains the potential missile.

If you know what you're doing, the 80series loops can be used safely. Problem is when someone uses a single loop to attempt to pull a loaded vehicle out of wet sand on an incoming tide, it will all go dangerously pear shaped.

Mmm. Mixed comments. damn. I am erring on the side of caution with this one. Put it this way; if I asked if an after market recovery point was up to the job I would have a 100% "yes".

Agree that the agressive pull is used way too often. We did the Warburton track in June and the first 6 or so dunes were a nightmare. No tracks to follow (no vehs in at least a few days). We had to walk up each one to see the safe way over. Obviously because of this the sand was very very soft. A few minutes on the shovel usually did the trick. We were glad to get back onto the used tracks!

It's surprising how effective a small pull on the snatch strap will get a car out if the drivers are working together and using the power of the engine also to get out (without spinning the wheels - nice and gentle).

Just out of intrest how do you know if they are high tensile or not
on the heads of mine are TVS 68 or could be 6.8