I discovered the towing limitations of the 4 holes in the Bumper (1 Viewer)

[MPolley]

***FIRST AND FOREMOST, YES I KNOW THIS TOWING SETUP WAS UNSAFE. THE ENTIRE REASON I AM POSTING THIS IS TO DETER PEOPLE FROM MAKING THE SAME MISTAKES I MADE. I GOT LUCKY THIS TIME, BUT IT COULD HAVE BEEN A VERY BAD SITUATION****

I know this has been a hot topic over the years here, towing with the pintle holes in the bumper.

I pulled a hitch off of an Isuzu at the junkyard years ago for the pintle holes and have been using it for 4 years to tow my 21ft boat, multiple cars, moving trailers, etc. I've used it hard with over 5000lbs on many occasions without issue. I've even used it for snatch recoveries many times.

what finally did it in was towing a heavy car with no trailer brakes. I only had a short window to borrow a trailer and didn't have the correct wiring connection. It was a short tow, 15mi, so I took a chance and rolled without lights or brakes.

The frame crossmember handles pulling just fine, but apparently cannot handle the force of a 5500-6000lb trailer with no brakes. Luckily it wasn't catastrophic failure

 

[BILT4ME]

I know this has been a hot topic over the years here, towing with the pintle holes in the bumper.

I pulled a hitch off of an Isuzu at the junkyard years ago for the pintle holes and have been using it for 4 years to tow my 21ft boat, multiple cars, moving trailers, etc. I've used it hard with over 5000lbs on many occasions without issue. I've even used it for snatch recoveries many times.

what finally did it in was towing a heavy car with no trailer brakes. I only had a short window to borrow a trailer and didn't have the correct wiring connection. It was a short tow, 15mi, so I took a chance and rolled without lights or brakes.

The frame crossmember handles pulling just fine, but apparently cannot handle the force of a 5500-6000lb trailer with no brakes. Luckily it wasn't catastrophic failure
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If the car on the trailer would have been loaded back further and kept the weight on the trailer and not the tongue, it would not have over stressed the cross member.

 

[MPolley]

If the car on the trailer would have been loaded back further and kept the weight on the trailer and not the tongue, it would not have over stressed the cross member.

That probably would have helped tremendously. Another mistake I made rushing to get the job done and the trailer returned in time.

 

[flintknapper]

Assuming there was no such deformation 'prior' this incident.....I would say that excessive tongue weight is more the culprit than lack of trailer brakes. Everything I see in the pics point to that.

 

[Malleus]

Given the amount of rust on the frame, I can't agree this is a fair test of the limits of the steel.

 

[flintknapper]

That probably would have helped tremendously. Another mistake I made rushing to get the job done and the trailer returned in time.

It happens. I've 'pushed' things myself at times.

 

[MPolley]

Assuming there was no such deformation 'prior' this incident.....I would say that excessive tongue weight is more the culprit than lack of trailer brakes. Everything I see in the pics point to that.

definitely had too much tongue weight as well, but I've done that before without this result, so I think it was a combination of factors

 

[MPolley]

Given the amount of rust on the frame, I can't agree this is a fair test of the limits of the steel.

While it certainly wasn't designed or intended to be a fair scientific test, but the rust is pretty much all surface rust and should have a negligible impact on strength. I'm mostly posting this as a PSA to people to not cut corners when towing. Take the time to load the trailer correctly and make sure the brakes are working.

 

[WarDamnEagle]

I use this Holland ball pintle hitch. The advantage over your receiver hitch is that there is very little levered weight on the bumper.

 

[MPolley]

I like this setup, but it would have put the ball way too high for any of the trailers I pull, and I got the hitch I have for like $5 when I spotted it in the salvage yard. I'm going to cut out the crossmember and build a new bumper with an integrated 2" receiver so I can still use a drop hitch. Similar to the 4x4labs way of doing things

 

[flintknapper]

I use this Holland ball pintle hitch. The advantage over your receiver hitch is that there is very little levered weight on the bumper.

Same approach I took for just that reason.

 

[Broski]

The hole setup is Sketchy and unsafe !!

Towing like that put everyone around you at risk !!

The way that hitch drops and the add leverage of the receiver really over stress’s that set up and should probably never see more then a 2k trailer or less.

If it had catastrophic failure the trailer have be rolling down the road free as the safety chains are hook to the overstressed hitch.

In a lawyers eyes they call it Gross negligence.

I would burn those pictures

 

[MPolley]

The hole setup is Sketchy and unsafe !!

Towing like that put everyone around you at risk !!

The way that hitch drops and the add leverage of the receiver really over stress’s that set up and should probably never see more then a 2k trailer or less.

If it had catastrophic failure the trailer have be rolling down the road free as the safety chains are hook to the overstressed hitch.

In a lawyers eyes they call it Gross negligence.

I would burn those pictures

No reason to burn them when people can learn from them. The only damage was to my own truck, so I don't need to dodge lawyers. Thankfully nothing catastrophic happened and I was able to photograph the aftermath to hopefully deter others from making the same mistakes I made. Safer solutions will definitely be employed before I tow anything again

 

[Saito]

Rust is like roaches, dude. If you can see it, there’s more and it’s worse than you think. I was a rust virgin from Wyoming till my Minnesota land cruiser popped my rust cherry. I ripped that crossmember out years ago and it looked a lot like yours does.

Saw your post on fb too. Appreciate the cautionary approach. Glad no one was injured.

 

[jht3]

thanks for sharing. i think most of us have done sketchy things and learned from them. i prefer to learn from OTHERS mistakes

i have a pintle hook but don't use it as it puts the ball wayyy to high for my little dinghy trailer. instead i have a Curt hitch w/ drop receiver. i don't like it due to the ground clearance hit, but figure the extra safety margin is worth it one the RARE occasion i tow anything.

clean up all that corrosion while you are cutting out the crossmember.

 

[kw90surf]

Thank you for posting this

 

[duece71]

Thank you for posting, I doubt I will ever tow anything with my LC as I have another vehicle that has a proper hitch mount incorporated into the frame of the vehicle. I am glad no one was hurt.

 

[Ragnaroek]

That's the exact reason why this thing exists.

Those four holes in the frame are probably made for mounting a hook to keep your camel from running off.

 

[MPolley]

That's the exact reason why this thing exists.

Those four holes in the frame are probably made for mounting a hook to keep your camel from running off.

It's actually designed for a pintle hook style hitch and other countries rate it for close to 8000lbs towing. I think my problems were almost entirely caused by me not loading the trailer correctly and not having the trailer brakes hooked up. I'm going back to my under-frame hitch, but I think I'm going to cut off the crossmember that is now ruined and mount it to the top of the frame so the receiver sits in between the frame rails instead of underneath

 

[Broski]

Towing close 8000lbs with a 80 would be sketchy with any type of hitch !!