modular front recovery, tow-points, skids, etc

I've been wanting to take my beater out on some light trail rides but needed to get recovery gear going before I could join the local club on any outings. New heavy duty bumpers are a ways down on the list still, so I need something that would work with the stock setup. My first inclination was to get some cheap tow-hook brackets and shackles, but then I saw a tow-bar setup and thought that might be good for flat-towing the thing back home if needed. I also saw some off-the-shelf receiver inserts for shackles and whatnot, and thought why not just put some Class-III receivers under the Jeep and then I can swap stuff in whenever I want.

Looking around, it does not seem that anybody makes anything like that, so I made my own. To start, I ordered a pair of Hi-Country tow-hook brackets, which are mega beefy, and have lots of material to work with:



Then I ordered some eight-inch Class-III receiver stock from etrailer.com



The default hole location in the Hi-Country brackets are for bolting down tow-hooks and brackets, but I need more room so I drilled a third set of holes:



Another potential problem is with torsion--although the bolts are not going to shear off, the hollow tubing might bend and twist and pop off the bolts. This is made worse by the fact that there is a small gap between the sides of the receiver stock and the bracket walls. In order to fix that, I cut some 3/16" scrap into strips, welded it to the brackets, and added additional bolt holes through the sides:



Next I fitted the brackets to the jeep. I want to keep the air dam for now, so I cut out notches for the receivers to stick through. I measured all this stuff out and did multiple test fittings, and was able to get the hitch pin holes just in front of the air dam, while staying 1" behind the stock bumper (I would rather have it take any hits instead of pushing impact force through the receiver into the frame):



Here is a pic of the setup after it was painted and mounted with new M12 grade 10.9 bolts. I had to drill a couple of holes in the passenger side frame rail for the brackets, and one of the bracket holes did not line up correctly, but otherwise it is a very solid bracket:



Finished product



I ordered some shackle inserts from Quadratec and those came in yesterday.



One thing I discovered is that they are longer than the Warn shackle insert I tested with. In order to make them fit, I moved the front bolt from the top down to the side plate, so there are still four M12 grade 10.9 bolts holding each receiver in position (two through the top plate, and one through each side plate). The weak link in all of this is the single 5/8" hitch pin. However those have a 5000 lb rating or something, so with two of them I'm not worried at all.

Here are some other inserts that etrailer sells. I will probably buy and store a some of these in my recovery bag just to have them.



Hidden Hitch makes a little skid plate, and I've ordered a pair of those to see how they work. They should give better clearance and will keep me from punching into rocks.



Down the road, I will modify or build a tow-bar to use for flat-towing the Jeep. The aftermarket stuff all uses propriety connectors, so at a minimum I will need to replace the connectors with class-III stock. This should be pretty simple though, and I should have a nice triangular link



I have threatened to get some of these for the next outing, "to help with water crossing"



I kid, of course.... The point is that I can use anything with a 2" square tubing just about. Overall I'm very happy with the setup, and when I do order real front bumper I am going to ask C4x4 to replace their shackle eyes with class-III receiver stock.

cool, not a bad idea at all

ehall said:

Here are some other inserts that etrailer sells. I will probably buy and store a some of these in my recovery bag just to have them.

Hidden Hitch makes a little skid plate, and I've ordered a pair of those to see how they work. They should give better clearance and will keep me from punching into rocks.

Down the road, I will modify or build a tow-bar to use for flat-towing the Jeep. The aftermarket stuff all uses propriety connectors, so at a minimum I will need to replace the connectors with class-III stock. This should be pretty simple though, and I should have a nice triangular link

I have threatened to get some of these for the next outing, "to help with water crossing"

I kid, of course.... The point is that I can use anything with a 2" square tubing just about. Overall I'm very happy with the setup, and when I do order real front bumper I am going to ask C4x4 to replace their shackle eyes with class-III receiver stock.

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You may have already made up your mind on the bumper you want but I'd be tempted to put another $100 with what you prob spent and get that XJ Backbone from Detours. "D" rings and a winch plate.

if you pointed them down some more you could put shovels on them and dig your self out lmao.

Mudderoy said:

You may have already made up your mind on the bumper you want but I'd be tempted to put another $100 with what you prob spent and get that XJ Backbone from Detours. "D" rings and a winch plate.

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The C4x4 has all that plus grill guard and push bar



I am pretty set on that by now thanks

I thinks its pretty cool and does well for thinking outside the box. Are you looking at connecting the two sides together some how?

No plans for connecting them. The brackets are so frickin heavy duty that they do a good job of acting like frame stiffeners already (the drivers side bolts into the steering box too). Really it is short-term solution until I get through all the other stuff I need to do to this wreck (engine, lift, etc.) and is only intended to get me on the trail now.

ehall said:

No plans for connecting them. The brackets are so frickin heavy duty that they do a good job of acting like frame stiffeners already (the drivers side bolts into the steering box too). Really it is short-term solution until I get through all the other stuff I need to do to this wreck (engine, lift, etc.) and is only intended to get me on the trail now.

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No way!Do not try to do a "single" pull from them.Without being "connected" together they are basically worthless.

Yeah. The brackets may be "frickin heavy duty" but the so-called frame rails they're bolted to are not.

I like the idea, but you should really figure a way to tie em together.

Robert

They are way stronger than the factory tow hooks, and the mounting points are better distributed. Having said that I agree that the sheetmetal could twist and bend with the right directional force (downward and out), and I agree that I should always use both brackets.

There are three bolts through the sides (the drivers side bolts into the steering box, and the passenger side has a backing plate). The passenger side is just holes in the rail and is mostly a stabilizing setup, however the steering box bolt holes are factory sleeved which makes the driver's side a little bit stronger. If I ever get into a situation where I can only use one, I'll favor the driver's side since the steering box bolt hole sleeves provide much greater resistance than the sheet metal alone.

The real strength is the other four bolts underneath that go into the various weld nuts (two for the swaybar bushings, and another two for whatever else is there). Here's a pic of the bottom



While the sheetmetal frame rails aren't very impressive, with seven bolts per side it's not going to tear unless I take a running start on a pull. Also there is a huge amount of connecting support such as the sway bar and the motor, and the large flat mounting area will not want to bend sideways so that is extra resistance. The real risk, I agree, is that pulling the passenger side down and out might twist the sheetmetal.

I am pretty confident that I could hook the front to a fork lift and raise it up without damaging the Jeep

You could have got a front receiver hitch (got mine for $109 delivered from etrailer) Easy to install, no hassel with all the fab work you did and the receiver does point down at the ground!

All the class-III front hitches only have a single receiver in the center, which is unusable for flat-towing.

I've used my HiCountry recovery points to pick up the front of my jeep and lifted the tires off of the ground without any problems. I've also used them to get me unstuck from some ruts where I was only sitting on the axles with all 4 tires in the air. So much for lockers! My wife was a bit overzealous and pulled harder than I would have liked but with no damage. I even used the passenger side only. THese things have worked pretty well for me having used them quite a bit to help others get unstuck.

ehall said:

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Man, those things hang awful low!

evergreenxj said:

My wife was a bit overzealous and pulled harder than I would have liked but with no damage.

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Wow, now thats a woman.

I got the Hidden Hitch skid-plate inserts. I had to drill a new hole to get them behind the bumper guards, and then I had to cut them down to get them inserted all the way. They are smaller than I expected them to be:



They should work well enough to keep the receivers from jamming up with mud/snow/leaves/trees/whatever and help me skip over some obstacles but they are no substitute for a real engine skid, obviously.

That fairlead was totally photoshopped on there. WTF, why would C4x4 do that?

ehall said:

The C4x4 has all that plus grill guard and push bar

I am pretty set on that by now thanks

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So was the winch.

well, today is the end of the week for me and to be honest, i'm not in much of a state to read the entire thread but is there a reason you didn't just get the hi country shackle mounts? BTW, i've beat on the hi country brackets pretty hard and yes, they are very stout...