Alloy
Well-known member
You'll only find 5-6:1 SWL ratings on lifting equipment but that's what I use for recovery gear.
What are the strongest 5/8" hitch pins for recovery use?
- Thread starter Ugly1
- Start date
You'll only find 5-6:1 SWL ratings on lifting equipment but that's what I use for recovery gear.
Alloy
Well-known member
I'm missing the desire for the strongest. I've made the holes in a 1/4" thick receiver tube oval using a $5 hitch pin.
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Peter_n_Margaret
Adventurer
I use a long M16 grade 12.9 socket head set screw with the thread section cut off.
Hobson-Stainless-Steel-High-Tensile-Fastener-Guides.pdf (aimsindustrial.com.au)
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome
Hobson-Stainless-Steel-High-Tensile-Fastener-Guides.pdf (aimsindustrial.com.au)
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome
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Weirdly my hitch, recievers or my pin didn't come with any instructions telling me how failures will happen. And when they do, I had no clue it could be assumed they will all behave the same, as yours did, under the varying conditions I am likely to put them through. And maybe even weirder I had no knowledge of your hitch destruction results until you just told me about them. I mentioned my ME qualifications up front and wouldn't have any idea about such things. Maybe I should have known these things by osmosis.
Personally I would rather try and verify every link in the chain in an attempt not be suprised by a weak link. It would be one thing if this were common knowledge, pinned at the top of the board....maybe you and all the others here already know the failure points of their hitches before having pushed them to that point and if so I apologize for wasting all your time by making you read my post. when I should have been asking what are these wonderful hitches you own which dfine these things.
That sounds one better than the Grade 8's. Thank you!
Your hitch, recievers and pins all have lifting equipment ratings? sweet. What brand?
Alloy
Well-known member
I was referring to shackles and straps used for lifting with a SWL vs. "recover gear" that has no controls or testing so who knows where numbers come from.
Alloy
Well-known member
You're tying to verify something that can't be verified due to the loads being unknown.
Over the years I've gotten away with overloading gear by staying out of the bight, always having an escape route.
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I looked up the Factor55 hitch pin, and I don’t see where it is rated. I saw a statement that it has a shear strength of 50,000+ lbs, which is not the same thing as a rating, and when considering a safety factor is little different than the Curt hitch pin referenced earlier that states it’s strong enough to tow 21,000+ lb trailers.
Metcalf
Expedition Leader
One of the main issues currently with what I call 'drag rigging', or off-road type recovery work, is that there is no currently accepted 'standard' for it. It has slipped into this marketing war where people look for something like the largest MBS number. I would say that rigging similar to overhead lifting standards creates it's own set of issues as just about nothing on the vehicle side of things is going to be designed that way ( nor should be honestly ) like the trailer hitch assembly.
This generally leaves us with a mixed system where people focus on the strength of one part.....the hitch pin in this case, or the hard shackle, or whatever. Generally speaking worst case, something is going to break. What do we want that to be? Can it be intrinsically safer if it does?
douglastic
Member
Maybe someone mentioned but I missed it . . .
Isn't a huge advantage of the hitch pin method, the elimination of a large, heavy projectile?
Use a good pin, throw a blanket/damper over the strap, and keep your distance.
Isn't a huge advantage of the hitch pin method, the elimination of a large, heavy projectile?
Use a good pin, throw a blanket/damper over the strap, and keep your distance.
Metcalf
Expedition Leader
Hitch pins aren't strong in bending. Generally, you just took a pin that would shear north of 40,000lbs and turned it into a pin that will bend at about 10,000lbs. Once the pin bends, it gets stuck in the receiver and you have to cut it or your rope/strap out of it. The dangerous part is when the pin bends and pulls in the 'short' side after it shears off the little clip. This will cause a cataphoric release of the stored energy in the strap/rope. While soft rigging is 'safer' than something like a chain, the mass of the eye still has enough energy to do some real damage to sheetmetal, glass, and people.
The other thing to note, the sharp edges of the hitch will cause wear and premature failures.
What we want is a strong low mass connection to a properly supported hitch pin with large safe working radii for all the components in the system.
douglastic
Member
I agree that insert is the way to go for hitch recovery.
I am glad to have a factory recovery point F/R, to use w/ my 7/8" D-ring shackles.
Metcalf
Expedition Leader
Just some words of caution, pretty much every company has a disclaimer in the manual about 'factory recovery points' being only for towing or on-road recovery. It's worth a look to see what they really say about the connection point.
Are you really using a 7/8" shackle?
How much stuff do you have in there?
Don't create another problem by having something larger than needed with more mass, cause that shackle isn't ever going to break. An honest 7/8" shackle would have an MBS approaching 100,000lbs. Just imagine that 3.5lb shackle being attached to a chunk of whatever comes off the vehicle on the end of a 30' rubber band.
A good rule of thumb to keep in mind when evaluating factory attachment points. If the attachment point isn't thicker in cross section than the metal shackle you are hooking onto it, it isn't a great idea. A hard shackle is made from good quality forged steel ( even the bad ones ), when comparing them to the mild steel used in in pretty much every OEM recovery point I have seen on a vehicle. Those tabs and loops are going to be made form something between A36 and maybe 1018/1020 cold roll steel if we are lucky.
Bee Safe out there.