Recovery Points

Recovery Points

Land Rover Recovery Attachment Points
Due to the inadequate recovery points available on Land Rovers, as most other off-road vehicles, we designed and built recovery points.

Recovery Tow Hitch (R1100, excl VAT, excl shipping)

This fully adjustable tow hitch can be adjusted for an amazing 210mm height difference to carry for different trailer heights. It comes complete with supports bars, which stabilise the sliding plate in the lowest position.

Most importantly, it has a recovery eye, fabricated from high quality tensile steel. It is attached to the back cross member with 4 high tensile bolts, utilising a thick backing plate. The recovery eye, which is centered between these bolts, is designed to receive a 6.5t bow shackle.

The Land Rover lashing rings should never be used for any recovery operation, even if it only involves towing the vehicle. It was designed to lash the vehicle down for transportation.

Recovery operations should only be used using a 6.5 ton bow shackle secured to the recovery eye, and not any other part, especially not the tow balls, even if the ball is of the pin and ball type. The main reason for this is that the extremely high forces involved in recovery operations far exceed the ratings of the tow balls. The pin and ball is claimed to be the strongest, with a ball rating of 2 tons, and pin rating of 5 tons. Whether these figures include safety factors is unclear. For snatching, where forces of up to 8 tons are experienced, even the pin is unsuitable.

In addition, if these high forces are not centered between the 4 attachment bolts, twist will be induced into the back cross member.

In high force recovery operations, the support bars on the bottom are of little use to defenders, as the attachment points on the chassis is not strengthened, and the bolts merely rip open the chassis if too high forces are used. On the earlier Range Rovers and Discoveries, these points are strengthened. I don't know why this was not done on the Defenders, as the un-strengthened holes can only take a safe load of 340kg each?

NEW ! Rear Recovery Eye with separate Backing Plate (R540 and R80 respectively, excl VAT and shipping)

This recovery point is aimed at those individuals who are happy with their existing tow hitch plate, and who would like to add a rear recovery point to their existing set-up. The the later Defenders (TD5 onwards) have a cross-member with welded nuts in place, as such a backing plate cannot be fitted. For these, the external unit on the left is needed. The existing bolts can be utilised. A spacer is provided should this eye be attached with the existing drop plate in place.

This recovery point accepts a 6.5t bow shackle, like the Recovery Tow Hitch.

The earlier Defenders need the backing plate pictured on the right. All necessary bolts are supplied.

Front recovery eyes (R150 excl VAT, excl shipping, per recovery eye)

In the front, the lashing eyes should also not be used for any recovery work. One can buy genuine jate rings, which were designed for the military Land Rovers in the UK (JATE stands for Joint Air Transport Establishment). These are forged units, similar to bow shackles, and are designed to accept slings, not shackles.

There are a couple of aftermarket designs which use a flat bar and round bar combination. These are also fine for attaching slings to, but not shackles in high force situations.

The two main factors for this are that firstly, the shackle pin is round. When attaching a shackle to either of the above jate rings, the metal contact area is small (imaging the contact area of two touching balls). This small contact area results in high local surface bearing stresses. Secondly, when attaching a bridle to connect both jate rings, or recovering at an angle, the shackle is bound to slip to one side, transferring most of the force through one side of the bolt.

With our recovery eyes, the shackle is attached through a hole, ensuring low bearing stresses, and at the same time, preventing the shackle from moving to one side, ensuring as reasonable even force distribution into the attachment bolts.

Only one size is sold, which can straddle the chassis section plus one 10mm plate to cater for some other attachemts such as those of steering protectors.

Bead-Breaker ® (R185,00 incl VAT, excl shipping)

De-beading your tyre from the rim in the bush can be a daunting task, especially if you don't have the right tools. This simple tool fits to the bottom of your hi-lift jack, and your vehicle bumper is then used as leverage, to get the tyre off, in no time.