"What's the 4 holes for?" (1 Viewer)

[Bear80]

Ok I just had to annoy everyone with this question. Correct me if I'm wrong but the rear bumper/crossmember of the 80 series has a four bolt pattern consistent with that of a pintle hook. Is that truly the purpose for the bolt holes and why then do slee and others not rate their rear bumpers for towing? A pintle hook with a 2" ball will have a gross tow weight of over 7000lbs and when used as a pintle hook have a working vertical load of 3000lbs. If this bolt pattern is for a pintle hook then the crossmember of an 80 series should have no problem being used for towing loads. Bottom line, I say if the factory put it there use it! and no one else has a pintle hook. ;p

 

[cruiserdan]

why then do slee and others not rate their rear bumpers for towing?

One word:.................... Liability.

 

[Bear80]

That's pretty much what I figured

 

[Gold Finger]

In the Uk we refer to this hitch as a NATOW hitch and I have one on mine, they are used by verious military for towing Military trailers ect. It is a vey good hitch and can be set up to allow articulation or extreem twisting of the trailer on rough ground, in fact will allow the trailer to capsise and not affect the vehicle. I have used them other vehicles Landrovers ect wich also have the same 4 holes on ther cross member, for snatch recovery with a Kenetic rope with no ill effect. There is a Toyota sales brochure showing one attached to an 80.

 

[MoJ]

Gold -

Do you see any 80 series owners in the UK using the 4-hole pintle to tow?

 

[John E Davies]

If you crawl under your truck and check the thickness of that crossmember you will quickly realize that it is grossly undersized for safe towing. I use a bolt on receiver, but it's sandwiched through my very stout very thick hi-tensile steel Slee bumper.

I wouldn't use a receiver bolted to just the factory crossmember for anything other than carrying some bikes.

http://home.comcast.net/~johnedavies/Treg-003.JPG

BTW, the lower bolts are 9/16 inch Grade 8 which can be very hard to find.... The uppers are standard Toyota bolts.

John

 

[MoJ]

I've been tossing around a few ideas for a better hitch design. Mostly modifying the oem hitch so that it can be positioned differently but still use the existing factory frame holes. I hate the hitch set up but need the receiver often. I think I'm going to do something similar to C-Dan's write up but with the factory bumper. I'd like to leave the body of the receiver hitch down just enough that it protects the rear bumper when I drag. Makes a great slider. Other approach is to fab some support for the current crossmember - maybe attach something to the existing frame holes and then bolt to the crossember to make it useful for towing as I agree it doesn't look near heavy enough. I'm kind of liking this idea as it would be easy to weld a skip plate on to the bottom of the supports. Anyway - if anyone has any input...

 

[Bear80]

If you crawl under your truck and check the thickness of that crossmember you will quickly realize that it is grossly undersized for safe towing.
John

Why do you say grossly undersized? the thickness of the steel in the crossmember is the same as the thickness in the valley hitch......plus why would toyota allow the application of a pintle hook if the crossmember is not strong enough. As I stated befor a pintle hook has a higher gross tow weight and the strength for a vertical load.

 

[DRTDuck]

Bolts for pintle holes


thread size M9X1.0

 

[Gold Finger]

The Threaded holes on the rear cross member are M12 x 1.25 pitch wich is very fine. The cross member seams as strong as those in most Land rover products, I supose it depends on what you ecpect to tow!! Over in the UK the normal maximum Trailer weight is with standard over run breaks 3500 Kg about 3 1/2 and I think 4000 Kg with power breaks. Tons I think UK pounds are not quite the same as US so have used the metric. I have only seen 1 other Landcruiser 80 other than mine with the natow hitch in place as most civilian trailers use standard hooks and are monted quite low I think like over there. Nato hooks are often found on Landrovers used for more serious off road persuits and are not common on vehicles used only on the pavement. The Nato Hook is of course mounted much higher and is a good hight for miltary trailers which are designed for rough off road or cross country operation. My Hook came off my Land Rover 101 Forward controll and bolted straight on with the bolts I mentioned before.

 

[cruiserdan]

the thickness of the steel in the crossmember is the same as the thickness in the valley hitch......

No it's not. I cut through mine last winter when I fabbed my hitch. I was surprised how thin it was. The immediate rectangle around the 4 holes has an additional layer but that reinforced area is quite small.

 

[Oaxaca80]

I have a 5 ton pintle hook bolted up in the OEM location being discussed.

I use it to pull a Iltis M-101 trailer. (Canadian version of the US M-416)

It works very well. The trailer only weighs about 750 lbs. empty; because of it's relatively compact size I would have to fill it w/ rocks to have a problem w/ weight.

I don't even notice it behid the 80, in fact it is hard to see except in curves.

The cross member seems to be plenty strong. I have a gas can rack fabbed out of 3/8"x3" angle Iron that I used to use to haul 3 6 gal gerry cans of fuel to get back to the gas station from some remote locations here. I bolted flat against the rear crossmember, between the end caps. Once it was sucked up against the bumper it didn't move. Really cup you deparute angle thought! I think the coment on liability is correct as far as Cristo is concerned; I think that stems from the fact that it is not rated for towing by the DOT (everyone bow). If it's not DOT you would be crazy to sell something to mount for towing there.

I have had it in some pretty nasty situations on dirt mountain tracks. Nothing like the picture in the link indicates however

http://www.cs.odu.edu/~glaves/chris/trailer/want.html

If only it was a Cruiser doing the towing

 

[robbie]

This went around and around on the 80 series list a couple of years ago. It was posted that in most other countries this was rated to 10,000 lbs of towing with a pintle. Maybe this was not at 75-80 mph. Nor would I want to tow that much. just what was post a couple of years ago. So it would not suprise me that 3500kg would be exceptiable in some countries. later robbie

 

[robbie]

I did forgret the most inportant option, a NATO jet assist pack, design for quick get aways in those sticky situations. robbie

 

[Bear80]

Well who thinks the stock setup with a pintel hook can tow a meduim sized boat. I think the crossmember is strong enough but what's eveyones take. Because that's all I'll ever be towing until I get a slee rear bumper then I might try a heavy custom hitch.

 

[Gold Finger]

What is the total mass of the trailer and boat? What really maters here is inertia, ie shock loading under normal breaking and accelerating, the section of cross member which is relatively short and so the momment about the pivet point ie main rais of the chasi do not require massive construction. If one was very concerned a backing plate could be put behind and in front of the four holes to distribute the stresses. Ultimately I think I would prefer a dinted rear cross member than a crumpled chasis. A new cross member would I think be easier to sort out.

 

[CDN_Cruiser]

I've also been debating about using these mounts to pull a (relatively light) trailer and gear (1,500-2,000#) - my sense is that the hitch and cross member would be fine for this relatively light load.

I think I would be quite worried about towing 10,000# with the cross member (the hitch may be rated for substantially more, but I doubt the cross member could handle that kind of load)

PS, Is it just my imagination (or lack of knowledge on bolts) that we just got three different versions of what kinds of bolts fit the pintle mount?

Cheers, Hugh

 

[Gold Finger]

Looking at a previous thread covering the same suject I think I recall cruiserdan stating 12 x 1.25 which is exactly what I had measured up and fitted exactly into my rear cross member. Perhaps holes are different in some parts of the world, perhaps sort off black holes!!

 

[WolfpackTLC]

THIS 80 (note the pintle hook and the Slee bumper)

Tows THIS 87 SAS'D Pickup on 38.5's on THIS trailer:

So hah! You CAN tow w/ the pintle... tee hee hee... I have no idea how much your boat weighs, but I'd guesstimate that I'm towing at least 5k, with no ill effects.

 

[Bear80]

well you do get more strength with the slee bumper but I'm sure my stock crossmember can handle the boat...2000lbs with trailer