Non-political things that make you say...WTF?!?! (Welcome To Florida!) **NOT CV RELATED** NO TALKY!

For the 98% in a country like India, when you die, you’re dead. They don’t have the luxury of distinguishing if a 85 year old grandmother died Of flu or Covid19.

 

Wait... So you're saying 2% of India is immortal?

 

I don't understand the trend with these on cars. When I see this, I assume the owner anticipates the car breaking down often.

 

I think it's required when they are doing autocross and yes all ero cars have them. I've had three BMW's and have never installed the tow hook.

 

They have the money and time to putz with an autopsy and then buy a cord of wood to cremate the deceased. About 25% (more depending on who’s numbers are referenced), of the population of India earn about 1-2 dollars a day.

 

this the new Thirst gen? I really do love that color though haha

 

All cars certified to sell in EU and several other markets are required to have a removable tow hook. Virtually every car on a new US lot has one, they're just hiding in the glovebox or tool bag.

 

Nah.....it's the pull start.

 

They're also used for a tie down place when transporting cars via ship, though it's usually faster to just strap by the wheels:

 

I've never seen a domestic manufacture equip cars with a tow hook. Not saying they don't , I've never seen it.

 

It’s been that way, long before the EU nightmare. My ‘76 528, '01 325i and '06 X3 all had one.

 

You have on some, they just aren’t removable. Usually a small loop welded under the chassis to accommodate a hook to pull it onto a tow truck flatbed. It’s the low slung cars that need them if a claw lift isn’t available as you can’t drag it by a lower control arm.

 

I was talking about the removable tow hook. My legacy has the two lower metal hooks on the front, which I was surprised to see and a removable tow hook for the rear bumper.

 

Because BMW had the assholiest drivers buying there cars.

 

Boom. Nail on the head.

 

But if you strap by the wheels, the body will still roll on the suspension. When you strap them down by hooks the body doesn’t move.

That’s how we had to secure our tactical equipment in aircraft. When loading 5-tons on a C-5, those fuckers can’t be allowed to budge an inch.

 

There are a couple of issues that you'll run into with loading cars on ships.

The problem with strapping by the body on a ship is that the body still rolls. The rolling body, over several days, will cause the straps to work loose which means that you've gotta check them more often. When we load 5 tons, HEMTTs and M1070s we use a combination of hooks and wheels, with more going to the hooks. The difference is that military stuff is designed to be strapped down and has lots of hooks and tiedown points (that are usually clearly labeled as well). The average car gets strapped down maybe two, three times in its life.

The other issue comes down to the people doing the strapping. The Tacoma has tiedown points underneath mounted to the frame. The problem is that you pretty much have to crawl under the truck to get to them. Same with many cars. If I've got six thousand cars on the ship and I'm doing four straps per car then you will add considerable amount of time going with the factory tiedowns under the vehicle than just going through the wheels, especially if you're transporting personal vehicles vs new vehicles. New vehicles from the factory often will have the transportation points put into their holders (but not always), which is awesome. Personal vehicles... forget it.

One other thing about the straps typically used. They're not ratchet or cam straps normally. Cars use a strap that you basically hook one end to the deck, the other end has a loop to a hook. Loop through the tire and hook it back to itself. Hook to the deck with the other end. Pull the loose part through til you've got it snug, then you flip a lever that the webbing passes through that tightens it up completely. It is fast and secure and probably took longer to explain than it does to do it. You can see it in the pictures below. The yellow end goes to the vehicle, the blue end goes to the deck. When we do Tacomas, the front wheels are usually strapped and the rear end is usually tied down from the hitch.



Jeeps are usually done to the bumper tiedowns:


Very expensive cars are usually driven onto what is basically a giant steel pallet, which is then either driven on by forklift or put onto a flat bed semi truck trailer depending on the design of the ship and how much the owner wants to spend. Motorcycles are usually done the same way.

 

That’s true. We had about 16 chains per truck, and it was a 4 to 12 hour flight. I can see where 6 days on a ship could work a lot of that loose.

 

Those screw in tow hooks are great when your taco needs to pull your GF's car up the snowy hill you live on. In my case my GF's Nissan. I see those bumper cutouts on all kinds of cars.