Possible recovery points

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

Surfdc

Surfdc

10 Year
Joined
Apr 12, 2012
Threads
107
Messages
1,077
Location
San Diego
Anyone ever heard of this company? I have emailed them several times and have heard nothing back!
http://www.lukeys4x4.com/

image-3569647443.webp
image-3569647443.webp
 
Yea, I saw that one, and he has lost his fabricator. Bummer.
 
How large of a bolt is it going to be using? I would be more comfortable with more bolts, or something that was through bolted instead of just being mounted on the bottom of a frame rail.

-Alex
 
Master Pull said:
How large of a bolt is it going to be using? I would be more comfortable with more bolts, or something that was through bolted instead of just being mounted on the bottom of a frame rail.

-Alex
Click to expand...


well, something to be said for through bolts, but Toyota mounts its recovery loops on the 80 like that but with only 2 bolts -instead of 3- on the captive nuts at the bottom of the frame rail and I've never heard of the mounting itself failing (although I've read that the loop itself was found to fail in an incident after it had been crushed previously).

I think it's a neat design, seems very strong if thick enough and could be easily DIY with a piece of thick angle iron.
 
Master Pull said:
How large of a bolt is it going to be using? I would be more comfortable with more bolts, or something that was through bolted instead of just being mounted on the bottom of a frame rail.

-Alex
Click to expand...

M14-1.50 bolts with a bolt center spacing of 60mm. OEM size i think, should be through-bolted IMO, read this thread!
Offroad 80's • View topic - WARNING - recovery points attached to chassis captive nuts.

BTW, Alex, thanks for answering all my questions over the phone on this, you have been very helpful!
I may have to go to a toyota shop and ask him to fab something, or go with the Slee short bus front bumper, as the recovery points tie directly into the frame rails....More research for now.
 
Surfdc said:
M14-1.50 bolts with a bolt center spacing of 60mm. OEM size i think, should be through-bolted IMO, read this thread!
Offroad 80's • View topic - WARNING - recovery points attached to chassis captive nuts.

BTW, Alex, thanks for answering all my questions over the phone on this, you have been very helpful!
I may have to go to a toyota shop and ask him to fab something, or go with the Slee short bus front bumper, as the recovery points tie directly into the frame rails....More research for now.
Click to expand...


interesting thread to read. Looks like the reason was that the threads were corroded. That of course would introduce uncertainty in any system. I still think that having 3 bolts in the OEM locations is likely just fine for any reasonable recovery effort -but I will nevertheless make a point of checking my nuts for corrosion next time they're accessible... Not that I'm worried, they're usually not exposed, being in permanent use, and protected with an anti-seize compound too... :)
 
I think those would definitely be strong enough for being used as a winch point, but if you would be using them to snatch or tow off of I would use a bridle to connect the two points together.

Glad to help you over the phone the other day, when this was posted I wondered if it was you that had found something that will work.

-Alex
 
I've got a set bolted to the front of my 80, three bolts give me more confidence for snatch strap recoveries than two. These are the only ones on the market I could find that used 3 bolts. Great Aussie made product.

Simon
 
I find it a bit incredulous the likes of ARB, TJM, etc., do not incorporate recovery points/brackets into most/all of their front bumpers. They tout their bumpers as a necessary item for off-road travel but have omitted one of the most important features for same. But folks keep buying these bumpers so...

Slee, 4x4 Labs, BIOR and a few other USA bumper fabbers did a great job of integrating solid recovery points into their bumper offerings for Land Cruisers. They spread the load over a larger surface area of both the frame members including additional anchor/attachment locations for the bumper to frame interface. Begs the question: Why didn't the Aussie fabbers do the same??!!

I've used the recovery points on my front and rear Slee bumpers too many times to count! Solid recovery points shouldn't be an afterthought...

I designed my FRBv2/FRBv2L brackets specifically to fit ARB and Ironman bumpers that do not feature any type of solid recovery points. These, like all the recovery equipment we rely upon, are only one component of a system. The weakest link is always the weakest link...corroded hardware included!

Unfortunately the fab shop that was doing the waterjet portion raised their price to me 300% (to be fair the original production runs were erroneously priced to me...which was great for the folks that grabbed them up) and I have been unable to source a competitive stateside bid to keep them at a reasonable price point. I cringe at the thought of going to China...but I haven't given up.

For those that haven't purchased their bumpers yet I suggest supporting the fabbers that offer a well designed product...eventually all of us get stuck ;)

Dan
 
Well said Dan, I agree and that is why I have searched hi and low and found Lukey's points. He did email me back and he said he also has a 2 bolt point for the rear! So I ordered those for the rear and the 3 bolt points for the front, $280 shipped to my door ($100 per pair and $80 shipping) from Australia! Not bad, and now I don't have to buy Slee's short bus bumper! (although I still want it) I actually called Slee to ask and he said the short bus was built around the recovery points attachment to the frame rails. That's cool. Only bumper I have come across that has this.
I will keep this thread updated when they come in, and how I'm gonna bolt them to frame (either using the existing nuts with a cap nut or a through bolt, or...?) also the price and how long it took for shipping to get here. Then all you MUDders can start ordering them or I'll make a big order and you can get them from me or something!
 
Last edited:
For the ARBs, most of the newer front bumper designs incorporate crush zones/accordion mounts. My guess is that having recovery points attached to a bumper that is designed to absorb impact in a collision wouldn't work out very well.

On the 80 series, it does have recovery points but it also does not have a crush zone bracket. (although they are pretty anemic little tabs)
The few ARB rear bumper i have seen have recovery points also.
 
I came across this thread trying to find another thread on 70 series recovery points, but while I'm here I'll repost something I posted the other day on the 4wdaction forums.

For my money, I'm not a fan of most of the recovery points on the market for 80 series cruisers.

The best I've seen are from a bloke on offroad 80s, the thread is here

Some pictures for comparison to the common '2 bolt' and improved '3 bolt' mounts commonly seen for sale in 4wd shops and ebay for the 80 series.

To quote the guy 'Nshack' from offroad 80s.

nshack from offroad80s said:
After reading a number of threads on this and other forums, I decided it was time to retire my standard "Loops" and do something a little better.

Looked at what was available, and was not really happy with those products. Over a few beverages with some of my friends; a boilermaker and some engineers, it was decided that we could come up with something.

We decided on a design that would use a piece of angle as well is a piece of flat plate welded together, this would allow us to pick up the three bolts from underneath the chassis rail and the two bolts from the side of the chassis rail.

We first mocked up the layout with pieces of cardboard, this allowed us to mark the positions of the bolt holes and to estimate the size of steel that would be required.

A prototype was built. We tried to fit this prototype to the vehicle and it was evident very quickly that the bolt holes were not quite in the right positions. We then used something a little bit more sophisticated than cardboard to mark out the bolt holes, the prototype was then modified and fitment confirmed. the prototype was then used to jig to make the actual item.

The materials chosen to build the final product were:
50mm x 75mm x 7mm Unequal Angle grade 350 steel
100mm x 10mm Plate grade 350 steel

The steel was cut to size, welded together, a 40 mm hole drilled for the eye as well as the five remaining fastening holes. The final product was then prepared with two coats of zinc-based primer and finished with four coats of fire engine red.

All the work was done by a qualified Boilermaker in a QA workshop right here in Brisbane. Now for the photos.

[img width]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1692148/Cruisers/2012-04-26%2017.03.37.jpg[/img]
[img width]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1692148/Cruisers/2012-04-26%2017.26.42.jpg[/img]
[img width]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1692148/Cruisers/2012-04-26%2017.03.08.jpg[/img]

As part of the design process, we wanted the recovery point to have the lowest profile possible, the following two photos show that the new recovery point is approximately 10mm shorter in profile than the original Toyota loops.

[img width]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1692148/Cruisers/2012-04-26%2017.02.11.jpg[/img]
[img width]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1692148/Cruisers/2012-04-26%2017.01.45.jpg[/img]

Now for the fitment. My 80 has an ARB winch bar, it turns out that on the vertical part of the bar which slides over the chassis rail, ARB were a little slack at removing excess weld. This excess weld was going to interfere with the flush fitment of the recovery point, so it had to go.

[img width]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1692148/Cruisers/2012-04-27%2018.05.47.jpg[/img]

This was then primed with the zinc primer, and finished with two coats of gloss black. After 24 hours drying time, it was time to fit them up.

[img width]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1692148/Cruisers/2012-04-29%2018.14.17.jpg[/img]
[img width]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1692148/Cruisers/2012-04-29%2018.14.48.jpg[/img]
[img width]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1692148/Cruisers/2012-04-29%2018.15.44.jpg[/img]
[img width]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1692148/Cruisers/2012-04-29%2018.16.49.jpg[/img]

Brand new bolts were used to fit the recovery points, they were:
6x M12 1.25 x 55 ZP 8.8 with high tensile washers and spring washers to suit
4x M10 1.25 x 35 ZP 8.8 with high tensile washers and spring washers to suit

The only thing that I am a little bit concerned about is that due to the bull bar, there is no access to the inside of the chassis rails, so I have been unable to set high tensile nuts over the top of the standard Toyota captive nuts.

During the build process I was telling my friend about this forum, we thought there might be a few people on here who would like to replace their standard Toyota loops, so because we already had the jig made up, we decided to make a couple of extra sets. We realised that as different cars have different bull bar setups, the position of the holes up the side of the chassis rail will be different for each unique set up.

So I have a couple of sets sitting under my house, in undercoat grey, with no holes drilled in the side plate. Considering what is out there in the marketplace, I think that $80 a pair is an appropriate price to cover the materials and give my friend something for his time and effort.

Looking forward to getting your comments, questions and constructive criticism.

Cheers, Neil
Click to expand...
 
Update: went with the points from www.lukeys4x4.com, shown in post #1. They got here in a week! Shipping was $60. Got 3 bolt for the front and 2 bolt for the rear. My 4x4 shop is gonna through-bolt them (thought the frame) and use crush tubes inside the frame to mount them. More pics and installation details to follow when I take it in.
 
Did you just order from the website?
 
Well I tried. But the website doesn't have that function. I had to email Luke, never heard from him, so I called and made the order directly from him! Then he answered his email. He is very busy and said he only answered email at the end of the day sometimes.
We talked about shipping a bunch of sets to me then I could send to fellow mudders. Lemme know if you or anyone is interested.
 
I am interested and have payment ready if we can save on shipping.
 
Tow and recovery are two different terms :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom