Recovery point questions

[bigblue]

Hi Guys i hope you can help me..

I have a new to me 2007 JK Unlimited a just purchased the BlackJack Welding Recovery points for the rear and am looking for a recovery solution for the front.
Now here is where i wanted some help...

Are these kind of modifications to the bumpers legal?

http://www.blackjackwelding.com.au/our-products/jk-wrangler-2007-current?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage-ask.tpl&product_id=47&category_id=2

Is this something that people just don't worry about or is it something that can be certified or is it just illegal?

I haven't bought anything for the front yet and wanted to check before i started hacking the rear apart as i would hate to have someone run in to the back of me and because of these massive hunks of metal protruding from the back they don't pay out etc....

Thinking about the front.. the same questions for the Mopar hooks ... legal ... not legal .. certification required ?
I might be better putting a few extra bucks in and get an arb front bar ? that is legal and has recovery points built in.??

Thanks guys i know there is a bit in here but help is really appreciated !!

Drew

[reyzor]

as a general rule, you dont have to worry to much about the rear...... the pedestrian council are USUALLY only concerned with the front........ look at the mopar bar, it has eyelets similar to those you have shown....

[Paul-JK]

Hi Drew,

I don't know if it is legal or not to have something protruding through the rear bumper. I think technically something similar would be illegal on the front (which is why a lot of the 'D' ring attachments for the front of bars are removable) but not sure for the rear. I can't image these can do any more damage than a tow ball though so not sure why they would be illegal on the rear.

As for the front, I would hazard a guess and say the Mopar hooks are also possibly illegal if fitted pointing upwards as they protrude through the bar and would be an issue in terms of pedestrian safety. I was thinking of fitting some facing downwards though and I doubt there would be any legal issues with that.

Be careful getting an ARB bar. The older versions did have recovery points on them but the newer versions do not! If you're looking at ADR approved bar (approved, not just potentially compliant) then I think the only 3 options are ARB (which no longer has recovery points), TJM (not sure about the recovery points on that) or DBOR (which does have recovery points......removable 'D' rings on the front). Other bars may be ADR compliant but they are not actually ADR approved.

I have also been talking to Viktor about front recovery hooks and he said he is in the process of redesigning his offering. He said he's had instances where the Mopar style hooks have damaged the mounting points due to the leverage they get and after this he is also now questioning the strength of the welds in this mounting area even for 'D' ring style hooks (or even potentially how some bars are mounted). That's why he's now looking at some new designs. Might be just being overly cautious but if there's one thing you can say about Viktor it's that he builds stuff that's bullet proof and won't fail.

So, overall, I'm still unsure what to do for the front. Think I'll have to pull the plastic air dam off over the weekend and see if I can think of anything. I'd like to fit a bar at some point but would like a reliable solution in the short term until that happens.

Paul

[reyzor]

if you are bending recovery points, or breaking welds, you need to rethink how you are doing recoveries....

[Paul-JK]

if you are bending recovery points, or breaking welds, you need to rethink how you are doing recoveries....

I don't disagree but the when using the Mopar recovery hooks (pointing upwards or downwards) it will create a fair bit of leverage against the supporting bolts so if it's going to happen at all then I'd guess it'll happen with the Mopar hooks. Probably unlikely to happen especially if you use an equaliser strap and recover from both hooks but I'm still searching for other options that could be better.

[Paul-JK]

Had a quick look under the JK this afternoon trying to think of other ways of attaching front recovery points. Can anyone tell me is the area I've marked on the photo below strong enough to mount recovery points from or do you need to mount directly onto the chassis rails?

http://i862.photobucket.com/albums/ab181/plawton/Wrangler/JKFrontEnd.jpg

I was thinking of using the bottom two holes to fix into and making a bracket that could go through the plastic air dam so that a shackle could be attached which would then be just under the front bumper.

If two bolts are strong enough to attach with then I might be able to make a "U" shaped bracket that could attach to both sides of this section which would mean it could pick up on at least 1 bolt location on the other side as well. This would also have the advantage of reducing the lateral force that could be applied to the bolt locations if the direction of pull was off to one side slightly.

What do you think?

Thanks,

Paul

[jeep_jk112]

Correct me if i'm wrong, but i think thats where the aev recovery points attach ???
They reckon it will only fit with their bars though, asked aev awhile ago now...
I think they may fit (with other bars), but i wasn't willing to fork out on a hunch.....

[Paul-JK]

I was going to make my own but was just checking if that area was strong enough to recover from (before I tried it and ripped the front off my car!). Thanks for heads up over the AEV stuff though. I'll see if I can find some installation instructions anywhere and see where they fit.

[Paul-JK]

Had a look at the AEV ones. Don't think they'll work with the stock bumper but I think I can modify the design to make it work. Looks like I'll have to take the bumpers off and get some measuring done over the weekend.

[dobbo56]

Paul, take a look at <micoffroad.com.au> they have recovery points attached to this area in the photos of there front bash plate. worth a look, there in Marrickville, and do a bit of Jeep Stuff. I just put a pair of TJM recovery points on my Mopar bar, i reinforced the bar with a 3.5 mill steel plate running from chassis rail to chassis rail with two more plates behind the loops, so in all a very strong set up, a lot stronger than the standard recovery loop. if your out on sunday ill show you. cheers David D..

[Paul-JK]

Thanks David. Had a look and they look similar to the AEV ones but they don't have them as a separate item on their site. I'll email them and get some more info.

Cheers,

Paul