Revery Hitch Pin

Did you get a 2 inch or 3 1/4 inch drop on your hitch?

 

Whoever you are quoting from is assuming an extremely thin tow rope. Most proper recovery straps are a good 2-3" wide with a beefy reinforced eyelet on each end - the force would not be concentrated at the middle of the pin.

Hypothetically speaking, if the tow rope is extremely thin, the load case would still be double shear, but you'd have to analyze the pin for bending stresses. The formula is: stress allowable = WLy/4I with I being the moment of area, pi x d^4 / 64. Assuming 2" wide receiver tube (L), 5/8" pin dia (d). and 120 ksi UTS for the pin, plugging into formula gives 5700 lb for W.

 

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacomas/252578-recovery-gear-question.html#post6108457

Looks like this issue has been addressed before.

 

Even if use of a hitch pin as a recovery point causes more stress on the pin than does the shackle mount method, the strap would brake long before the pin would bend.