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

I just finished that thread the other day. TL;DR: It bent from an angled pull. Mobtown provided a new, reinforced product to the OP and is making all new hitches with the reinforcements and will provide free replacements for any other customers with the old version if they bend. They also claim this is the only report of one of their hitches getting bent.

 

It appears the Draw tight product has "more" frame mounting in it's design. Perhaps that is where they get the additional 150# of vertical load rating.
350# for the Curt hitch, 500# for the draw tight.

I'll be looking at ways to add support during the Curt install. 350# is nothing when a cable is pulling. ;-)

eta

6 degrees from parallel is 10% of the pull magnitude. So a 5000# pull at 6 degrees up down of sideways results in 500# of off axis load on the hitch mounts.

 

Really interesting. I saw some of that thread and it got pretty ugly at one point. Glad it worked out.

I would need to look really carefully at the comparison between that Mobtown Hidden Hitch (which looks good) and the ARB recovery point. That would be an interesting comparison. If you were only doing recovery, I am not so sure there is anything better than the ARB. But then again, I really don't know. The front mounted hitches referenced here do offer more than recovery as was pointed out, such as snow plows, etc.

All good options ...

 

I wonder what percentage of the myriad (must be a hundred all said) winch fitted bumpers have been load tested to failure.
I've built and worked with a load test cell (aviation). It's not trivial, and you can't just test one!

Anyone care to volunteer their taco for the cause.

 

This is straight up the funniest shit I have ever read on TW.

I can dismiss this abomination of a product (from a recovery capacity standpoint, more power to you if you want to add something unique to your truck, I'm all about that) in mere seconds. That's what thousands of hours of designing steel connections does for someone. Literally every single one of your statements above is incorrect in some way, shape, or form.

Just like with bed stiffeners, perhaps it's time I devote a few hours to putting these hooks to rest. I'm confident there may be just a few people who frequent this forum who can comprehend a more in-depth understanding of this situation.

From a recovery standpoint, these are junk.

 

I bet the Demon mount folks would do as much. I mean offer replacements.

Load 'em till they fail, then back off 10%! ;-)

 

The issue is they're making a product that looks like it should be for recovery (attaching shackles to it) and then trying to say it's for "styling" in the fine print. That's negligent at best, deceitful at worst in my books.

 

lots of companies prey on the uninformed

 

Now this probably going off topic (so apologies for everyone for that!) but this is a pet peeve of mine. The aftermarket is full of so many cool, innovative companies and these are important, dynamic small businesses that I want to do well. But a lot of these products are not tested, nor tested independently. This is true on the recovery / towing hooks as we have seen here as well when it comes to roof racks. For a lot of these vendors it is hard to find tested and verified load weights, etc.

I'd rather pay more to get the tested product but that is just me. I am a buy it once kind of guy.

On those winch fitted bumpers I would bet very few have been tested and rated. But I could be wrong about that.

 

I agree, I would bet a lot of the ratings come down to hardware size and thickness of steel used.

 

In the 60's and 70's we just threw the rope around the bumper mounts, KNOWING that the thin steel edges would sever the rope before the bumper got pulled off or anything more serious. These days, there isn't enough metal in any part of these trucks to think you won't pull fasteners right through the frame holes.

I remember seeing an "engineering" display for Ford trucks back in the late 90s. They were all up on the idea that the stamped chassis were of "Laminated construction".

I guess those engineers had never encountered rust. Even as they lived worked and drove in the "rust belt".

So much for over en-gun nearing.....

"Simplicate and add lightness"

 

Bingo.

And double bingo since they allow their product to accept a well known, incredibly common, recovery item (i.e. the D-ring shackle).

 

I don't want to beat these people up. They don't seem like a bad company -- just doing their thing in a different market. There is a place for their product. Probably better than the factory tow hooks (there are two, they wrap around the bar, etc.) for "towing" (not recovery) and I have no issue if people like to have the shackles hanging from their truck as a style choice. Not my cup of tea but as long as they are happy with it that is all that matters.

But it is not like the company is hiding it. The come right out and say it in their description:

 

They should say "not for recovery or rated". If they did that I'd have no problem with it. Like I said as a tow point they should work fine but I feel they do need to specify this. It's not a matter of if but a matter of when these will fail because someone tries to do a recovery with them because they look like they should be able to do it.

It's the reason I jumped on the ARB recovery point someone was selling because I'd done enough research to know it's the gold standard. I had an SOS and knew when I bought it that it would get me out of a pinch but I'd have to be incredibly careful in most situations.

 

Okay. That is a very fair point.

 

I think it should be more explicitly stated and they should loudly warn against the products use for recovery. People will still buy them, but some people (as we see in this thread) have no idea about how much pressure is created during the recovery process, and how seriously it could injure someone. It should be mentioned, in bold letters, that using them for recovery could result in injury or death. Not this in-passing mentioning of them being just for style.

 

I think you are right about that ... seeing your point, I have to agree.

 

Agreed.

The helpful neighbor who wants to help you off of a snowbank will have no idea that the manufacturer said 'stylish addition only' when he goes to give you a hand getting free.

 

The good news here ... in about 100 posts ... we have created a repository of comments about the demon hooks for future generations ...



And ... the OP may never come back ..

 

Would anyone care to offer a load figure that would satisfy the "recovery rated" description?

Does ARB get to set the standard because they were there first?

Does the factory hook qualify because it has such a broad presence. Is 6000# the bar? 8000? 3500#?

Talk talk talk....It takes money to buy rum!