I have some questions about recovery safety gear and I know there will be many answers so lets hear them. Here's what I have:

Mopar front tow hooks rated at 5,000 lbs each
Class IV Draw-Tite receiver hitch rated at 7,500 lbs and 750 lb tongue weight
Reese D-ring hitch shackle rated at 10,000 lbs
2” 30’ recover strap (Expeditionware) rated at 7,000 lb working load and 20,000 lb breaking strength

A good friend of mine recently got an old Land Rover D90 that has an 11,000 lb winch on the front bumper. The liberty weights 4,100 but I have no idea how much stress is on a which cable when it’s pulling the Liberty out of mud. 2,000? 10,000? 20,000? I have no idea, I know that the mud suction on a framed truck can be pretty strong.

If the front tow hooks broke how would they break? Would the bolts holding them snap? Would the hook snap or just bend open? I would like to know if I need to seriously worry about the winch line coming back to the recovery vehicle alone or with a 10 lb tow hook on the end of it.

Regarding the rear, what would give out first? I’m assuming the receiver itself can handle more than 7,500 lbs but maybe I’m wrong. Am I at risk of bending the rear of my frame? Do you think there would be any clues? Will I hear the receiver make a noise first or will it just go with no warning?

Is it a bad idea to use an 11,000 lb winch on a 5,000 lb tow hook or, 7,500 receiver?

How much weight should you have on in the middle of a winch cable or tow strap to really have an effect? Is a towel enough or do you really need 10 or 20lbs on it?

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'04 Liberty Limited - 245/70/16 Firestone Destination AT's, Mopar tow hooks, Draw-Tite Class IV hitch, Skid Row Engine & Transmission Skids, Mopar T-Case & Gas Tank Skids, Extended Breather Tubes, Red Top Optima, Sylvania Silver Star head lights, Hella 500FF bumper mounted driving lights

I would be really surprised if you break a tow hook or hitch, what they are rated for is 1/3 of their breaking strength, and like that tow strap that has the breaking strength of 20,000 lbs, I dont think you will be breaking it unless it is frayed or cut or you are just doing something that you shouldnt be doing.

But I think it would pretty much always vary from the welds to the bolt and how the recovery device is being used.

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1980 Jeep CJ7 Buggy
SOA, D44/ FF14B, SBC 350, SM465, NP205, 108" WB, 37" MTs

http://www.dpgoffroad.com/
http://www.ucora.org/
http://www.christianoffroad.com/
http://jeepinbyal.com/

The problem with the oem front hooks is theyre not mounted well. You will never break the hook or the bolts before they simply rip through the sheet metal of your unibody.

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2007 KJ Sport - Frankenlift

I've seen the OEM KJ front tow hooks bend themselfs and also seen the mounting area bend as well from the stress.With a hitch mounted reciever(hook or shackle) you are putting all your faith on one 5/8" thick lock pin.

yes but you also put all of that weight on that same pin when you tow, so I dont see much difference there.

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1980 Jeep CJ7 Buggy
SOA, D44/ FF14B, SBC 350, SM465, NP205, 108" WB, 37" MTs

http://www.dpgoffroad.com/
http://www.ucora.org/
http://www.christianoffroad.com/
http://jeepinbyal.com/

Yeah 5000lbs of free rolling weight is not the same as a 5500lbs vehicle mired in mud that takes 15,000lbs of force to get moving .

true but those hitch pins should be able to handle that fine, those are the same hitch pics that are used when you tow with any vehicle, so a 1 ton diesel towing a 25ft tandem loaded down to the trucks max capacity would be the same amount of weight and you see that all the time going down the road

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1980 Jeep CJ7 Buggy
SOA, D44/ FF14B, SBC 350, SM465, NP205, 108" WB, 37" MTs

http://www.dpgoffroad.com/
http://www.ucora.org/
http://www.christianoffroad.com/
http://jeepinbyal.com/

yup, even a cheap 5/8 pin shears at 30,000 pounds. (And fit properly, it's a double shear.) You'll do a whole lot of damage to the little KJ before you bust a pin.

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2007 KJ Sport - Frankenlift

You could hook the strap onto both hooks that way the load is divided.

Just curious... you happen to have access to or know where someone could get a hold of those recovery charts with the mire factor calculations that they use in the army? I had one but it disappeared.

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Former CRD owner... now I just sit around and stare at the wall.

all depends on how you do it, one is your better bet. if you use a short stap going to both front kj hooks, and a longer main strap connected to that, its going to pull those front kj hooks "inward" on each other

or even if its say a 30ft strap, the "V"c pointed end connected to the pull vehicle, and the 2 open ends conencted to both front kj hooks, its still at too much angle"in my opinion", only 15feet and would still want to pull inward on the hooks. id only use both hooks at the ssame time if the strap was really really long to take the angle out. if you can understand what im saying

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2002 Cactus Green Renegade~OME HD/Rancho
235-85-16 Firestone Destination MT's~Detroit Locker~AL's 4.5 Arms
ARB bumper/Superwinch 9k~PIAA 540 driving lights/PIAA reverse lights~Crane 8.25 diff cover

Factory tow hooks in front - My wife had a tow strap zip tied to it and draped over the hood through the passenger side window for a mud hole at a Jeep Jamboree back in the day. After the trail run there was a 15 mile run on the highway back to the camp. She had to pull over after a loud 'bang' She ran over the tow strap with her front wheel at 65MPH... The 30,000 strap failed - and the factory tow hook moved 1/8 " IMOO - the factory set-up is fine

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2002 Salsa Liberty
Rusty's 2.5 spring lift
Rusty's RockRails and Diff Guards
Skid Row belly skidplate
235/85/R16 (32") Maxxis BigHorns
ARB rear locker
Detours BackBone Front Recovery Point and Winch Mount
Superwinch EP9000

Interesting. Wonder why they put 2 hooks on the front then?