Recovery points on the Jimmy

[Joel Wilson]

Having a hard time coming up with places for front recovery points on the Jimmy. The Jimmy came with a Warn brush/winch bumper which I believe to be a Warn Transformer. Pretty stout, bolts to the frame in 6 places, maybe 8. 2nd pic shows the tow hook on the passenger side that is partially bent. These tow hooks are on the inside vertical horns for the winch bumper. Basically the bottom of the frame rails. 3rd pic is of the driver's side vertical support and shows the bolt on the bumper that could be used to help support a D ring.

My question is where could I put a D ring or even a pad to support a D ring or shackle? On the uprights, there is a 2" hole on each side. Could I put a shackle on each upright with one of those 3 ft straps that are on the M1009's? Is the winch bumper strong enough to do this if running thru a snatch block?
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Joel
norcal

 

[nvrenuf]

I had the same brush guard on my old K10 and used shackles in those big holes, the worked but did bend the vertical frame some. Mine also had tabs against the face of the stock bumper that the mounting bolts went through.

 

[Joel Wilson]

I had the same brush guard on my old K10 and used shackles in those big holes, the worked but did bend the vertical frame some. Mine also had tabs against the face of the stock bumper that the mounting bolts went through.

Mine has tabs on the top of the chrome bumper and then those monster bolts underneath. Any ideas on how to strengthen the uprights to keep them from bending? Mine is already tweaked on the top end from trying to push/pull an 80 yr old almond tree out. That's why those brush guards have that slight bend snarl to them.

 

[nvrenuf]

I missed the mounting tab on the top bolt but mine had one on the lower bolt too, right above the tow hook pictured.

I don’t know of any way to strengthen the uprights other than plating them to add thickness.

 

[eric67camino]

You can strengthen it by plating, as mentioned before. Or you could add a crossbar down low to tie the two uprights together.

 

[urbex]

Or you could add a crossbar down low to tie the two uprights together.

THIS is the only decent way of handling this. 1/4" plate is plenty of thickness, strength wise, for any amount of weight you're going to put on a recovery point attached to a K5. You DON'T want to overbuild this, as you don't want to make the truck frame the weak link in the system.

There's a bit of math that confuses most people that would be involved in showing exactly where the pounds limit would be depending on material, and thickness, then again with thickness of 1 solid piece compared to stacking via plating. But short answer, assuming a 3/4" shackle pin in a 3/4" hole, a 1/4" thick plate will sustain up to a 10,000 pound pull before deforming, assuming a dead straight pull. But that number is going to do down pretty quick once you get into off angle pulls. Think of grabbing a 3 feet long piece of 1" wide, 1/4 thick flat steel bar, then bending it over your knee across the wide part...pretty easy to turn it into a taco, and why it's pretty easy to bend those uprights when using them as shackle points.

Now, if you tie them together with a cross bar, you gain a bunch of resistance to bending, much more so than merely increasing thickness. Take that same 3 foot long 1" wide, 1/4" thick bar, and attempt the same bend across the 1/4" side. You'll break your knee cap before getting any appreciable bend in it. Same concept as angle iron, and I & H beams. If you add a cross bar, you've essentially created an H beam structure that will end up being even stronger than the the 1/4" plates doubled up.

I'd go with something like 2" round or square tube, 3/16" wall. This will give you decent pulling strength without looking stupid small or silly huge. Now add your recovery point of choice to the cross bar, so that you're always going to be essentially pulling equally off both frame plates, and you'll have a much more reliable system without having to grossly overbuild it.

These are pictures of Suzuki Samurais, obviously much smaller than a K5 (all of my "big" off road stuff is done on Suzuki platforms), but the same concept still applies. You can see here the crosstube added in under the winch plate, with the 2nd picture showing adding a receiver tube in the middle between the winch plate and cross tube, along with D-rings along the cross tube on either end at the frame uprights.

 

[Joel Wilson]

THIS is the only decent way of handling this. 1/4" plate is plenty of thickness, strength wise, for any amount of weight you're going to put on a recovery point attached to a K5. You DON'T want to overbuild this, as you don't want to make the truck frame the weak link in the system.

There's a bit of math that confuses most people that would be involved in showing exactly where the pounds limit would be depending on material, and thickness, then again with thickness of 1 solid piece compared to stacking via plating. But short answer, assuming a 3/4" shackle pin in a 3/4" hole, a 1/4" thick plate will sustain up to a 10,000 pound pull before deforming, assuming a dead straight pull. But that number is going to do down pretty quick once you get into off angle pulls. Think of grabbing a 3 feet long piece of 1" wide, 1/4 thick flat steel bar, then bending it over your knee across the wide part...pretty easy to turn it into a taco, and why it's pretty easy to bend those uprights when using them as shackle points.

Now, if you tie them together with a cross bar, you gain a bunch of resistance to bending, much more so than merely increasing thickness. Take that same 3 foot long 1" wide, 1/4" thick bar, and attempt the same bend across the 1/4" side. You'll break your knee cap before getting any appreciable bend in it. Same concept as angle iron, and I & H beams. If you add a cross bar, you've essentially created an H beam structure that will end up being even stronger than the the 1/4" plates doubled up.

I found a piece of 2 inch C channel at work that only needed a little trimming to fit, so I used that and I've got some shackle mounts coming that should be here sometime next week.

Thanks for all the help on this. I am hoping to make the trek up and over the coastal mountains to Covelo this year and this was one of the things on my list to get done.

Joel
norcal

I'd go with something like 2" round or square tube, 3/16" wall. This will give you decent pulling strength without looking stupid small or silly huge. Now add your recovery point of choice to the cross bar, so that you're always going to be essentially pulling equally off both frame plates, and you'll have a much more reliable system without having to grossly overbuild it.

These are pictures of Suzuki Samurais, obviously much smaller than a K5 (all of my "big" off road stuff is done on Suzuki platforms), but the same concept still applies. You can see here the crosstube added in under the winch plate, with the 2nd picture showing adding a receiver tube in the middle between the winch plate and cross tube, along with D-rings along the cross tube on either end at the frame uprights.

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