recovery Questions

ok last night, this kid called me up and said he give me some gas money if i came and pulled him out, so i did, i had to pull him from the back though, so i tied it up to my axle, i know its not good, but its the strongest thing i had, i was wondering what people normally use, do they use the hitch with a tow hook in it ? or what, i know i want to get the tow hook bracket kit from rustys for the front, but i was wondering about the back. thanks guys, matt

I have a class III receiver on the back of mine that I have one of the hooks for and it works very well. Short of buying/building a new rear bumper with shackle mouints I would venture to say that a hitch and hook or shackle combination would probably be your best bet simply because it gives you the option to do more than just pull stuck things around. There is also a way to mount a tow hook in the back because it came on the Up-Country package but I am not sure if it requires any special bracketry like the front ones do.

The rear can use either a receiver or the rear factory hook. The rear factory hook is an L shaped bracket on the drivers side, it attaches to the same bolts as the factory skid plate which is a plate inside the rear frame rail with nuts welded on to it. The setup looks like this. I removed mine when I replaced the rear bumper with a tomken and now I use the built in receiver for pulling.
http://www.rjpsystems.com/rearhook.jpeg

I have not gotten a recevier insert hook yet, all I do is put the loop in the receiver and put the pin thru it that is normally used to hold the insert. I have not done any heavy pulling, just people out of snow banks and such.

You know where to get that rear bracket and hook from? I was trying to do the same thing, but I can't bolt up a hook straight to the frame. KNowing where that bracket came from would be super.

Try and find a factory reciever from like a salvage yard or e-bay for the rear...I got my fatory reciever from salavage yard for 25 bucks and it included the factory wiring...It will be better on recovery than the tow hooks and brackets because it will put a load on both rails instead of just one...Less chance of bending unibody frame...Drawtite has the best reciever for the front...Get a warn D-ring shackle that goes into a reciever and your good to go for straight pulls and side pulls...That's my opionion...Have fun...Happy Jeeping...

John4wd...

ps. Don't use axle anymore for pulls...Gas money will never pay for a bent axle that needs replaced...

The rear hook bracket should be available at the dealer maybe, mine was like $20 or $25 when I bought it.