Is this the place for tow hooks

[Curious Hound]

If, and I still don't recommend it, but IF you're going to use an eyebolt on that crossmember or anywhere else for recovery, it needs to be forged and rated for 2-3 times the weight of your truck. That is a minimum rating. Eye bolts made of bent rod will not hold. Cast, if they even make cast eye bolts, should not be trusted. What you are looking for is often called a "lifting eye". See pictures below. This is safety gear we're talking about. When pulling a loaded vehicle that is stuck in mud or against rocks and often uphill, the forces needed to make the pull can easily exceed twice the vehicle weight.

The two gray ones that I'm pointing to in this picture have m12 threads - slightly under 1/2" and they are rated for only 340kg. That's only about 750lbs. Not even close to what you need for recovery. The holes you have in that crossmember aren't much bigger than 1/2". And the way the eye bolts would be positioned there, you would be using those threads in a tensile stress situation.

On the contrary, a proper forged tow hook mounted to the bottom of your frame with two or three 1/2" or 9/16" bolts for each hook would be putting the bolts in a shear situation under load and they are much stronger that way. In addition to the force necessary to shear the bolts, they are adding a lot of friction between the hook and frame due to the compressive force that the torqued bolts produce.

 

[Josh B]

I never woulda got that truck home I think it's time I started building an engine hoist anyway

 

[dvdswan]

 

[Shran]

I just go way overboard on recovery points these days. I had two of those Smittybilt tow hooks on the bottom side of my frame years ago and twisted the passenger side frame rail right behind the bumper when I got pulled... the hooks were fine, the frame is not. That skid plate is even worse. Those are only like 1/8" thick to begin with, there is no structure in the middle and it will take nothing to rip the eye bolt right out of there with a chunk of the skid plate attached to it. That eye bolt becomes a missile.

Just seen too many people hurt/equipment damaged from under engineered stuff.

 

[4x4prepper]

As someone that has bent a B2 frame with a tow hook on a bad stuck and fixed bent frames on others, on a RBV how I do it is put the hook at the end of the frame rail where you would expect to find it, then on the inside of the frame running left to right, I install C channel. So, the bolt goes through alloy washer - tow hook - frame - c channel - alloy washer - nut. On a full sized Ford I run a 1/4" plate down the frame rail to the back six inches for extra support beyond the accordion, attached with 1/2" bolts, then weld the c channel to that. 4" 3/16" thick C channel is more then strong enough. You can drill some drain holes in the channel if you wish.

My current bumper is 5x5 structural steel and about 1/4" thick wall, so, the tow hooks are attached just to that. They held up fine using them as anchor points to pull the B2 and a 2K tandem axle trailer out of hub deep mud with the back bumper just touching the ground.

I used to just back the tow hooks with a 1/4" plate or big alloy washers, but, after tweaking a frame, now when attaching to the frame, I go with a structural steel cross member channel (U side up).

 

[Curious Hound]

I tweaked the frame of my 88 F150, years ago, using the tow hooks to yank Holly bush stumps out of my yard.

 

[James Morse]

Finally I get what's going on here.
Josh did you just have the one tow hook and that worked? I have two of these holes (that piece is bigger) so I guess I could use them but they aren't evenly spaced to the middle of the truck as I see them.
To me it sounds like even if you go with what would have been the stock mounting points (to the frame/horns) in later years, it's still possible to f things up under a lot of stress and reinforcement is advisable.
I'm just about 100% sure it requires going to the fog light valence otherwise there is no place to get the hooks/straps thru the bumper. So that's really a preliminary thing. If anyone has put in tow hooks and had to deal with the valence problem let me know.
Thanks and I am taking all under advisement for the time being because it is an upgrade and first I need to do a couple mntc/repair things.

 

[Curious Hound]

There really is no "easy or convenient" way to mount tow hooks to the front on some Rangers. That's why I still have those hooks in their original boxes. I eventually replaced the whole bumper and attached a front receiver hitch. That way I can use a receiver mounted recovery point and move it between front and rear as needed. That is still what I use for the front end.

As for the valence, I removed that early on so that rocks wouldn't remove it for me.

 

[superj]

i would do the front hitch on my truck but since i have an edge, it would require cutting up the "special" bumper. but i have no tow hooks either

 

[James Morse]

Hm... ok... this sounds nice. I don't think I've seen a pic yet of this have I? Can you post one?
Assoc. question do lot of people have winch on front? I imagine that takes yet more work.
I saw the winch flipping the turtled vehicle on the TRS video it was pretty impressive. Not that I'd probably ever do it but it was cool.

 

[superj]

i had a winch on the front of my wrangler for a few months, years back. the only use it ever got was me seeing if i could pull my jeep up my palm tree and unwinding/rewinding the cable to make sure it wasn't corroding.

i took it off and ended up selling it a year or two later because i got tired of moving it around the garage.

the front hitch though, that is a useful piece of equipment, and they make winch mounts for front hitches, if you wanted a winch also.

lets see if thiw picture works. its not my truck but its a 2004 edge

 

[Josh B]

Finally I get what's going on here.
Josh did you just have the one tow hook and that worked? I have two of these holes (that piece is bigger) so I guess I could use them but they aren't evenly spaced to the middle of the truck as I see them.
To me it sounds like even if you go with what would have been the stock mounting points (to the frame/horns) in later years, it's still possible to f things up under a lot of stress and reinforcement is advisable.
I'm just about 100% sure it requires going to the fog light valence otherwise there is no place to get the hooks/straps thru the bumper. So that's really a preliminary thing. If anyone has put in tow hooks and had to deal with the valence problem let me know.
Thanks and I am taking all under advisement for the time being because it is an upgrade and first I need to do a couple mntc/repair things.

Mine was basically just saying "this works for me", and went further to present its' being tested and passed.

 

[Ranger850]

Assoc. question do lot of people have winch on front? I imagine that takes yet more work.

What did you do to your Ranger today? (Part Deux!)

Got the Explorer tire fixed today so I put that on, while it was nosed into the shop I got on a creeper and looked at the front oxygen sensors, didn't nick a wire, it's just a bad sensor I guess... Also while down there I cranked on the torsion bars 3 turns a side for good measure to stop it...

www.therangerstation.com

Also you can see h where his TOW HOOKS are located. ( either side if the tag ). This is probably the ideal location, and if you cant go there, the frame is the next best place, not a skid plate.

maybe something like this would be easier

Redirect Notice

www.google.com

They're meant to attach to the frame so the car can be pulled.

 

[Ranger850]

Redirect Notice

www.google.com

this dude added a cross member for the tow hooks

 

[Curious Hound]

Hm... ok... this sounds nice. I don't think I've seen a pic yet of this have I? Can you post one?
Assoc. question do lot of people have winch on front? I imagine that takes yet more work.
I saw the winch flipping the turtled vehicle on the TRS video it was pretty impressive. Not that I'd probably ever do it but it was cool.

Picture? OK.