Defender rear recovery
Discussion
Good evening.
I'm looking at the best way to remove the towbar (plough!!) and replacing it with a decent rear recovery point for off roading. I have one of those 4-bolt swivel recovery rings which has the same bolt centres as the top of the tow bar plate in the cross member, but I'm worried about the recover forces bending the cross member if that's all I use. The chassis is good, but I can't weld any braces from the rear of the cross member to the chassis side rails. Does anyone have any experience of this? PS I'm not planning to get that bogged down, but have recovered heavily stuck Discoverys in the past!!
I'm looking at the best way to remove the towbar (plough!!) and replacing it with a decent rear recovery point for off roading. I have one of those 4-bolt swivel recovery rings which has the same bolt centres as the top of the tow bar plate in the cross member, but I'm worried about the recover forces bending the cross member if that's all I use. The chassis is good, but I can't weld any braces from the rear of the cross member to the chassis side rails. Does anyone have any experience of this? PS I'm not planning to get that bogged down, but have recovered heavily stuck Discoverys in the past!!
I may have scuppered that one!! I've just been out to look, and the holes are blind, so I won't be able to bolt through to the rear!! What I might do is modify another tow bracket similar to the one I've got but reduce it in height so it doesn't hang so low, but will still enable me to brace back to the chassis. It needs to be reasonably easily removable so I can change to standard towbar. I'm probably being over cautious as I'm sure the chassis will be strong enough, especially as it's a brand new galvo one 
these are about as good as it gets, and when you need to tow you just pull out the alloy block and bow shackle and put in a tow drop plate which comes with it. £135 from safari-equip. Note, its not E marked so you cant legally tow on a newer defender (not sure what year that rule comes in)
http://extreme4x4.co.uk/acatalog/copy_of_copy_of_D...
http://extreme4x4.co.uk/acatalog/copy_of_copy_of_D...
Crossflow Kid said:
mikeh501 said:
these are about as good as it gets
Why? It still appears to concentrate the load on the middle of the rear cross member.That lower brace connects back to the chassis & uses the same mounts as the JATE rings.
Thing is, if you're using a 5t jaw or NATO hitch and trying to do a recovery which damages the rear crossmember, you're actually going well beyond the limits of the car anyway!! You should have spent more time with the shovel!!
M
camel_landy said:
Crossflow Kid said:
mikeh501 said:
these are about as good as it gets
Why? It still appears to concentrate the load on the middle of the rear cross member.That lower brace connects back to the chassis & uses the same mounts as the JATE rings.
M
Crossflow Kid said:
Guessed that might be the case. Loads of chassis mounted options though, not just this 'un.
Can't think of many superior solutions tbh. This is great for departure angle, remove able for cleaning, can change it to a tow pintle, looks great, fixes to chassis and crossmember.... What's not to like.Very tempting but the price on that link is over £200 - eek!! I think the cross member should be strong enough but I've recovered others who are stuck before and would hate to wreck a brand new chassis just trying to help out. This product is similar to something I have been toying with though - that is to buy a second tow hitch off fleabay and adapt it so the plate bolts to the cross member and the braces go from just below the cross member to the chassis jate ring holes. The whole thing would only take 10 minutes (6 bolt) to swap over if I wanted to tow.
cpas said:
Very tempting but the price on that link is over £200 - eek!! I think the cross member should be strong enough but I've recovered others who are stuck before and would hate to wreck a brand new chassis just trying to help out. This product is similar to something I have been toying with though - that is to buy a second tow hitch off fleabay and adapt it so the plate bolts to the cross member and the braces go from just below the cross member to the chassis jate ring holes. The whole thing would only take 10 minutes (6 bolt) to swap over if I wanted to tow.
The website i linked resells them, but doesnt make them.Safari equip make them. Product code SEL50 which was £135 last year when i bought mine.
http://www.safari-equip.co.uk/index.php?page=7
Just managed to acquire a reasonably unused towing bracket for a TD5 90 off e-bay for £15, which I can use as my 'nice' towbar, which means I can butcher my original one to make it stronger for a recovery point. I intend to leave a couple of inches of the drop plate below the cross member and brace this back to the chassis. My other thought was to use my cross member mounted shackle for normal recovery but to have 2 jate rings and a strop for more heavy duty stuff.
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