Which manufacturers fit factory recovery points?

[XJ Junkie]

From what I can gather, the answer is NONE!

I would have thought that by now at least 1 specialist 4x4 manufacturer would have taken the initiative to fit rated recovery points to certain vehicles out of the box.

It can’t be tremendously expensive or difficult to do so. If they can design, engineer & build vehicles from scratch, then I think it should be pretty straight forward to mount a couple of pieces of metal with a hole drilled through, onto the chassis.

Jeep do have points on many of their fabled & very excellent Trailhawk models which are painted red to suggest that they are a bit special, but they are very careful to refer to them as tow points & not recovery points.





Not even the Wranglers get rated points.


Hummers had some recovery-esq looking tow points as well


Land Rover didn’t bother either on the Defender


It simply doesn’t make sense that they don’t. It can’t be a safety issue either because recovery points aren’t exactly complex. There’s any number of aftermarket suppliers that sell rated recovery points that can be retrofitted. So there’s no obvious excuse that I can fathom.

So I’d be intrigued to find out why none of the manufacturers do.

[Wave]

The Fortuner has factory recovery points, but most dealers remove them when fitting a tow bar

[XJ Junkie]

I doubt that very much. But I’m specifically referring to rated recovery points.

Even my XJ had a recovery point but it ain’t rated.

[Disco Nic]

The Fortuner has factory recovery points, but most dealers remove them when fitting a tow bar

Hahahaha

No they don’t

[Prof]

In other words...nobody makes a proper 4x4?

[KurtG]

Maybe it’s the arrogance of the designers.... “Ag please, my 4x4 carr-ent get stucked” ?

[Mad Manny]

The Fortuner has factory recovery points, but most dealers remove them when fitting a tow bar

Correct.
It's only at the back though.
I managed to get one, painted it red & retrofittted it.
It's the recovery point I have used for the past 9 years.

I have pulled or been pulled with it dozens of times.

On Road to Hell a snatch strap & a Bow shackle attached to it snapped.

I dunno if it is officially rated, but I can't see why it isn't more than adequate.

[grips]

Cruisers have OEM recovery points

[XJ Junkie]

The Fortuner has factory recovery points, but most dealers remove them when fitting a tow bar

On Road to Hell a snatch strap & a Bow shackle attached to it snapped.

I dunno if it is officially rated, but I can't see why it isn't more than adequate.

It isn’t rated. But if you broke a bow shackle then my bet is that it wasn’t rated either.

[BushWacker]

Most 4*4 s sold dont see much active service at the front , so to speak ... city guys who want the general image but stay out of the mud and mountains ,.. so it doesnt make sense for manufacturers to compete in the highly competitive accessory market for recovery points etc at initial point of sale etc as margins dont warrant it ... main motive is to sell the car
... add-ons and accessories come later ...

[KurtG]

The Fortuner has factory recovery points, but most dealers remove them when fitting a tow bar

On Road to Hell a snatch strap & a Bow shackle attached to it snapped.

I dunno if it is officially rated, but I can't see why it isn't more than adequate.

It isn’t rated. But if you broke a bow shackle then my bet is that it wasn’t rated either.

It was rated, the way it was used caused the failure. It was acting at 45 degrees to the intended pull direction causing it to “open”.

But manny doesn’t believe me.

[Mike Nel]

The Fortuner has factory recovery points, but most dealers remove them when fitting a tow bar

On Road to Hell a snatch strap & a Bow shackle attached to it snapped.

I dunno if it is officially rated, but I can't see why it isn't more than adequate.

It isn’t rated. But if you broke a bow shackle then my bet is that it wasn’t rated either.

How do we know that the recovery points aren't rated?

I got snatched on the FJ a few times and that recovery point didn't budge, so I guess it's strong enough

[XJ Junkie]

Rated recovery points are required to have a stamp/engraving indicating their SWL.

All the aftermarket ones available seem to be 5000 kg SWL

[Apocalypse]

there is no such thing as a 'rated' recovery point.

The rating on a shackle or eyebolt is a Safe Working load rating, and not a load rating.

no one has ever even tested the actual loads imposed during a recovery.

If you want a 'rated'' recovery rating , you could fit a rated eye bolt which has an SWL rating on it, but where / how you attach it is still a problem...

http://www.clevelandcityforge.com/indus ... -eyebolts/

as you can seee, if you want an eyebolt rated to 4,75tons, the same as the shackles most people use, you'll need a 1 1/8" eyebolt - thats a 30mm thread....

[XJ Junkie]

there is no such thing as a 'rated' recovery point.

Bingo. Rated at 10000 LBS (circa 4.5t)