[pete_79]

This is not so much a fabrication job, but the discussion on rear recovery points for Jimnys has moved to the front so I thought I'd started this to share with others if they're looking for a cheap, easy and safe front recovery point for their Jimny.

I did this a while ago and just used a rated recovery hook that you can pick up from any auto parts or camping store.
With 2 high tensile bolts, I'm pretty sure they where 120mm long, from memory you can get away with 110mm bolts but the Jimny chassis is not square and one bolt will be a bit short (happy to be corrected if these dimensions are wrong). I used fine thread bolts to get good pressure on the chassis with out crushing it and used nyloc nuts.
I couldn't see a way to get a crush tube inside, but you need to add plates to help spread the load and stop the bolts pulling through the chassis. I cut 2 lengths of 25x3 flat bar for backing plates top and bottom of chassis and drilled to match the holes in the hook.

After removing the front bumper I cut a template of the bumper profile to make sure the hook sat through the bumper far enough to get a strap on without it going too far and effecting the approach angle.


3mm flat bar on top of chassis.


Clamped the hook on with the backing plates. You can see the way the chassis isn't square here.


Hook clamped on with the bumper template.


When I clamped the hook on it hit on the chassis end plate before it sat flat on the backing plate. So I filed down the bottom of the end plate, but was very careful not to touch the weld on this plate. Luckily they use a 3mm fillet weld on this plate.


I don't know if this will help much, but this is where I drilled the front bumper. I used the hole saw that I bought to fit the the snorkel (about 50mm) which worked pretty well and only needed a little bit of filing to fit the bumper neatly over the hook.






I know lots of people try everything to avoid cutting plastics, but I think this is pretty discrete and doesn't effect your approach angle like the bolt on 'no cut' options out there.








At the end of the day you can't snatch off the factory points on the front of a Jimny and there's lots of ideas for custom front recovery points. But I haven't seen too many that I'd be comfortable hooking a snatch strap to. Ideally there should be a crush tube is side the chassis on this hook, but with the 3mm plates top and bottom this is more then safe to get the light weight Jimny unstuck.

[zukenutter]

Good write up

[Jim_Aus]

i like this ALOT, ive already lost 70% of my front bar so not really worried about that.

[jtayl153]

I've got an xrox bull bar. I'm having some custom recovery hooks fabricated and bolted onto the existing 5 bolts on each side of the bash plate. directly onto the chassis.

Thats this weeks project

[Steven B]

Great job, I'm unashamedly gonna copy this.
I bought an almost identical recovery hook, it's stamped 4500kg on it.
I was gonna attach it on the side face of the chassis just because it fitted almost flush and not having to cut away the lip.
But now I'm thinking your method of putting it on the bottom edge would be better as that section of the chassis is narrower and has 2 corners to add to rigidity and a constant run of mig weld along the length of it so less likely to tear off.
Also when being pulled it will lift the car , aiding the recovery rather than pull with a sideways force, which I imagine is not as efficient and could lead to tearing the chassis as it's a bigger flat section with no reinforcement.

And lastly did you use any plates on the inside of the chassis under the nuts to spread the load?

Hope my long waffle makes sense.

[pete_79]

Steven B,

I used longer bolts that go right through the chassis. I did use a plate under the nuts on top of the chassis, that's the plate in the first photo.

[Steven B]

Ah yes I saw that top plate, I thought it was a part of the G clamp.
Thanks.

[atari4x4]

no crush tubes inside the chassis?

[Gwagensteve]

That's bothering me too a bit. Torque for a dry m12 8.8 bolt is 88Nm. That's a lot of crush force on the chassis. If the chassis deforms at all then clamping force is reduced, putting the load on the bolts into shear.

It's not ideal. I think it would be OK for light or occasional use, but given time and some heavy recoveries and it be concerned about damage to the chassis.

[offroadjack]

crush tubes pretty much are a must when using you chassis rails to hook up a recovery hook.

going through all that effort to get it to look schmick and not use tubes...

[Jim_Aus]

would be abit of a f*&k around getting a tube in there.......

would hate to see one of these come flying off if the bolts did shear off though..

[jdk81]

You managed to drill holes already, so whats the challenge?
Find some tube suitable size and cut to length, then run a drill through the chassis from the bottom, and bolt it all up.
About the only challenge would be holding things in place while bolting it together.

[Jim_Aus]

then you've gotta fix the front bar some other way, the mount for that covers the end of the chassis rail.

[JrZook]

Drill a larger hole at the top so the crush tube drops in and run a weld round it?

[offroadjack]

Big fat washers is all you need

[Jim_Aus]

yea f*@k that.......bolt em up. hope for the best...

[pete_79]

Jim_Aus wrote:

yea f*@k that.......bolt em up. hope for the best...

Well that's one way to look at it......

Gwagensteve wrote:

It's not ideal. I think it would be OK for light or occasional use, but given time and some heavy recoveries and it be concerned about damage to the chassis.

That was more the thoughts I had when I did this.
I look at this hook and the 3mm plate on top of the chassis as part of my checks when ever I'm under the car looking at the uni joints, bushes, brake lines, suspension mounts, etc.

If anyone has checked out my build thread you'd see I'm mostly into touring and camping. I do occasionally get out to more challenging tracks, but I go with some very experienced (and responsible) guys and we have yet to find ourselves in any sort of extremely dangerous recovery positions.

I have used this hook a couple of times for light snatches over obstacles that I've been hung up or diffed out on. That was all this hook was ever intended for. If our Jimny was not a daily driver for our family and I was to start taking it out or more challenging tracks where I could need heavy recoveries I would add a second hook to the other chassis rail and use an equaliser strap.

But that's just me, others might prefer to hope for the best......

[Jim_Aus]

im on sand 85% of the time and when i do need a snatch its only ever a light pull..... so im not overly ineed of HD fixing. the main reason i got the hooks was because the shackles i have are really tight on the factory tie-down point and its annoying to hook up to every time i need a snatch...

[pete_79]

Quick! You've still got time to delete the second part of that statement before you get totally burnt.....

[SierraDan]

I've used my tie down points for years as i don't drive in mud or continue to hold the throttle flat to the floor when I'm losing traction on the sand.

[Jim_Aus]

not sure what your getting at pete.......

im not concerned about the strength of the points....

[pete_79]

Jim_Aus wrote:

not sure what your getting at pete.......

im not concerned about the strength of the points....

Read this; http://www.auszookers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=350761#p350761


I resisted starting this thread about my recovery hooks for a long time. If you search this topic pretty much everyone who has posted what they made to use for a safe recovery (safer then the factory tie down points) gets burnt.

[Gwagensteve]

Which is because fitting a "rated" hook to a 2.5mm chassis without the use of crush tubes is a welding/fabrication job.

Steve.

[jdk81]

Add the two crush tubes and you have a very good recovery point given what you're working with! Probably the best front recovery on a jimny i've seen.
I like squizzy's rear recovery hook

People get shot down with DIY recovery points, because it's scary.
Snatch straps can accelerate a shackle/hook/towball etc to horrific speeds (calcs in link)
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=40821

Failure can still occur with a poor recovery point and gentle recoveries. (so make it as best you can)
However, an idiot can break anything - simply don't wheel with them

[Jezza86]

jdk81 wrote:

Add the two crush tubes and you have a very good recovery point given what you're working with! Probably the best front recovery on a jimny i've seen.
I like squizzy's rear recovery hook

I'm guessing the ones on arb bullbars don't count?

[tanshi]

arb bull bar ones are piss poor aswell unless modified cos they rely on weak bullbar mounts

[atari4x4]

as jdk81 said make some crush tubes & it's all good!!!! maybe put a shout out for someone local on here to zap them in with the mig, once the bar's off it's not going to take long if you prep it beforehand.

i'm pretty sure arb don't rate the eyelets on their bars for recovery, there are some good pics of people laminating the eyelets floating around, but as tanshi said it's all in the mounts.

slightly off topic

this is out of my league in terms of fab, but it's a bloody neat solution to a common problem. wonder if we could pinch the CAD files.







viewtopic.php?f=4&t=43707&p=825954#p825954

[Gwagensteve]

jdk81 wrote:

Add the two crush tubes and you have a very good recovery point given what you're working with! Probably the best front recovery on a jimny i've seen.

This^

I think this is a neat solution. It's just the lack of crush tubes I'm not digging.

Steve.

[Steven B]

Actually after talking to my mate at work and a couple of the boiler makers ive decided to add crush tubes.
The boily gave me (and cut to size) some galv tubing so when i get time i will add the tubes.

Im a (ex) panelbeater by trade (of 17 yrs) and know how easy it is to damage a chassis by twisting and pulling very close to the end of the rail.
Most chassis repair work is done by bolting a clamp on the very end of the chassis and pulling from the clamp,and every panelbeater will have experienced many times a clamp fly off and find its torn a chunk of metal off or ripped clean out of the bolt holes you used.

[jdk81]

Steven B wrote:

Actually after talking to my mate at work and a couple of the boiler makers ive decided to add crush tubes.
The boily gave me (and cut to size) some galv tubing so when i get time i will add the tubes.