rear tow point, shackle?

I Need A Tow Point In The Rear, Have A Receiver And Chains And Strais Hook To The Sides Just Fine, But I Just Got A New Tow Strap That Doesnt Have Hooks And Need Receiver Shackle. Is There Any Way I Can Just Take The Ball Off Of The Hitch I Have And Put A Shackle On Sideways In Its Place. It Would Be A Lot Cheaper Than Buying A New One, Plus I Have A Extra Hitch Anyways, Tia

Ramsey said:

I Need A Tow Point In The Rear, Have A Receiver And Chains And Strais Hook To The Sides Just Fine, But I Just Got A New Tow Strap That Doesnt Have Hooks And Need Receiver Shackle. Is There Any Way I Can Just Take The Ball Off Of The Hitch I Have And Put A Shackle On Sideways In Its Place. It Would Be A Lot Cheaper Than Buying A New One, Plus I Have A Extra Hitch Anyways, Tia

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Well, wouydln't that stick out far affecting your departure angle? If you want to go cheap why not just use the pin and thread the strap through it inside the receiver?

there's no reason you souldn't be able to shackle through the hole your ball threaded into. on the other hand if it's a 2" receiver here's an alternative: http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/...talogId=4006970&PHOTOS=on&productId=200255774

Kejtar said:

Well, wouydln't that stick out far affecting your departure angle? If you want to go cheap why not just use the pin and thread the strap through it inside the receiver?

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well i wouldnt leave it in, thats a good idea though with the pin, i just dont know if the strap will fit in there, i am gonna have to try this evening.

if i was gonna buy something i would just but the shackle one, i guess the it wont fit inthe receiver with the pin(btw is there a downside to that?) i will just buy a shackle to use in place of my ball.

Tow straps with hooks suck anyway, ever see one of those b****** fly off of the vehicle being recovered and hit the winsheild of the recovery vehicle. I have and it aint pretty. Most straps are 2" anyway so just do what Kejtar said and you will be good to go. I personally hate straps and will always use chains but if I had to use a strap thats how I would do it.

i've never broke a strap and sent a hook flying, but i have broken a couple chains, and that was scary. my strap has a 60k# break strength so its a little bigger than the normal, ok well a lot bigger, but the ends might fit in. how do you justify a chain, but not a strap with hooks?

Ramsey said:

i've never broke a strap and sent a hook flying, but i have broken a couple chains, and that was scary. my strap has a 60k# break strength so its a little bigger than the normal, ok well a lot bigger, but the ends might fit in. how do you justify a chain, but not a strap with hooks?

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I think our safety regs for events as well as regs of other clubs specify that for recovery you need a strap with no hooks. The issue is not necessarily snapping the strap but having the hook slip. And chains.. well they got no stretch in them so they are great for towing and not so good for recovery.

I´m not an engineer, but seems to me, part of the reason for using a hook, might be if it snaps, hopefully the base stays on the vehicle and the pointy half of the hook comes off. Unlikely to follow the strap in the direction of the pull.
Retired my chain, after putting a half dozen dings in the hood and roof of my tow truck. Was really happy it missed the windshield (and me).
Pulled a dozen or more vehicles out of a mud pit, every second weekend, in the warm months, for most of ten years. Have at one time or another, pulled just about every conceivable piece off of a stuck vehical. From bumpers, through trailer hitches, to tow hooks, still attached to a piece of frame. Plan for the worst and hope for the best. Part of the registration, was signing a release for tow damage. A few of tons of mud (3X3 feet of mud is more than a ton), some suction and a serious winch, something is gonna give.

8Mud said:

I´m not an engineer, but seems to me, part of the reason for using a hook, might be if it snaps, hopefully the base stays on the vehicle and the pointy half of the hook comes off. Unlikely to follow the strap in the direction of the pull.

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But what if it slips on a yank?? Then you've got a missile coming right at you! There is that picture which is supposedly photochopped to resemble what happend where a hook went through a front windshield and ended up on the front seat as the guy jumped out or something like that.

Straps are elastic, chains are not, hook on a strap becomes a lethal object if it slips or if the end breaks off the hook and leaves the rest of it attached to the strap. Chain on the other hand does not stretch like a nylon snatch strap, generally a blanket in the middle is enough to cause it to drop if it comes off one end or the other. In the military we use steel rope, 1 1/2" thick with steel eyelets on the ends, the tow points are shaped like a T, eyelet goes on sidways and pulls straight. You normally use two, towed vehicle supplies one, towing vehicle supplies the other one and in the case of a tracked vehicle you cross the cables in an X, allows you to have the track you are towing follow your trail much better. For nylon, hooks are a no no...

As Rich P said if used properly (with a blanket or coat in the center) a chain will most likely not "spring" toward the recovery vehicle. I always use a chain because I have broken one two many straps and been hit by one while using it with a come-a-long :bawl: . I have yet to break a chain. :yelclap:

jeepguy97 said:

As Rich P said if used properly (with a blanket or coat in the center) a chain will most likely not "spring" toward the recovery vehicle. I always use a chain because I have broken one two many straps and been hit by one while using it with a come-a-long :bawl: . I have yet to break a chain. :yelclap:

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If you haven't broken a chain, you ain't trying hard enough.

You are right, though. There are HUGE differences between using a chain and a tug'em strap. With a chain, you do not, I repeat do *NOT* get a running start, there must be zero slack in it when you seriously start to pull.

Our rigs are pretty light, so a good running tug will usually generate enough power to pull them out.

I used a 3" 30,000 lb. strap to pull Dad's stake rack up a muddy hill a couple of times a year ago, and the elasticity was nice. OTOH, trying to pull out a self-propelled chopper and wagon (full of silage of course) with a strap would have been futile. We usually sank pretty good, and only another tractor or two on dry ground had a chance to pull it out.

Guess I should have been more specific, meant a hook attached to the vehicle, possibly being superior to a D ring. Hopefully the hook will snap at the curve or better yet straighten out and let the strap go without the hook or a D ring attached. Don´t use any metal attached to my straps.
As far as a chain goes, the phrase, weak link, has been around for a long time. 30 feet of chain came back at me faster than I could say chit, maybe a blanket would have slowed it or deflected it, who knows. I used that chain for for more than a decade, no problems, but then again, it only takes once.
I´ve got a good length of 5/8" cable I´m looking hard at, but will probably end up with a really serious strap instead. Just call me chicken or once burnt twice shy.
For RichP, I´ve never broken a tank tow cable, but have broken a few tow hooks (think they were designed to be the weak link). I`ve also snapped the winch cable on my tank recovery vehicle (M-88) with a 40-50 lb. snatch block on the end, thankfull I was behind a couple of inches of armor plate.

Ramsey said:

I Need A Tow Point In The Rear, Have A Receiver And Chains And Strais Hook To The Sides Just Fine, But I Just Got A New Tow Strap That Doesnt Have Hooks And Need Receiver Shackle. Is There Any Way I Can Just Take The Ball Off Of The Hitch I Have And Put A Shackle On Sideways In Its Place. It Would Be A Lot Cheaper Than Buying A New One, Plus I Have A Extra Hitch Anyways, Tia

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Wow That Was Hard To Understand The First Time Through With Every Word Capitalized Like It Was Importiant In Some Way...

I have a reciever and put a shacke in where a ball should be. to prevent departure angel from sucking anymore, i dont put the reciever thingy in untill i need to hook up and take the strap...

8Mud said:

Guess I should have been more specific, meant a hook attached to the vehicle, possibly being superior to a D ring. Hopefully the hook will snap at the curve or better yet straighten out and let the strap go without the hook or a D ring attached. Don´t use any metal attached to my straps.
As far as a chain goes, the phrase, weak link, has been around for a long time. 30 feet of chain came back at me faster than I could say chit, maybe a blanket would have slowed it or deflected it, who knows. I used that chain for for more than a decade, no problems, but then again, it only takes once.
I´ve got a good length of 5/8" cable I´m looking hard at, but will probably end up with a really serious strap instead. Just call me chicken or once burnt twice shy.
For RichP, I´ve never broken a tank tow cable, but have broken a few tow hooks (think they were designed to be the weak link). I`ve also snapped the winch cable on my tank recovery vehicle (M-88) with a 40-50 lb. snatch block on the end, thankfull I was behind a couple of inches of armor plate.

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Never broke or used anything that big, towing a 113, 577 or M2 you usually don't run into that kind of problem. The only real HEAVY one I ever saw was when a tanker crew drove an M60 into a basement they didn't see at ground level till they dropped 8 ft. Was a small house and fit the hull perfectly Boy that division maintenance warrant was ****SSSED, we watched for about 3 hours, he was seriously considering my offer to blow one of the end walls down and let the engineers finish the digging so they could drive out but range control said no demo in that area :dunno: and they wanted the basement intact for training purposes. He fInally borrowed two more 88's from another division. We had an artep to shoot so I did not get to see the finalli... must have been something cause I knew the crew from another battalion and they were walking funny next time I saw them so I figured the warrant reamed em each a new one...
I did see a 113 drive into a flooded field and sink over the top deck, ignored the map and did not realize the flooded field was flooded from the small river that ran thru it, no drain plugs, the tc had to do the diving to hook up 3 cables so the 88 could pull em out, crew and squad were a bit miffed, duffle bags were inside.... once it was out it was like watching a swimming pool drain in less than 15 seconds, they pulled the release on that back door on the ramp and the water shot straight back almost 10ft, flattened the door catch too... I almost followed them in with my 1/4ton but I wanted to see how deep it was first, after his tail lights went under no way was I going in there.... I found out later on they gave the TC an aaaooooga horn mounted on a wooden plaque at the next dine in.... geeze and all I ever got was a sandbag...

Some guy sank a tank in some real goo (peat bog at Graf), to above the fenders. A Jeep could drive on it, a person walk on it, but it wasn´t up to supporting a tank. Three tanks and a 88 in a daisy chain, couldn´t pull it free, winch wouldn´t budge it, tried pumping water under the hull (through the escape hatch) (fire hose) helped a bit, a kilo of C-4 finally broke the suction. Broke a lot of junk that day, trying to get that sucker free.
We sent the driver mud diving more than a few times, to hook up. The only part of Graf with no tank tread prints, should have figured something wasn´t right, when he drove in there. He froze up and stopped in the middle of it, should have stayed on the throttle, only chance he had. Figure he earned a mud bath. :rattle: