Front recovery points or potential flying bullbar?

Hey guys this has probably been done to death but I cant find a thread that specifically says whether these holes are or are not good.

Im curious as to appropriate front recovery points for my 2006 D22 Navara. There is a factory Nissan bull bar fitted and there seems to be holes appropriate for shackles on the mounting arms.

With the following photos in mind can someone give me a yay or nay as to whether these holes are appropriate as recovery points? Did Nissan put these holes here for recovery purposes? Does anyone know of definite cases where using these holes has resulted in incidents?

Cheers guys!

No I definitely wouldn't use those holes for recovery's....have a look at my build thread to see what I and a lot of others have done.
http://www.navara.asia/members-rides/1878-matts-d22-str-factory-now.html

Wow, thanks for clearing that up Matt. I've always thought as well, that it looks like a nice solid mount and those holes are made to put a shackle on, well there you go.!

i used those holes. Didnt have a problem. There still bolted on like those other hooks you can buy, just lower.

Unless the 2006 model was different...which it might have been. what year is that one?

Rrrrrip.

Those holes don't look like they can take lateral loads from an off centre recovery. You need something more like this:

Matt did those points just bolt on or did you have to do some drilling??

I'd use those holes for a flat tow on bitumen, and I'd use it if my Navara was parked on top of a rock face that I wanted to abseil down in a really cool way.

If you were stuck in sand you might get away with a straight pull from that point, but mud (which creates suction under the vehicle) will pull too hard and a small lateral movement with 3+tonnes of pressure will bend that real fast.

Snatching can create transient loads of over 4 tonnes. Don't forget your winches are capable of 4tonnes+ and if you use a snatch block, they can pull 8 tonnes.

Something a little closer to the chassis - the strong part of the car - is called for. Hoping that every recovery is a straight-line easy job is courting disaster.

G'day Clint, personally from what I can see from your photos the points look fine, I say this because it appears to be solid metal loop the same size as you would get from ARB as a bolt on recovery point anyway. what I look for ( I am a 4x4 trainer ) is that it is solid, and that the point of recovery needs to be fitted to the chasis with high tensile bolts, if this is an ARB or a rated winch bar one would assume it has been fitted to the chasis correctly and these bars have rated recovery points in them as what appears to be in your photo. Call into any 4x4 accessorie place and they will more than likely tell you they are fine, you can always put a bridle betwwen the two points thus distributing the weight from your snatch strap to both points cant really tell for sure with the photos, but it appears ok to recover off

I have used those recovery points on the bullbar before and never had a drama.

Dave.

I've used them on mine for a pull out of some sand, but i wouldn't snatch with them! over the long weekend we snatched a rav4 in reverse onto these holes on a hilux - nearly took the bullbar off the hilux. yeah, unbreakable my a$$. oh and the rav4 was doing the recovery on a stuck hilux.

Clint.B said:

Matt did those points just bolt on or did you have to do some drilling??

Click to expand...

Just bolted striaght on with High Tensile bolts, bought from TJM (Outback Brand) come red/orange but had them powdercoated. Around $50. Bolts where about $20.

ive been told if they arent marked as tow points only they can be used for recovery...nissan will tell u they are ecovery points and are bolted in with high tensile bolts (liek any bullbar should be)....but if u want that added piece of mind get some outback ones just so u have a second set incase. ie always been a fan of using a weight distribution strap which puts the pulling weight over both points

hope this helps
Rusty

Just picked up a pair of outbacks. Any hints as to bolt size and length. Verniers and thread gauge is missing!

I've used those bullbar mount things to pull heaps, i had my mate pulling me by them while i was pulling another car out. We have had well over 4t on just one of them and no worries at all, nothing has moves, I try to use and equaliser strap when i can over both of em. If you put hooks under the rails, they are near impossible to get too when your in 4ft of mud

use them heaps of times never had a drama on all diff kinds of recoverys

Those points should be alright, the patrol has the same points on them and I was snatching pretty hard on them over the weekend. Those plates of metal are directly mounted to the front of the chassis itself, then your front bar bolts onto those plates of metal. So if you did manage to rip one of those plates off your body, youve got bigger issues than a missing bull bar.

I've also used them heaps of times aswell. Almost bought some outback ones at TJM and the salesman came out and had a look and said he wouldn't waste the money. Got an equaliser strap instead. Heaps of snatches some of which where the vehicle was very well bogged in sucky mud and no bending yet. I probably will get some outback ones eventually when I feel like adding some more bling to the beast.

gotta be carefull using equaliser straps. Dependant on the length of them as if the included angle increases the amount your strap can handle decresses, and the load on the tow points increases. It 's the same in rigging. Have a look at this...


Rigging With Slings: Basic hitches, Working Load Limits, Sling angle, Reach

im sure there are better charts to explain it but basically if your strap had and angle of 120 degrees where you join your snatch too than you have double your load at each point... say you pulling 2t than each tow point has 4t on it. Amazing what angles can do

Al, what he is saying is that if you have a short equaliser strap, then you are going to have a higher sideways force o those snatch points and you are more likely to bend those points.

So, make sure you use as long an equaliser strap as you can to make the force as straight on as possible.

ok. i think most equaliser strap are 3m long, i'll have to measure distance between my points and break out my google maths skills to see what angle i'm looking at.