Tow hook rigging and frame damage | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Tow hook rigging and frame damage

nitro71

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I'm looking at putting on some front tow hooks. I've kinda got a plan. I've read tha some people get bent frame members from their tow hooks? Is anyone slinging a strap between their two tow hooks to reduce stress on one frame rail? If so have you had any frame bending?

I'm thinking of using the lower bumper hole and the triangle hole behind it. I'm pretty sure the triangle hole really isn't going to supporting much weight as I'm not sure on the bolt clearance to the front hole yet. Essentially the triangle hole would be a safety for the front. Grade 8 7/16's hardware. Shear strength is around 14K lbs.

By using a sling between them and pulling off the sling do you think I would avoid any frame rail damage?
 



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It's working good. I used the bolts that I pulled fromt he body lift to secure the hooks to the outside of the frame rail. Then I'll get a 6' sling to rig between the two. Will put some stress inward that the bumper and cross member should absorb along with pulling inline with the frame. I think it will work fine.
 






If your good with welding you could try to beef up the frame rails and cross member. The sling idea should reduce some load, but beefing those up would help as well.
 






Thats a good idea. I can't weld but I could get take it to a weld shop and have them beef up that front with a cross bar. I might be able to get a transfer case skid plate from the wrecking yard and bolt that across the front.. hmm
 






Thats a good idea. I can't weld but I could get take it to a weld shop and have them beef up that front with a cross bar. I might be able to get a transfer case skid plate from the wrecking yard and bolt that across the front.. hmm

You may also look at your frame rails, I've seen some in the past that had holes for some odd accessories, you may be able to bolt-on additional support. Welding would be the best thing to do, but if not possible bolting in reinforcement is better than nothing.
 






Leery of welding them on as someday I'll be yanking the engine, radiator and whatnot. Would rather be able to take them off. It's looking pretty stout but I think some horizontal bracing is called for. Maybe just a steel plate bolte into those large holes that are reinforced on the bottom. That would never break.
 






You should never pull from a sling like that. The breaking strength of the materials of the sling are greatly reduced when pulled at from the side like that. Depending upon how tight the sling is it could be reduced down to 1/8 of the original breaking strength or worse.
 






Actually slings are made for that type of stress. They decrease in strength the more angle is on them. The thing the sling probably isn't made for is combined use with a recovery strap as the I don't think a sling is designed to be shocked like a recovery strap. I did some research after your post and am going to rethink my tow hook strategy. What I see as a problem is using hooks rated at 10000lbs in conjuction with recovery straps rated at 20000lbs or more.

Just so everyone reading this understands a sling is not a recovery strap. A recovery strap is designed to be stretched. I don't believe a sling is.
 






Here's a website to get everyone going on rigging:

http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billavista/Recovery/index.html

This guy really knows his stuff. Little, you did give some good advice in a way, we shouldn't be doing things with our recovery gear unless we fully understand what it's doing, how the loads decrease through different rigging techniques and the hazards involved.
 






great link.................. THX
 






Great link. Did you read this part of it: Slings?

Check out page 4. By running a chain/sling from one frame horn to the other you are increasing the load on that sling by more then 5 times. So, you hook up a 10k winch to it and the winch will be putting a force of 50k on the sling. Think it will hold?

I suggest not doing it. I'm not going to spend any more time trying to talk you out of it, but for anyone else reading this thread trying to decide if this is a good, safe method, neither math nor physics lie, and If I saw someone on the trail hooking up like this I would step very very far back.
 






Great link. Did you read this part of it: Slings?

Check out page 4. By running a chain/sling from one frame horn to the other you are increasing the load on that sling by more then 5 times. So, you hook up a 10k winch to it and the winch will be putting a force of 50k on the sling. Think it will hold?

I suggest not doing it. I'm not going to spend any more time trying to talk you out of it, but for anyone else reading this thread trying to decide if this is a good, safe method, neither math nor physics lie, and If I saw someone on the trail hooking up like this I would step very very far back.

neither lie....... both replys have helped me to decide WHAT TO DO and WHAT NOT TO DO
THX
 












I'm not planning on rigging like that after reading this as I don't understand it well enough and I don't want to decrease my strap strengths.

So I'm on page 4 and I'm checking figure 9.1 the second picture and it looks like if you maintained a 45 degree angle with say a 10000lb load that you would be putting 14000lbs of stress on the strap. 10000 / 2 X 1.4(45 degree load multiplier). Does that look correct?

This question really is for more than just 4x4ing. I work with slings at work with people that don't have a clue one about stuff like this..
 






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