and/or doing a 4WD course
that includes safe recovery
techniques and education
on the equipment needed to
perform them.
THE POINT OF IT ALL
IT’S important to note
when talking about ‘rating’
a recovery point that those
numbers on which the rating
is based are often for a best-
case scenario (i.e. a perfectly
straight line-pull during
recovery). Even then, the
obstacle your vehicle is stuck
in/on can add less or more
force and load to the recovery
points, strap and shackle
involved in pulling you out – as
well as the vehicle’s chassis
- increasing the number of
variables that influence the
load amount on a recovery
point. Plus, you need to take
into account the angle of the
recovery – for example, ARB
designs its recovery points to
be rated for load at maximum
wheel-turn angle.
The ARB recovery point is
one part of a unique system
designed to safely handle and
transfer force into the chassis
experienced during a recovery
event, effectively protecting
against potential chassis/
vehicle damage.
Steve Sampson explained:
“It is of no benefit having a
recovery point with a high
rating that fails to adequately
distribute the force into the
chassis in a manner that does
not compromise the structural
integrity of the OEM chassis
system. The worst thing you
want is for the recovery point
to handle all loads/forces
experienced in a recovery and
yet damage or compromise the
OEM chassis it is fitted to.”
Of course, aftermarket
recovery point manufacturers
take the variations on load
angles into account when
designing the products, and,
remember, these things are
built to do just one task:
ensure a recovery is as safe
and efficient as possible. The
design process also takes into
account all the implements
used in a recovery situation,
with the idea to push any
potential fail-point on to the
least destructive component of
the recovery procedure – the
snatch-strap, rope or cable.
“Essentially, we’ve come
up with a system
which wecall the ‘Recovery Train’, so
we want to make sure that
the weak point ... is not the
recovery point,” said ARB’s
Sampson. “Generally, what
you’re going to have is the
recovery point, and you’ll
have a shackle, and you’ll
have a snatch-strap
attached to the other
vehicle. We want to
ensure the weak point
within that is the snatch
strap, so all of our
recovery points have been
designed to work with a 4.7-
tonne rated shackle and then
an 8-tonne-rated snatch strap,
so the weak point is always
going to be the snatch strap.
“The 4.7-tonne shackle will
generally have a safe working
load of five or six times, so it
takes it up to 24- to 26-tonne.
We would much rather – if
something was to go wrong- the strap would be the part
that would break, rather
than having a big chunk of
metal flying through the air,
which has been ripped off the
vehicle.”
It’s common to see off-
road vehicles fitted with
two recovery points at the
front end. Two points aren’t
essential, but if you can fit two
to your rig (not all vehicles can
be fitted), we’d recommend
it. The reason for this is to
get around the potential
problem of a single point being
inaccessible – one side might
be deep in mud/broken/stuck
under something. A choice of
two points allows you to take
best advantage of where the
recovery vehicle is and at what
angle it’s positioned, allowing
for the ‘straightest’ line-pull
possible.
Two recovery points mean
“A TOWBALL IS NEVER
TO BE USED AS A
RECOVERY POINT”
TESTED
A well-designed
recovery point, like
Ironman 4x4’s (left), will
have specific tolerances
and safety advice
stamped on the
product.Vehicle-specifi c
recovery point systems
optimise performance.1544 http://www.4X4australia.com.au
TECH RECOVERY POINTS