I end up screaming at the screen, "Let Ya Bloody Tyres Down A Bit!"
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Don't think I've ever seen a more ridiculous or unnecessary recovery. That vehicle could have been driven out with minimal effort. Joke.
I was cringing with this recovery. The forces exerted on those towballs must've been extreme. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH4wnjfbK2s
his is an interesting setup that is for sure. Cringe worthy certainly. That is the second one of his i have watched and he used the same recovery tongue. the fact that it has a tow ball involved is hideous but in this particular instance im not sure he is in the same danger that we are familiar with.
In both videos he places the strap over the top of the top ball and then behind Both side balls. This is a very very different setup to what we know here. I am not smart enough to consider the tensile force involved here but logically the force is being pulled down through the square tube and behind the 2 side balls..... I hate it but not sure it is dangerous. it is almost a half hitch knot over the top. But i hate it.
What i particularly hate though is the sight of a ball in this video at all. It really does lend the watcher to believe that a single ball is a viable recovery device. I would be interested to read what @the evil twin has to say here actually
They actually use the towball on this recovery. Lucky the stuck jeep owner had his handbrake off at 12:50 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekEtKeXrjvI
After watching this, I sent him an email containing the image of the Landcruiser tailgate.
The guy in the previous videos talks about recoveries using his tow balls.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jcv2wy5RKeI
Sorry. He still doesn't convince me. How hard would it be to have a proper connector that fits into the receiver. Or do what I normally do - don't use fittings at all - just put the end of the strap in the receiver and put the pin through the holes and through the strap loop. The fewer bits and pieces you have in a recovery means there are less bits to break.
As a "professional" he should be setting a better example.
I am not advocating use of a towball as a hitch point where the towball is anchored with a thread into a receiver. This type of setup puts rise to potential failure of the treaded element from shear and/or shear and a bending moment as the line of action is raised to the thinner section of the towball. Most towballs have an undercut at the base of the thread where it matches the 50mm head, and this becomes the stress riser, especially as depth of undercut, radius size and surface roughness are unknown.
Additionally we have no idea what the towballs are manufactured from, could be recycled chinese bicycle seats - my towball is from a HT 4140 steel, but I would think a lot are made from a far lower grade.
What I would say is that his towball setup looks like its got 3 different sized balls, welded to a solid receiver bar, and fixed to the front of the towbar hitch using a standard 16mm pin. I would say, his weakest point in all this is either the 16mm pin in a double shear loading or the strap itself. The welded towballs are essentially 50mm pegs and the stress is going thru 3 circumferential welds into the solid hitch. The loading diagram for his hitch is not straight forward to determine actual stresses, however it is possible to get this analyzed using a Strand Stress Analysis package for certainty as it takes away the interpretation of the engineer. We don't know the materials, weld detail, weld procedure or welder certification, NDT taken place etc - there is a lot missing in this picture.
So, is the setup any weaker than using a slot in hitch on our standard towball set-up - I doubt it as ultimately the pin is the weakest element. Even if the receiver was a tube, worst case a thin walled tube, its 'probably' still going to fail on the tow strap rather than the hitch - thats my analysis anyway. On the surface it probably looks worse than it is. Whilst the guy using it claims to assess the loading conditions of the recovery - had to laugh at the h/d ear ring he pulled out for use though - and he does execute his recovery operations in seemingly the worst way, I think he is no worse off than what we do when we use a standard hitch and 16mm pin.
Final parting comment, Don't use a snatch strap on a towball for recovery.
I applaud him for helping those in need as his paid job, but he does use towballs on some of the recovered vehicles after a rudimentary look around it. Unfortunately it just takes one out of a hundred to go wrong. Other people watch his videos and think it's OK to follow his example.