A basic hook often found on unibody vehicles. With a 10,000 lb rating it sounds worthy, but tow ropes/straps can easily fall off – a serious flaw if the rope is under load.
Words by Perry Mack
It seems that recovery hooks get slapped on the front of every off-road vehicle that claims they are off-road ready. They are often painted a bright colour (commonly red) so you can’t miss them. This is kind of ironic as it assumes the vehicle they are selling will get stuck – so maybe it’s not so off-road ready.
What’s unfortunate is that these original equipment manufacturer (OEM) off-road-ready hooks/shackles are often a poor and almost dangerous choice. Better than nothing? Maybe – but maybe not. The kind we’re talking about is the classic hook without any mechanism to lock in the tow rope. It could be attached to the bumper and fixed without the ability to adjust to the angle of a line pull. As only one side is fixed, we’ve seen these hooks straightened out as they were stressed during a challenging recovery.
An OEM fixed frame-mounted bow shackle is a step up and is found on many 4x4’s with body-on-frame construction. These are much safer than the hook design, however getting connected will require a little more work to attach a tow strap/rope, usually requiring a hook or shackle of some type. As it is fixed to the frame, it will be up to the shackle to adjust to the angle of the line pull.
Perry Mack
The closed bow on our Chevy 3500HD is solid but not as versatile and quick to connect as aftermarket options.
The best recovery devices require a clevis tab (also called a D-ring mount) for attachment. Most aftermarket off-road bumpers are equipped with this style of a tab. If you have an OEM hook or bow, you’ll need to replace it with a clevis tab mount for a top-of-the-line recovery point.
There are three common methods of manufacturing hooks and shackles. Cast, forged and machined. Cast shackles are made by heating metal until it is molten and then filled with a mould. Forging is a process where metal is frequently heated in a solid-state and forced into shape in a mould. And before you ask, forged is typically better than cast. Key benefits of forging include higher tensile strength (stronger at a lighter weight) and higher fatigue strength (more use before failure).
Machined parts aren’t necessarily stronger than forged ones, but the process allows a part to be strong in many different directions (forged metal has a grain and is only strong in one direction). Machining allows for more complex shapes (since it doesn’t have to be released from a mould) it usually has a much better finish.
Perry Mack
This bow shackle has a galvanized coating to inhibit rust.
Bow shackles (also called D-ring shackles) allow you to remove the shackle from the vehicle for easier connection options. There’s a range of quality (fit, finish and durability) available. We like the bow shackles with a rubber protector, which prevents some abrasion, scraping and banging of the shackle on your vehicle. The pin that attaches the hook to your vehicle is usually secured by a threaded end or clevis pin. If you choose the latter, stocking extra clevis pins in your vehicle is a good idea as they can be very hard to find when your cold or gloved hands drop them in the mud at dusk.
You can see a hole in our threaded pin style, which is for a retaining cord. A wise choice is to use one to attach the pin to the shackle. Many like this are marked WLL 43/4T, which means it has a working load limit of 4 ¾ metric tons (10,471 lb).
Monster Hook (MH) is a brand used by the US military. These recovery hooks allow for a quick and secure connection to your tow rope or strap. Constructed from machined 6061-T6 aluminum, they have a 4,536 kg (10,000 lb) capacity and fit 7/8” bumper tabs, winches and receiver hitches. We choose the Bolt Lock version, which has a locking cylinder you program to your ignition key. No one can easily steal your high-quality recovery hook. We already have a number of Bolt devices, including a locking hood latch for our Wrangler JK, a cable lock to secure bikes to a hitch bike rack and a locking hitch pin for the receiver hitch. They continue to work flawlessly even after 30,000 km (18,641 mi) of outdoor abuse. The aluminum construction means this oversized four-inch hook only weighs 3.5 lb MSRP: $259.99 USD
Perry Mack
The Bolt Lock Monster Hook looks like serious bling and it is. The smooth, rust-free machined surface ensures your straps and synthetic lines won’t be prematurely worn.
Buyer Beware
When you’re shopping for a recovery hook be aware that there are two terms used to describe its strength. Working Load Limit (WLL) is the maximum the piece was designed to handle under normal (repeated) conditions, while the breaking strength rating is the failure point. Breaking strength can be three or four times the WLL. So, the number looks impressive in sellers’ ads but you should be shopping for the WLL.
What’s worse is we recently saw an ad for a cheap import advertising their recovery as 21, 319 kg (47,000 lb), which was the breaking strength of the pin. The shackle itself was much less. The product is only as strong as the weakest link, so we recommend reading all the fine print.
Less Dramatic
We haven’t talked about using soft shackles as a recovery part as they often won’t fit through the clevis mount and if they do, they are more prone to wear through repeated use, especially if your clevis mount has any sharp edges. Our previous use of steel shackles wore off the powder coat on our TeraFlex steel bumper and the rust has created sharp edges – yours may be the same. Like synthetic lines, tow straps, tree savers and snatch ropes, they are only as strong as the condition they are in. Keep an eye on them for stitching that’s coming apart and worn material.
Monster Hook also builds a skookum receiver hitch like this 2” machined aluminum Hitch Expert rated at 10,000 lb.
Most recovery shackles and hooks can be used as winch hooks, mounted on a clevis or bumper shackle tabs and receiver hitches. However, mounting to a receiver hitch requires a receiver hitch mount, which is typically sold separately. If you don’t have recovery points in the rear, it’s a good idea to get one. Should you be the first one in the muck, help will be behind you. In a pinch, without a receiver hitch mount, you can feed a loop of your recovery rope into the receiver and use your hitch pin to secure it. Not as desirable of a method but it is better than abandoning your rig if you can’t get out.
We can’t talk about receiver recovery without mentioning the Ditch Hitch out of Alberta, Canada. This is the safest recovery system; the only caveat is that it’s a receiver-to-receiver system. A Ditch Hitch unit slips into the receiver of each vehicle. The swivel design makes it one of the few systems that safely support side loading. The Fuse Link Recovery strap is 5 cm x 8 m (2 in x 25 ft) and is rated to break between 7,257 and 8,618 kg (16,000 and 19,000 lb) and is specifically designed to be the weakest link in the system. In any recovery, if a shackle breaks before a strap, you have a large junk of shrapnel rocking through the air looking for a skull to stop it. So, you want the strap to break first.
The complete system includes two Ditch Hitch units rated at 8,845 kg (19,500 lb), a Fuse Link Recovery Strap, high visibility sleeve for the recovery strap, a safety checklist and heavy-duty Ditch Hitch System Carry Bag. The only thing missing, which you should have for any recovery, is a kinetic energy diffuser, which Ditch Hitch calls the Snap Trap.
Ditch Hitch System MSRP is $425 USD
Perry Mack