TRD 4x4 Sport Tow Hook

Can someone please tell me what the tow hook looking device on the first pic is (drivers side)? If it is a tow hook can it be used for "recoverey" too? My Owner's Manual says the 2nd pic is a towing eyelet and can be used for towing on pavement at slows speed so I am assuming the eyelet should not be used for recoverey.

 

cant tell from pic if the driver side is bolted (and if so, how many and to what) or welded; the pax side looks like one bolt and no key (which would not help much any way). My gut feeling when comparing to my 09 TRD OR is: you should try NO recovery on pax side and it better not be a real bad situation on the driver side. Unless things have changed a lot from 09 to 11 I think you are seeing a diff between the Sport and the Off Road versions.

 

I am no expert but the first looks like a tow hook of some type and the second is a tie down use for transport.

Robert

 

To strap it down in a shipping container. You can "recover" using it but you can take off the small tow hook and put on a TRD offroad. I did it before I had my bumper. Used it a few times and it was worth it. 10 minutes to swap out the tow hooks.

 

The the steel loop (pic below) is shown on both the offroad and sport graphics in the owners manual but never defined. It's for shipping, okay makes since. So I need to pick up a tow hook. Unless I can find one off an offroad guess I'll pick one up at the parts store?

 

Preparing to install a Hybrid Tube Brute Force Fab (Shout out to Billy!) and the "Steel Loop" pictured above is in the way.

How did y'all remove this? Assume my options are grind or cut with a torch.

 

Bueller? Anyone?

Several threads talk about BFF/Billy. None of them specifically mention the removal of the "steel loop" or drivers side factory tow loop.

Thanks TW!