4WD Tech: A sanity check on recovery points (aftermarket vs standard). | Auto Expert John Cadogan 

The problem with common sense is that it isn't very common any more. I don't know about Australian schools but here in 'merica we quit teaching any actually useful life skills, like shop or wood working, or "home economics" (cooking, sewing, etc.) about 35 years ago. Now they only ask how they feel about themselves, and question whether they feel like they have the right genitals. Most people seem to know f all about f all and are proud of it. I really enjoy your channel, thank you!

I've spent quite a while on armoured fighting vehicles (tanks, APCs, etc.) and have done a fair bit of recovery. I am stunned that recreational 4WD recovery seems to be a crowd sport with families gathered around "live" cables etc. There seems to be a complete absence of people spending a bit of time having a think as to the best option or going with the common sense approach (temporarily unload some of the load, reduce tyre pressures if necessary, etc.). I'm not an expert but have some experience and am just amazed at the usual approach of "just yank it out".

I was professional overland guide for years, I’m sick to death of the sponsored kit craze which I call shiny kit syndrome, it was the same in the army everyone wanted a gadget to make life “easier” the reason I don’t call myself a 4wd ear is because I don’t like breaking my cars or carrying on like a pork chop just on weekends I tend to travel for months and cannot afford to break my stuff as it’s too much of a risk to my friends and clients

My father was a recovery mechanic in the army in the 50's. They didn't have flash recovery gear back than. He taught me how to safely recover a 4wd. He also told me some horror stories like where he arrived at scenes were people had decapitated themselves trying recover tanks and trucks or slept under their trucks on soft sand to keep warm only to be crushed to death as it sank down. I also found Russell Coit videos both educational and funny for the 4by enthusiast.

Big jerks can be useful in recovery, but only if they are on the end of a shovel...

Gday John Nice work again. Mad Mat 4WD is a good place to learn. 4WD/24/7, all for adventure, is not Cheers

In all the time I've been out 4WDing, I've never been involved in a snatch recovery. Never needed it. I carry and use a snatch strap -- as a glorified tow rope with a bit of built in shock absorption. As one of my 4WD mentors/mates always said: "AS SLOW AS POSSIBLE, as fast as necessary."

Just got a fourby back in my life this year. The first piece of recovery gear I got was a trenching shovel.

i remember my first recovery experience. 8 4wds, 3 winches, 2 come-a-longs, and at least 6 snatch straps, plus shackles, dampers and various pulleys etc. lead vehicle bogged down into sand. nearest solid ground was about 12 metres from the rear of the lead vehicle. being new i was vehicle 6 and the least experienced. bob (not real name, to protect the stupid) was vehicle 2, grabbed 2 snatch straps and a couple of shackles, climbed under is vehicle and used a shackle to attach the strap to a point on his bulbar. then used shackles to link the straps together. then dropped the strap over the tow ball of the lead vehicle. we moved well back, as bob was known to be pig headed and a know-it-all, he gunned his vehicle in reverse. nothing. went for a second and third time, with little success. on his fourth attempt, the tow ball broke free, shot backwards and went through both the front windscreen and out the back, including going thru a cargo barrier. if he had his family in the vehicle the ball would have hit his wife and at least 1 child in the back seat. eventually cooler heads prevailed. bob was never invited back out on a trip, and his wife divorced him later that same year. we all undertook some training from the local towing company. I've never had another recovery. going on almost 2 decades, touch wood

The better your 4wd is, the further you have to walk to get a tractor.

You should see the things I've done to tie down points in many years of tow trucking. They're remarkably strong. Especially if not pulled sideways. I also studied a BSc way back, plenty of engineering and maths in that.

Also if you do plan on using a snatch strap, inspect it before using it. Check for fraying, nicks or cuts in the strap. Wash your straps particularly if the strap gets dirty, you've just essentially put a bunch of abrasive medium into the center of the fibers where the stretching occurs slowly (actually rather quickly) abrading and cutting away the material 1 fiber at a time. I've got no issues jumping straight to a snatch strap for recovery but maintain your gear and not performing snatch recovery like your taking off for a drag race will do a lot to mitigate risk.

Been 4x4ing for 23y in my Prado, 42y over my life time. Successfully recovered lots of people from all kinds of silly and nasty spots, most of the time with some logical thought and only a hunk of rope and my tow hitch. Never been bogged, except for the three times where we needed a bogged 4x4 vehicle to recover during advanced driver training... But I agree totally with you John, there is always a better idiot that ignores experience and insists they know a better (often wrong) way to do things...

One benefit of “rated recovery points” is that it discourages the dickheads from fastening onto random locations like suspension components or chassis crossmembers. Also, doing a nice, safe 3-line winch pull is much easier when you have a hard point dedicated to the task. Also, some very prettily painted (or anodised aluminium) recovery points are much easier to find in the fetid mud or testicle-freezing cold water of dingo piss creek than a chassis-black factory tie down point, and also adds a lot of street-cred to your mall-crawler.

Your absolutely spot on with this one John. I have been using my 80 series original tie down points for 25 years. I've been tugged and tugged plenty with them and have not even come close to breaking any of them or the gear. The standard original points are just fine when used properly...👍👍👍

I have driven 4WD professionally in Australia and Africa for many years. I have got stuck a number of times, but a lot less than most because preparation is the key to success. My advice, don't go down the track if the weather can turn against you, don't take the house with you because it will bog you and know how to use the recovery gear before you head off into the Sahara or Tanami desert.

5:06 my girl not only encourages me to buy things i like, she gives me the money to do so ❤ i consider myself very lucky

Wouldn't use a towball because the rope could come off, but it's okay to put the pin through it. Don't floor it either. I prefer to use my winch for a slow recovery minimising the load. Slow and steady is the go.

Good info John. Absolutely agree only go as hard as need be and get the shovel out first. Tow balls, never hear anyone say take the tow ball off and put the bow shackle through the tongue. Had a winch on my 75 series for 32 years. Never used it to recover my vehicle , only others. Have mostly used it to drag trees from the tracks. Sick of my recovery gear being damaged by other people so I am reluctant to use it now.

My Sheila’s got every mod possible…she’ll never get stuck💪

I tried to pull out a bogged truck with a bobcat a few years ago. The 10 ton snatch strap broke off the back of the machine and punched a giant hole in the front of the truck. This shits no joke

Recovery points? Around here we just connect to anything easily accessible and drag them out. Wheel spokes are a favorite connection point for the tow truck drivers and tow balls if it's a truck with a hitch. Control arms and rear axles are next on the list then comes motor mounts and subframes and if its a real bad situation they just roll down the windows and loop the strap thru the vehicle. I saw one truck or ute as you upside down people would call it get folded in half when they were pulling it out of a lake, vehicles don't always look the same when the tow truck guys get done with them.

Tip: recovery boards (especially the half size) work great, if not better, as a shovel when high sided in sand ;) they scoop more sand per scoop and can be held in unlimited flexible positions positions to get awkward access than the shovel handle. Still need shovel to wack zombies.

Lost a school mate last year through precisely this type of circumstance...A tractor recovery using chains of dubious provenance (30-50 yrs old), and He was spectating. At 67 years old he knew better. A side point also, the majority of fatalities in the Ag. sector are seemingly +50 years old and male. Wakey wakey fellers

All I’ve done to my V6 Ranger is good quality A/T tyres and heavier suspension because with stock springs I was riding close to the bump stops when towing with some gear in the tub. Two things I DIDN’T fit were rated recovery points or a bull bar. I’ll do everything to reduce recovery load (boards & shovel) and from my really basic engineering study which was only an Associate Diploma I alway remember F=MA hence won’t fit a bull bar. Thanks for another great video…

I must thank you for single-handedly putting Dingo Piss Creek on the map and reviving its economy. We are thinking of erecting a statue to you on the main {and only} drag. Unfortunately it was washed out in a recent rain, a common occurrence.

Thank you for the O-Light information videos. I recently received my Warrior 2 mini and it is seriously fantastic.

Nicely done John. By way of into - I'm the orange jacket wearing "Yoda" in the photo on your web site. Always nice to hear your reasoned tones, as an instructor, it's a ongoing job to asist people in risk identifying and management. The "hold my beer" moments can be trully frightening. cheers John

Thanks JC for the tips i also gather a pair of Max Trax or at least one will assist in recovery on unbalanced grounds

Bloody brilliant video mate! Actually refreshing to hear what I've being trying to get across for along time being an AWD owner.

Prior to studying mechanical engineering I was what the Army called a Recovery Mechanic for 6 years. The better brand of idiot was abundant in the various units I was posted to. The lads still stay in touch and share stories of success and the failures of others and there are some great tales from the off-roading enthusiast world. Our job is to come and fix it or get it upright without breach of safety or damage to equipment or the casualty equipment. That takes a cautious approach and we had a repeated mantra of "5 minutes of thought can save many foot-pounds of effort". In addition to big tow trucks kitted out to also make repairs, we have tanks and smaller armoured vehicles and cranes at our disposal. Addressing your original question John, who is asking that much for a bolt-on "rated" recovery point set? I think I paid around $150 for my front set 5 years ago, and I can absolutely justify the price of that product with new 8.8 bolts included including any inflation. Not having taken a look at modern off-roaders for a few years (getting broken in that special Army way will do that to you), is an entire new scaffold required to structurally tie it together? The tow points you discussed in your vicinity are beefy enough so the chassis must have the strength and locations for the bolt-on (I am assuming there needs be no major chassis mods), so I come back again to exactly where is the supposed VFM in this $700+ snatchstravaganza that must surely be rated to take the kinds of loads we encountered evaluating snatch straps for 45 ton tanks in a full, bogged to the belly plates, yank session that would put ****hub's daily traffic to shame. I know inflation is here but anything over $300 for a full front pair is likely a ripoff. It doesn't add up.

Hi John, very nicely done I must say. All that is really needed is some common sense, but then if common sense was more common, wouldn’t we find it more often? 🤔 You’re right on the money, too many cowboys out there don’t take into consideration what could go wrong in such a recovery, and just jump on the gas pedal and hope for the best.😁👍🇦🇺

You Tube did you a real favour. The ad for me was some deer hunters driving around missing easy shots on a a Stag. Getting stuck in mud and having to brake really hard to miss the stag running across the track on the way home. I think it was an ad for mud tyres

Not exact sure how I'd feel about Celine Dion in my lantern... Love your humor, have a great day.

On '21 triton/L200, on LHD vehicle at least, the front right hand hook is for tie-down, the front left hand hook is for towing/recovery. It's in the manual, they seem pretty insistent on this.

The best thing to do is get some training in how to drive properly and most courses include how to safely get out of trouble

John, I can see your reasoning over this and agree with you wholeheartedly.

Some friends that had been drinking Bush Chook thought it would be a good idea to use a rotting (young, small) whale carcass for the oil in it for a fire because of lack of wood (apparently had done it before). They tied a snatch strap to it to drag it up the beach. The carcass was slightly buried and was a bit tough to pull. The carcass tore/broke part way along the animal and the tail went through the rear window and hit the headrest at the back of the drivers seat with some force and made a smelly mess in the car. There is a lesson to be learned here, but im not sure how to express it.

As a dedicated piss creakien I've always driven early model Patrols, but a few years back I bought a Navara and I loved the fact I had to really learn to drive a 4wd because if I got the line wrong in that I got stuck.

Excellent advice as always JoHn.

My 2 bobs worth… go and do a 4wd training course, in particular “FWPCOT3326 - Recover 4wd vehicle” module. The 4wd industry is a debacle when it comes to ratings of equipment, requires proper learning and this question can’t be properly answered in 1 video. John.. the tow ball is NOT a viable option. It’s not the ball that breaks. It’s the welds!! Do not do it!!! Don’t even entrain it as an option.

Logic and risk management yes and that sense that is no longer common will win every time .

A lot of recovery points are mounted to holes that are not specifically designed for the purpose. Furthermore the joint is often not a proper friction joint due to poor fit of the mating surfaces, meaning the bolts are acting in shear. So what is actually meant by rated? The recovery plate? Certainly not the connection point. By my calculations quite a few of the tow points on 4wds that I have looked at are capable of withstanding a pretty high pulling force. You can do the calculations based on the metal in the hoops and the welds used. From memory on a Prado it came out at well north of 4t per hoop. I know which I would put my money on. Good luck persuading the numpties seduced by clever marketing and bright yellow/red paint.

A recovery is like a plane landing. One you walk away from at the end destination is a good one.

Always try to use at least two points on both vehicles during recovery. Less load at each point and more resistance to going sideways. On a drop hitch always pull from as high on the hitch as possible, i.e. next to the receiver.

I love the software update, John. Invariably, it mostly lies there. Well said.

"Rated recovery points" and "tie down points" are one of the big myths (in my opinion) in 4wd circles. There's no evidence of any testing with these "rated" products, they don't come with a certificate indicating they've been tested and even if there has been, the vehicle chassis hasn't been included so there's every chance you'll do more damage to your car with one of these points on. The factory points also aren't for tying down on the ship like everyone claims (there's plenty of new cars being transported without these fitted by the manufacturer), they're tow points for using when old mate comes to tow you onto the flatbed when you've had a breakdown. Again, just my opinion, these factory points are plenty strong (on a Hilux/Prado at least) if you just have a little think about what you're doing before treating them like indestructible points like one of the 'full noise boys'.

The new Suzuki Jimny has this massive tie down point hanging down from the front of its chassis that is just asking for a high speed snatch recovery or slow speed rock impact to bend it and its chassis / mounting point into the statutory write-off realm.

My pet hate is using the towball as a recovey point. Im in rural NSW, We had 2 separate people killed last year by doing this. 1 was a bloke and his mate another was a father and son on a farm. Stay safe people.

Videos on topics like this are delicious yet spicy, likely to cause IBS in some.

I had a look at the tow hooks on the front of a current model Toyota Hilux. They are pretty beefy with solid-looking welds.

Static and dynamic loading. Mine winder ropes have a static safety of 6 -1, if the converaynce hangs up in the shaft and a truck load of slack rope pays out, and the conveyance decides to free itself in the shaft with all that slack rope, its snap at the winder drum and its never good let alone if its man riding conveyance

Watch matts off road recovery, learn a lot

Can definitely recommend the Warrior Mini 3! Can't say a bad thing about it. edit: lack of choice in colours; orange or purple would have been nice.

Ronny Dahl had a video trying to demonstrate why you shouldn't use a tow ball for recovery. However, he proved how strong a tow is. He snatched it with insane speed and still couldn't break it.

I was gunna say. That when l did winch recovery with the State Emergency Service. The lines were doubled and the vechile which was recovering. Hand it's door open for personal protection. All vehicles had rated points.

I have helped many people with recovery over the years. Almost all of them were due to driver error. Rarely did we have to hook up to my FJ Cruiser and I will do everything in my power to avoid that. Usually digging a little and traction boards will do the trick. The only time I had to use a snatch strap was getting an F250 deisel out. We got caught in a Monsoon while camping. We were two weeks out of normal monsoon season and there hadn't been rain in 3 weeks. Storm was so bad we had to abandon camp and shelter in our vehicles for several hours. We packed up the next morning and headed out. The road conditions were terrible. Eventually he did get stuck. Even after several hours of digging we couldn't get him out. Winching was impossible considering the conditions and him being over a ton heavier. Last resort was a snatch strap. I was terrified to use it, but after nearly a dozen pulls, nostly due to my fear of breaking my rig, we got him out. Problem was the damage. With a stock bumper there was quite a bit. He had planned to buy an aftermarket bumper and winch, not ARB btw, a couple months after our trip. With that he probably wouldnt have got stuck and possibly could have self recovered. The stock recover point is in a terrible spot. After all of that my point is stock is usually designed for normal towing and not for recovery in an offroad setting. You are correct that most people aftermarket is not necessary. Most will never use or even know how to use recovery systems and shouldn't waste money buying beyond a few simple items.

Russel Coight has an instructional Video on this. Start with a Snatch Strap, accelerate and what could go wrong? Watch when something goes wrong, it catastrophic. Have seen someone fall off the front of a Bullbar. Caution and slowness is always a good starting point.

I agree with u John, most of the times i got stuck it was nothing a bit of shovel work didn't fix. I have been towed out or towed out people's car, i like to use a load rated chain like they use for lifting stuff.take the weight up and gentily drag them out, whinch and hand winch works too.ok the hand winch is slow, slow and steady wins the race.

The problem I've seen is that when you are stuck and standing at the side of the track with a forlorn look on your face and a snatch strap in your hands, you're at the mercy of a passing vehicle. No matter how much you brief that "It only needs a gentle pull", you might not know you're connected your strap to a dickhead until there is a cloud of black smoke and the tow vehicle disappears at a rate of knots. From that point you're just a passenger. I've seen 'rated' recovery points tear the front left shock tower out of an R50 Pathfinder. The add on tow points were solid, the attached vehicle... not so much.

I have a 2017 Ram Promaster 2500. Unibody Bread Truck RV.... There is a screw in tow bolt that comes with the van. it has been suggested that its just screwed into sheet metal, hard to see? They also suggested there is a big hole in the front swingarm that is a better attachment point. Having this van on a flatbed hauler a couple times. I've noticed they hook to suspension components, rear axle and front tire. I am talking about gentle recovery of a FWD vehicle that weighs 8,000 lbs out of the sand in Dingo piss creek. How secure/robust are suspension components...?

Learn to drive off road. Learn where the shovel is, where the boards are. Check your kit before you set out. Heving worked felling trees in the British winters it took me a few years to be cometant and capable. Now happy around stuck military motors but still learning. Great level headed video. Cheers

Recovery. Depends . You can recover a vehicle using the seat belt anchor point or the pillar. Depends on how much damage you want to do.

I use the pin in the tow ball receiver all the time with a snatch, when I need too, loop it in jobs done, but I'll never in recovery, will I shoot a rocket to Mars and expect great results, good basic info mate👍👍

There are some old tow balls I'd say "don't use" but they must be pretty rare these days. The old two piece, ball and bolt setup(the bolt is pretty small). I'm sure most have seen the video of just what you have to do to a normal towball to break it.

I've been hit in the head by two tow balls, three tow hitches, a bull bar and an axle housing. Didn't get hurt but, cuz I was wearin' me lucky Akubra each and every time. Only recovery that's ever gone wrong in my time was when me mates dog nicked the bacon out of the esky one night when we's were on the Bundie cans. Had to have another couple of Bundies to get me out of that one.

I came across a stranded SUV in the dunes up Stockton way. Half the vehicle was in a lake and the owner had dug all 4 wheels in until it was on its belly. Under one wheel was a towel and the other a beach chair. I handed the owner a shovel and told him to dig until I could see clearance under the vehicle. Of course the owner gave up after a few minutes of shoveling sand and begged me to snatch his vehicle out with my snatch strap. I refused and left when his mate arrived in a trade Ute and an old piece of nylon rope

Greetings from the UK, Would be really interested in your thoughts on the INEOS GRENADIER, I'm really quite impressed by it and the quality of the components, there's some good RU-vid content out there from here in the UK and there in S'tralia but would like to hear your views from Dingo piss creek! Sorry if you've already done one and I've missed it 👍

I've acquired a Royal Navy surplus load ring to mount on my Unimog which is rated at 7.5 T for lifting and I find the thread form has a tensile strenth of just over 200 Tonnes. I think this will be enough for me as an anchor point, but suspect many shiny powder coated products made of unknown composition steel would be a less safe bet.

Honestly, in the interest a conservative approach, I think spending a few hundred $$$ on recovery points for your 4wd worth thousands is pretty easy to justify. It just means I can have a little more confidence in knowing the gear is less likely to fail. I'd also say that if you are expecting someone else to recover you and you don't have recovery points, they may not want to do it as they are the ones in the firing line of your tow points (as unlikely as they are to break). It's also much easier to attach recovery gear to recovery points than a tow point.

Personal responsibility!? Nah. Can't do that! Pass the vb/xxxx gold!

I agree with most of what’s been said on this video, with the exception of being ok with using a tow ball for recovery. WTF!!! It may be ok to use it for a simple light recovery not on sand, However, you may have the best intentions to recover gently but there’s always 2 people involved in a vehicle to vehicle recovery, so ask yourself are you prepared to place your life in another’s hands? because they turn into cannon balls “Dude” if the general public starts to think that it’s ok to do then that’s a bad outcome, and sorry John, it happens a lot more regularly than you think. I’ve taken plenty of beginners off-road that do not understand the danger of tow ball + snatch strap recovery the first thing most newbies will do is go buy a snatch strap from Anaconda and a set of boards and that’s about it. So using your profile to disseminate an obviously dangerous practice is very irresponsible.

Shock loading your gear will end badly at some stage.

I always use my draglink to get snatched out of a bog , easy to get at ans when under shock load it bends taking up the strain

I love you honestly and realistic views 👍👍

Matts offroad recovery on youtube shows how to do all the wrong things in the right way.

yep, as with much to do with human behaviours, most of the problem lies in the software - AvE has some great sayings regarding these "features" of humanity - there are places, simply not to "do It". - A modern "adamant" obsession with soft shackles at every instance - they make sense for "downstream gear" - ie. connecting buts to other bits in the middle, but for the anchor point on the vehicle, if the shackle lets go (ie. separates from the vehicle, probably with another significant lump of steel connected), there must have been some hardcore mistakes made - for all the holes to line up and then cause a casualty.. - doing a big job with any non solid tow hitches - the ones that get shredded are the light duty SHS varieties (or some skookum homemade piece of trash.)

I have never seen a tow bar break, I have seen tow bars ripped off the chassis due to degradation by rust of said chassis. This is particularly the case for Land Rovers where the rear cross member appears to be designed to be a rust trap.

Here in the UK the Post person keeps dropping elastic bands. Would it OK to use several of these bands to recover a 2 ton LR

I have no idea how these new Vlogers with their Unimogs are going to get unstuck if they get bogged on the beach.

Back in the 80s as an impressionable idiot I bought a Holden Jackaroo 4wd and loaded it up with every piece of BS that was available, Jerry cans, snorkel, fat tyres, carried snow chains, winch, lights, etc. Then I got it bogged on the backblocks around Robe in SA. Guy who rescued me had a war era Jeep, literally. Charged me $50 If I recall and actually had to fix his own flat tyre during the rescue. A learning opportunity. Also lived in Canada for 15 years, never saw snow chains once despite frequent extreme snow conditions.

Spot on John, yes the beard stroking blue singlet mob have a reputation to live up to in selling aftermarket bits for their sponsors, not once have I seen them actually stop and do the calculations on recovery loadings...as that is boring....blue singlet fans want noise and lots of exhaust soot. In the Army we had recovery mechanics attached to the RAEME corps, we all took the piss out of them as not being a real trade...but I would not have a hope in doing their recovery course due to the maths involved in determining recovery loads and angles.

Attach straps to bumper you say?

Land Rover call the tie down points just that Tie Down points. And stress they are Never to be used as a means of towing the vehicle. I used to belong to a Land Rover club here in the UK and we held " Trials" every month. This consisted of one or two members the day before a trial setting out the nine or ten " courses" of ten gates through which everyone had to drive without stopping your score stared at ten and went down until you failed by hitting the gate or stopping. So if you went through to the ten gate you scored zero. When setting the courses, you had to make use of the terrain to make it as difficult as you could after about gate 5 lol after that well the more devious you could be the better! Water runs, gates at the top of an almost impossible near vertical bank and the easiest of all the cross axle, stopping the vehicle in its tracks 4 WD or not lol this gives the sort of idea of what we were doing, The only thing was each individual course HAD to have been driven by those who set it up. Some of the time snatch recovery had to be used , (no digging allowed as it altered the course for the following competitors) we never used kinetic straps as it was deemed to be a very dangerous operation. Generally though we would use two or three vehicles linked together to pull stuck Landies out without using the snatch method, but it was used if there were no room for two or three pulling vehicles to line up as most of our trial sites were in woods so space was tight. Unlike AUStralia! We only ever used winches if it were on the vehicle that was stuck and it was a class1 ( heavily modified " Land Rover based special ( chassis, engine and drive train all LR based). My own special had a front crossmember made of two C shaped RSJ's welded together ending up about 150 x 150mm to form a box and side plates of 150x 400 x 8 mm plate welded and reinforced tubing for bolts going through the chassis rails. D ring recovery points were on welded plates and bolted right through the 150 x 150 box on top of the welds. Belt and braces was me. Probably over the top but it never gave way and we all had twenty tonne ropes or strops as towing straps. Only once did I see a badly fitted recovery point fail and that was due to poor welding. The strap and shackle went straight through the back windscreen if a Discovery I fortunately the strop was short enough to stop the shackle injuring the driver. That's why I went belt and braces on my recovery crossmember!

Hey JC 😉 . Your Bench Vice on your right is a Beautiful thing, and I need one. 🤣 please tell. Best wishes 🇬🇧

I like the all wheel drive Maserati that got snatched on a beach by the bumper bar. The bumper bar got rescued but the car stayed where it was.. it's on RU-vid and is classic dumb arse. :)

Obviously not sponsored by ARB 🤣 Finally some commonsense

'When better dickheads are needed, humanity will invent them'. Well suited comment for the current global political scene if 'elect' is substituted for 'invent'.

so very well explained 👏👏👌--- a little common duckin' sense and standard 4be will go further than most need to . in fact a 2wd goes further than a dummy driven modified 4wd. IMO; 4x4 mod marketing has become a billion dollar scam ! Idiots have so called "have to have" mods because those mods will often make a really sensible person do really idiotic stuff like get bogged just use those mods and justify to the little lady the money was a great investment .

I have always said you need suitable recovery points rated or not is irrelevant so long as they are suitable to the task.

I would love to see yourself and Ronnie Dahl have a discussion on this topic.

Noticed a few Celine Dion references over the last few videos. Something you're wanting to tell us? Tiptoeing around, a little embarrassed?

I’m a fan of designed weakness … never put a bigger shackle on than the hook you are hooking up to.

you had me at "just add dickead"..... but i have to say.... add dash of utoob wanker and a tipple of hurry it up (were losing light for our "round the fire beer up) and yeah.... i think static point start to dread a dynamic pull....

What's your thoughts on electric motor bikes? Like Surron?

oooo what's the new thingumabob in the background... light grey and red thingy... press of sorts😋 Just add... DH lmao

While im not promoting doing this sort of insanity i had an interesting experience the other day. I had a scrap metal merchant at my place collecting scrap post natural disaster. His truck (loaded) got stuck. I turned up with my 4x4 mitsi canter to pull him out. He chucked the chain around the tow ball. I said 'thats a dumb shit idea' he said 'it will be fine'. I looked at the angle of pull and figured it would most liekly bury it into hia front grill not the wind screen i figured hes been doing this since before i was born so this will be interesting. The tow ball didnt break. Even tho it was an old cheap low spec tow ball (ratted for 2250kg) with the mighty mitsubishi Canter using both of its horse power with lots of tugging and bouncing and it pulled it out. Eventually!

Rated recovery point (bit of plate steel) bolted to something that is not rated, so the system is, not rated?

Rated recovery points are heavy ,increasing GVM Its easy to twist a chassis into a diamond with little force

Hi John, what are your thoughts on the recovery hitches designed to fit into a 50x50 mm towing tongue receiver? I kind of like the idea but I haven't seen them in use.