I fancy a little mild green laning, but the local groups insist on recovery points... does anyone know what the most economical option is to provide decent recovery options front and back? Apparently the tow bar is a no-no.
a tow ball is a no no , can you use the shackled hitch that goes inside the tow hitch on the car . if you have the goose neck type tow bar off coarse you can not use that. that will fix the rear .
Green landing is supposed to be gentle. I don't see why recovery points would be needed unless they are going where they shouldn't.
I've never needs them.
There's not exactly many choices for p38.
Steering guard with shackles at front or aftermarket bumper.
Rear, I'd look at finding a shackle for the swan neck fittings. Something like jate rings. There are shit quality ones out there though.
They need to be close fitting though.
They might need them on an inferior vehicle but for mild green laning you'll never need them on a P38. If the terrain is that bad there's a chance you might need them, then it isn't green laning. The only reason you would need then is to tow the others out......
Thinking about it, David, Rutland Rover did far more difficult off roading than a bit of gentle green laning and he didn't have to fit recovery points.
There are 2 recovery points on the vehicle from the factory. They protrude from the bumper and are fairly obvious when you see them. One in the front and one on the back.
These are not to be confused with the factory tie-down points used during flatbed towing. The tie-down points are underneath the car and face downward.
You shd always have a recovery point, most wd say front and rear, but you're stuck for a front on a RR, unless you start drilling, so one may do. make sure you're in front :-)
I wd suggest you remove the ball hitch ( if you can!!) it's held on by an m16 bolt iirc and I had to beat it, heat it, and then grind the rust off... Then either replace the bolt and put a bow shackle around it or you may be able to get the pin of a large bow shackle to go straight through the bolt holes.
kultur wrote:
There are 2 recovery points on the vehicle from the factory. They protrude from the bumper and are fairly obvious when you see them. One in the front and one on the back.
These are not to be confused with the factory tie-down points used during towing. The tie-down points are underneath the car and face downward.
Not sure I wd trust those for off road recovery, fine to be winched onto a flat bed by the AA though
Why not? Land Rover Engineers managed to make one the best off-road capable vehicles ever and dropped the ball on the recovery points eh?
You should be fine for mild green laning, as long as your not trying to winch yourself up a dam like Richard Hammond.
define your idea off a recovery point. over xmas i watch 5 winches on one recovery point on a nissan patrol removing it from soft sand. i know that's a little extreme for most but i would not put a lot of trust in the light recovery points on the rover outside of miner tows
https://youtu.be/hW1fQxt1XBQ?t=57
https://youtu.be/OSoSOwA9QVE?t=282
You'll be fine ;)
Get out there, get stuck, get towed out and in the unlikely situation the factory recovery point fails (it won't), then you can start thinking about cutting and welding up your truck.
None of that is greenlaning though :)
The first one looks like he thought he knew better than the designers and converted to springs. If he had EAS he'd have almost 6 inches more height so probably wouldn't have drowned it in the first place. Second one has grounded it but at least it's another P38 that drags him out, third ones Traction Control isn't working and the fourth one shows what it can do.
On all of them the factory recovery points are being used. But as said, none of those would be considered green laning.
This one
Depends what they call "greenlaning". Most of the Youtube videos I've seen where people get stuck - like, recovery point stuck - are far more extreme than what most folk would call greenlaning.
Most of the "all the gear but no idea" guys going "greenlaning" are using ridiculous tyres and winches and stuff to go up tracks I'd do at 45mph in a Vauxhall Astramax.
OK, lots of input - thank you :)
I guess the front recovery point (which seems to get bad press as a tie-down point) will be fine for gentle recovery.
For the rear, I read all sorts of warnings that towballs are brittle and will snap off. Fair enough, nobody wants that. What's the deal with the mounting? Can I just wrap a strap (or a soft shackle) down behind the plate which the ball screws to?
tanis8472 wrote:
None of that is greenlaning though :)
Hahaha, you got me there. I assumed, incorrectly, that Greenlaning is to Off Roading as bonnet is to hood. Seems greenlaning is more akin to what we refer to across the Atlantic as Trail Riding or Overlanding.
In either case, as was meant to be shown with the youtube videos, the stock recovery points are far more capable than people give them credit for.
Morat wrote:
OK, lots of input - thank you :)
I guess the front recovery point (which seems to get bad press as a tie-down point) will be fine for gentle recovery.
For the rear, I read all sorts of warnings that towballs are brittle and will snap off. Fair enough, nobody wants that. What's the deal with the mounting? Can I just wrap a strap (or a soft shackle) down behind the plate which the ball screws to?
There is the same loop/recovery point on the rear of the vehicle as there is on the front. Additionally, people often use the tow bar by attaching the strap directly to the locking pin that would usually lock the receiver hitch into the tow bar.
In addition to the front recovery point, there's the tie down point which is a loop of steel of one of the chassis rails and is a lot less substantial so wouldn't be any good as a recovery point. As it's also above the bottom of the front bumper if you did try to use it you'd need to take the bumper off first anyway. If you've got the after,market towbar with the bolted on ball, I don't see why you can't attach to the towbar itself. Not sure how I'd do it with the factory swan neck towbar though (if I ever had need to).
Not only is green laning and offroading different in the UK to the US, we have different towbars too that don't use the square section socket that you have. In fact, the US standard ones are illegal in the UK, if fitted on an import it must be either removed or disabled (welding a plate over the hole is the accepted method.
For illustration, here's a very bad photo taken on a phone at night...
thank you for defining a miner tow as they are what i would define as miner tows in the videos
PS the last video showed a reverse tow , this is not recommended with any 4wd as the diffs are not designed to be loaded in reverse especially diffs with collapsible spaces,
About 30 years ago (before Google) at Billing Aquadrome (just a Land Rover show, at a country park, albeit on the off-road course) a winch cable snapped, and killed the driver (cable shot straight back through the windscreen). If a recovery point fails you may well be worried about more than cutting and welding a new one. You want the strongest recovery gear you can get - rated to exceed the pull of the winch (or snatch etc etc). Of course if the standard towing eyes are the only option in the field then that's what you'll have to go with, but better to be prepared if you can. Many moons ago I had to get a tractor to recover my Series 3 from a "green lane" they're not all dirt roads, and this time of year are likely to be more brown than green. This is why most LR clubs have the rule about recovery points, it sounds like overkill, until it's not.
On the rear, as I said, you should be able to find a bow shackle to fit the towbar directly, assuming you can get the swan neck off. And don't forget to remove the lower skirt on the front bumper
Be sure to wear a helmet and pads when your out there greenlaning too, that mud is quite slippery. You might fall and bump your head /sarcasm
All recovery gear can fail, Full Stop. Use soft bow shackles, winch cable dampers, synthetic winch lines (when possible) and keep observers out of the blast zone.
If my recovery point, snatch strap, or other equipment failed I wouldn't be worried at all, because I know what I'm doing ;)