Rednroll

With the snow fall coming soon to my area, it reminded me of a question I ran into last winter while pulling out other vehicles who were stuck in the snow. Where is a good go to hook up location on the front and read of the other person's vehicle to avoid damage to the other vehicle?

In most cases I look for something strong that seems firmly attached to the chassis of the vehicle but often that seems hard to find, especially with some of the smaller FWD vehicles. Jeeps and most full size trucks are easy because they tend to have some kind of tow hook attached to the frame.

For those who have experience in towing and pulling non Jeeps out of stuck locations, where is your typical go to attachment point?

Last year, I pulled some high school kid out of the snow who had an old beat up Toyota Tercel like shown below and everything I looked at under the vehicle that was attached to the frame, looked like I might rip it right off.

sa29560

Simple answer. For me, if it's a stranger, they are on their own. Call AAA. Of course, caveats exist.

If there are elderly or children involved, I will gladly assist after getting their consent via text, video, or otherwise legally removing liability from me for assisting them. Might sound a bit over the top but that's the safe and responsible way, to me. They need to fully accept and understand the favor you are trying to provide them at THEIR own risk.

Now, I have lightly damaged some body panels and bumper fascia material a handful of times due to using a less than appropriate recovery location. Most vehicles will have a pull tab on the front, much like a tow hook. Of course from the rear it can be a bit more complicated. If a hitch mount or rear tow point is available that's ideal. A shackle fits great in those situations most of the time.

If nothing else is visible or looks structurally able to bear the weight you can always still try but watch your line pull slow and be safe. More often than not I'll run a strap, before pulling line. Straps are easier to handle when wet and cold and very strong for this application.

Besides, I'm running synthetic line as I believe you are as well. Keeping it dry, away from sharp edges or unseen hazards is first priority.

Straps are just straps.

karls10jk

Soft shackles are a good option for hooking up where you can't get a standard shackle- like those small cars/ suv's. I follow the same rules- unless I know you or there is imminent danger of not moving the vehicle or person then I'll stop and see that they're ok.

That usually goes out the window with snow. So with snow I have them hook up their side and I check to see how it's done. There are times where I've had to fix it. On that little car you posted, depending on the severity, I'd give a light pull on the a arms up front. A wheel is a solid place as well if you can get a strap in there.

Rednroll

I like the waiver idea. I thought about having them hook their side up and inspecting it, but so far that hasn't worked out so well. From my experience, it seems the ones who tend to get stuck in the road and are helpless aren't the brightest group and a couple times it's been some 16-18 y/o girl and you can guess how that went in regards to doing their own hook up.

I had thought about wrapping a strap around the engine mount a couple times in the past. I had considered that may be a good all around go to hook up point since every car seems to have one but then if it's up too high, then you have to worry about the strap hitting their plastic spoiler parts in the front. I had done the strap around a wheel once on a Grand Prix but was a little unsure of how good/strong of a hook up that was.

Last winter, I limited my pulling out others to using a tow strap hook up. Now that I have the winch on, I'm considering doing some of those, "I've run off the side of the road and am stuck in a ditch". I have fun getting out there driving around in the snow and pulling others out. All the tow truck drivers out there driving around shouldn't get to have all the fun. Most of the times I don't charge anything but now that I have a little more experience, it might be nice to work on getting some reimbursement on my winch and all the supplies. I can easily find 5 stuck vehicles just driving around the sub divisions in my neighborhood within an hour after an 8in snow fall. That usually goes on for a few days, since they don't tend to plow the side streets very often.

Using a strap for the hook up to the vehicle side has been my usual method. I pick up those $9.00 2in. straps and slings from HF and don't care too much if I break one.