cheap recovery point

[CJM]

What you do is you use the ball as a stop to wrap the strap over. Its hard to explain with no pics. You dont put the strap on the ball itself! I have never had any issues and I used mine extensively to pull out a huge ford bronco and many other trucks at the former paragon one time.


I did search for the incident, all I could find was some article about some guy who was trying to yank a forklift out with a chevy truck with the ball ont he bumper. I should clarify: only use the ball if its on a hitch, not your bumper Also, the hitch is held on by the pin, so again weakest point is the pin.

The hitch pin isnt rated any higher than the ball either. The ball if it broke would amaze me as they are subjected to plenty of yanks while towing something as is the pin as its not 100% tight. Then again mine is tightened down with an impact gun too, you cant get it off otherwise. Could the ball itself been loose? There supposed to torqued down to some insane number.. like int he hundreds or more iirc.

Overall there is no simple and easy answer, but in most common siutations you wont have to many issues if any at all. Our trucks-even all decked out just dont weigh enough and so long as you use good gear and play it safe you should be fine. Hell, if i can flip a car over using nothing more than a pressure treated 4x4, a 15klb winch on the tow truck and a 15k rated winch line. Whats the weakest thing there-the 4x4 and none have ever broke. I recovered a fullsize F350 dually in this manner with no issues...

[04 Rocko Taco]

I dont have a great rear recovery point, I have always just put the end of the strap in my hitch receiver, and put the cross pin in to hold the strap.

[CJM]

Wanted to add: I got a newer hitch with a different drop but no ball. So I figure hey I know the ball on my old hitch isnt on that tight. WRONG. I had a breaker ball, socket and 2ft pipe and I BROKE the breaker bar. Also tried with a pipe wrench and still no luck.

Took it to the shop, slapped an impact socket on and cranked up the 1/2 gun and bingo. Then I put the ball on the other hitch in the reverse of the above and just cranked it down.

You can lose a trailer or worse if the hitch ball isnt on there tightly.

[corax]

3 year update: 3 rallies being used to flat tow and pull cars back onto the road + a few tugs here & there at various OHV trails and it still shows no sign of damage or bending.

It also saved my rear bumper yesterday when I stopped and got rear ended by an F250 going about 20mph. The Ford's bumper was pushed back to within 1/2" of touching the tires and was shifted down 1"-2" - I scraped the paint off the hooks with my fingernail