Recovery Tow Anchor Points

I searched all over the forum about this but couldnt find the info I was looking for. Can someone tell me whether or not I can use the points circled in red as anchors for towing someone out? I find it curious that I have a tow hooks in the front but none in the rear. I plan on using a D-ring for the point on the second pic.

 

Absolutely not!!!

You've got a hitch....use it. Do you have a draw bar?

If not, get yourself a draw bar to put in your receiver of your hitch.


Get yourself a d-ring like this:


Put the D-ring inside the hole where the ball mounts.

You can use that as your tow point.

 

x2. I'm with Janster.

Her solution would work great or you could get something dedicated for it like this one

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/buy-sell-trade/90840-receiver-hitch-shackles.html

or something similar to it.

 

They make a shackle that is just for this! Here's a pic of one.

 

^ x3 absolutely not.

 

I think those holes are to hang the chains on when you have a trailer hooked up. Please for yours and everyone elses safety do not use them as a recovery point.

 

Lord no, not unless you want to damage your expensive hitch and possibly hurt people.

 

Those drawbar d-ing combos are cool but sometimes its cheaper to buy the draw bar & d-ring separately especially if you go to a farm/home center type shop.

 

My safety chain hook points are severely deformed from the aforementioned procedure, but this is on my T100. Worked great the several times I've done this, but yeah definitely not a great idea.

 

Buy that shackle/receiver thing. Don't use those holes circled in the picture, they will bend and/or rip... ask me why I know.

 

So we have no factory recovery points on the rear of our "off road" trucks? Weak! Also, I've heard it's bad to use the front tow hooks since the gears aren't meant to pull heavy loads in reverse.

 

You could just put a pin through the hitch and put a strap around that.

The front recovery hook not the ideal place to use if you are doing the recovering. If you are being recovered from there it should be fine.

 

yeah pull people out in drive.

 

If you're pulling someone out it's better to hook them to the rear of your rig.

Avoid pulling in from the front if you can, but I've done it plenty of times with no bad results.

 

due tell

 

Yeah "do tell."

 

That would work in a pinch, but I would avoid using a pin like that. It's easy to bend the pin without the drawbar in place.
It'll probably get you unstuck, but have to torch the pin out.

 

I did use those in a pinch with my GMC.. it severely deformed them just to hold me from sliding as I backed up (2wd truck on a bank near a cliff wet grass rain, and a big root that was slick as shit to get over)

They're 1/4" steel and they wont rip but they are strictly for your safety chains.

 

Um, isn't the usual hitch pin for a tacoma 5/8's?