Demon Mounts for Tacoma D Ring Upgrade without Off-road Bumper

To be fair, I think we have some confusion on the use of the word "recovery" versus the word "towing."

I have both the Demon mounts and the BPF recovery point in my hands at the same time and they are night and day in terms of engineering. That said, I do think the Demon mounts would be fine for "towing." Which is probably what the vast majority of people talking about here would be doing. In that regard, they are probably no worse and probably better than the towing hook that comes on the Tacoma. Most likely better because there are two of them and they do wrap around the crossbar.

But that is towing. Recovery is a whole different ballgame. I would use these Demon mounts for light towing but not recovery. The ARB -- the gold standard -- has "a Maximum Strap Rating of 18,000 Pounds and a Recommended Shackle Rating of 4.75 Tons." The BPF has a rating of 8,250 pounds. The Demon hooks are not rated for recovery.

Keys to guide the discussion here are towing versus recovery and rated versus not rated.

Maybe that helps the OP ... which was the goal!

 

Point taken but how many on here use aftermarket bumpers? You remove engineered crash protection and install a big steel battering ram. Massive potential for injury to you and those around you. Far greater risk than a recovery point that could possibly fail under extreme load. I think the actual forces encountered in real recoveries are overexagerated while the real risk of overweight and heavily armoured vehicles is underexagerated.

 

You have a link to that? Sounds interesting and I am very curious ...

 

https://www.etrailer.com/Front-Receiver-Hitch/Toyota/Tacoma/2021/65070.html?VehicleID=202138032

 

1/2 send

Can’t go full send till I get a bumper!!!



Again, I’m not recommending them.

I’m not telling anyone to use them!

Hell, I’d rather buy a new front bumper but it’s not in my budget now! Lol


As always don’t attempt this at home.

*Disclaimer*
Not responsible for vehicle damage, injury , heart attack, disfigurement, decapitation, or sudden death.

Sadly this is currently on my truck. If it comes down to it I’ll use it or attempt since something went FUBAR! I try to avoid getting stuck while others do the opposite but if it’s between going home or not.... send it!

 

I also wanted to add, just for background purposes, that the Go Rhino shackle hitch receiver I am using is rated for vehicle recovery up to 41,850 lbs. So, when possible, use the shackle hitch.

 

I've got the Curt front receiver hitch on order. Should come in handy for spotting the ski boat, And serve as an obvious hitch to point in case I slide off the roads in winter.

Great minds think alike!

 

Really interesting. To be honest, that never occurred to me. I hate to ask but do you have a picture of that on your truck? I wonder how visible it is? But that would solve the problem for sure for a lot of people who are interested in towing and recovery. I guess you use the shackle hitch in the front, then?

This is why I like this forum. I constantly see things that never occurred to me.

 

Last I looked, Rhino was out of stock on that item....

 

Absolutely. Like the difference between a tow strap and a recovery strap.

 

That is a bummer because I got a solid deal from Amazon on the hitch receiver, the shackle (which I already had), a recovery strap and a bag for it all for about $60.

Here is the link, if it helps:

$90 Rhino USA Heavy-Duty Recovery Gear Combos Off-Road Jeep Truck Vehicle Recovery, Best Offroad Towing Accessories - Guaranteed for Life (20' Strap + Hitch)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072QX2536/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8

 

I've ordered from Rhino a couple of times directly. Have an order in the works now. Tiedowns and loops.

I don't do Amazon. It's the principle of the thing.

 

100% agree. And, not to continue to beat a dead horse on this, but also rated shackles as well !

But with all of that said, I am not doing real overlanding or real hardcore recovery. I wanted to be safe, prudent and practical when I am pulling people out of snow banks and onto the road out of ditches. The most I have every slow pulled was someone (a car, not a truck) out of a ditch that was about two feet deep. My goal was to be able to do that in a super safe manner so I am no recovery expert, by any means.

 

Similarly, I went with Mobtown's option. It maintains ground clearance unlike the Curt and DrawTite. It also has points for two shackles on either side.

https://mobtownoffroad.com/product/toyota-tacoma-front-recovery-bar/

 

I hear you on that front. Sometimes convenience wins out for me above all else. Terrible, but it is what it is. Check the packages with Rhino. Seems like well done stuff. But, of course, there are a lot of other hitch mounts out there ... ARB also has a nice one.

 

I haven't read all of the posts in the many threads about the Demon brackets. I do have one thought that I don't think anyone else has mentioned. What if you were the manufacture? Think about how much it would cost to test the capacity of the brackets? If you rated them, how much would liability insurance cost? Would it not be more profitable to just say they are for decorative use only??

 

It’s attached via bolts with a shear force lower than what would damage the frame. Again, a safe fail point.

not my opinion. Basic engineering principals.

 

That looks interesting as well! I like that it has the shackle mounts on the bar. I wonder what that is rated. So it looks like the options available are as follows:

1) ARB Recovery. Still I think the best.

2) A front hitch mount (such as Draw Tite).

3) Rated single recovery points (such as BPF).

4) Towing / Demon Hooks.

 

Wasn't there a write up about failure of the MT hitch on a 16+ due to bending?

 

Not a terrible point at all. I guess I would rather give my money to the folks who went ahead and did the test and publish a rating. Not sure the liability would increase as long as they have the test data. But I think this is why ARB products cost a premium. Those guys test their stuff and are not afraid to stand behind the rating. That does add to the cost.

But we don't know. I have no evidence but I feel like the Demon bracket company is pretty much focused on the look / accessories market of those products and not wanting to wade into the tested, rated, off road use market. But I freely admit I could be wrong on that front.