Why you never use a towball as an anchor point when towing out of a bog

Ooops - try this one http://tinyurl.com/3lwuhmw

Cheers Derek, that one worked,
Yeah, Not nice, poor buggars.
:(

Edited your link in the original post. Very sad and poignant reminder of what not to do.

Regards

The Squad

Note to self - do not post on forums on Saturday Night

I was in our local TJM getting my vehicle serviced on Thursday & browsing around the showroom, I saw rated shackles specifically designed to fit a 50mm tow ball with no attached warning about the perils of snatching with them!

Hi all
it is a tragic reminder to all of the importance of 4wd driver training, they will tell you about the many and varied ways of how not to recover a vehicle & how to correctly recover one.

Training need not be with an expensive private company as some of the best training can be done in a friendly and fun environment with a responsible club achieving accreditation with accredited trainers or with their state 4WD association examiners, this ensures drivers are informed to the dangers of recovery.

While accreditation does not ensure better drivers, it can make for safer drivers.

JMHO, cheers Colin.

Shaker, was that shackle intended to fit over the tow ball, or to replace it directly in the hitch ?

It was specifically deigned & had labelled instructions to fit around the tow ball.
As SEEN HERE

Gday
To there defence.......It does clearly say it must be used with a rated tow ball and explains the load ratings.

Yes you can, of course using a rated shackle.

The issue is of course that a rated towball is rated at 3500kg and most tow bars are rated at 3500kg or less so if anything the towball is the strongest point of the tow bar system.

I would suggest that a rating of 3500kg makes any towbar (even with block/shackle receiver) too low for snatching anything other than very small vehicles. My snatch strap is rated at 10000kg - 3 times the rating of most tow bars.

There has been a history of snatch failures reported as tow ball failures that were in fact failures of the towbar. Where towballs gave failed they were non rated eariler types.

If this was in fact a failure of a rated towball it will one of the first - bust as I said snatching of a heavy vehicle from any towbar system is dangerous as heavy snatches will easily exceed the 3500kg rating (noting many bars are rated as low as 1600kg).

Garry

There are lots and lots of towballs out there that are not rated.
Dare I say it, there may even be some of dubious quality ?

Is the hitch receiver pin rated?

If you stop and think about it, the leverage a strap has on a tow ball when its just drooped over the top is horrific, Where the thread machining starts underneath the ball, is where its going to shear off like a carrot. have often wrapped a tow rope aroud the tow tongue and then onto the ball just to hold it in place, still dangerous but not as bad.


Cheers Axle.

Road Warrior,

No... no such thing as a dumb question, only dumb answers!!! LOL...

But regarding your tow ball question, it seems to me that you might not have a lot of understanding of recovery procedure. Please be assured I mean this in your best interests, and am not trying to belittle you at all, but please consider doing a training course, or join a 4x4 club that has a Driver Awareness Program as part of it's joining criteria.
For example, we are proud members of the Gold Coast Four Wheel Drive Club, our joining fee includes a one day basic Driver Awareness Program at our training facility. New members learn basic 4 wheel driving and snatch-strap recovery techniques. Very handy info for heading out in the bush, and hopefully info that should/could/would prevent horrific accidents like the one in the news article.

The Four Wheel Drive Australia web site has links to state associations, which in turn, link to various clubs within that state.

Regards

Brian