welding tow hooks

[LittleAnthony88]

Can you bolt the rear tow hooks to the hitch using longer grade 8 bolts and a 1/4" plate of steel inbetween that goes along the frame rail and that gets bolted and welded, Bolts will be a mixture of grade 8's and 5's.
????????
I also ask my nechanic who is very knowledgable and does alot of performance parts, regular fixer-uppers and even built his own toy 800hp 3000GT mitsubishi!! We have a good connection there and he says that his top welder can simply weld those hooks right to the hitch!! You guys say you cant weld these hooks so then why does he say the opposite. My decision is to let him do it his way and see if when i go down to paragon, if they will pass them or not, that will be the test!!!

I hate different opinions!

 

[basalt51]

Can you bolt the rear tow hooks to the hitch using longer grade 8 bolts and a 1/4" plate of steel inbetween that goes along the frame rail and that gets bolted and welded, Bolts will be a mixture of grade 8's and 5's.
????????
I also ask my nechanic who is very knowledgable and does alot of performance parts, regular fixer-uppers and even built his own toy 800hp 3000GT mitsubishi!! We have a good connection there and he says that his top welder can simply weld those hooks right to the hitch!! You guys say you cant weld these hooks so then why does he say the opposite. My decision is to let him do it his way and see if when i go down to paragon, if they will pass them or not, that will be the test!!!

I hate different opinions!

Incase you guys can't read. There is no opinion. NO WELDED TOW HOOKS. The guys checking out your rig aren't going to give a flying monkey's ass about how good your mechanic's buddy's friend is at welding. Get your heads out of your asses and read wtf we are saying.

Oh, and use TWO bolts. Sadly, it needs to be said.

 

[afd516]

I have read this whole thread and I do not recall any mention of the welded tabs with the d rings hanging off of them.

Is this o.k.? The reason I ask is I have an after market bumper made of 3/16'' steel with 3/4'' steel tabs welded to the bumper to with 3/4 holes for the d-rings. The welds are really nice, also, not welds that I could accomplish with my wire welder.

I was out wheeling with a buddy when some guy in a full size Chevy with 44'' got stuck in the mud and his tranny took on water. He was just dead wieght in the water. My buddy offered to give him a hand. They put the stap to one of the hooks on thier truck in the front and we put the other end on one of our hooks with TWO bolts and gave it a yank. WHACK!! Little did we know, he had just welded his hooks to the same place that ours were bolted too. (My buddy's truck is a 1 ton chevy BTW.) The strap went flying and the hook came off of thier truck and smacked our windshield, hard. Luckily, no one was hurt, and even better, the windshield didn't crack.

We left them sitting there waiting for help. I guess he finally got some help because, we saw him sitting on the edge of the mud/water hole with his rear bumper practically ripped off.

Anyway, am I safe with my set up? Is it just the material that these hooks are made of that makes them brittle and unsafe to use when welded?

Thanks

 

[Littlewhitexj]

Yes you are fine, the tabs you have are not forged so you will not mess up the temper of the steel by welding them on, the whole reason you cannot weld on the hooks is because they are forged and are already brittle, the extreme heat from the welder makes them even more brittle.... most of the time welding is frowned upon on axle housings which take much less stress than tow points and they are forged too.... If you cannot weld axle housings, you shouldnt weld hooks.

 

[sidriptide]

My decision is to let him do it his way and see if when i go down to paragon, if they will pass them or not, that will be the test!!!

I hate different opinions!

who are you going to believe about an off-road vehicle recovery point? a guy who builds fast imports or people who regularly build, test, wheel AND INSPECT vehicles on club runs?

do not show up at anything i put on in new england with any kind of welded hooks.
do yourself a favor and listen to reason. you asked and got an educated answer. no opinions here.

 

[theslacker]

I also ask my nechanic who is very knowledgable and does alot of performance parts, regular fixer-uppers and even built his own toy 800hp 3000GT mitsubishi!! We have a good connection there and he says that his top welder can simply weld those hooks right to the hitch!! You guys say you cant weld these hooks so then why does he say the opposite. My decision is to let him do it his way and see if when i go down to paragon, if they will pass them or not, that will be the test!!!

I hate different opinions!

Just because he can doesn't mean it's a good idea. Use bolts.

 

[afd516]

Yes you are fine, the tabs you have are not forged so you will not mess up the temper of the steel by welding them on, the whole reason you cannot weld on the hooks is because they are forged and are already brittle, the extreme heat from the welder makes them even more brittle.... most of the time welding is frowned upon on axle housings which take much less stress than tow points and they are forged too.... If you cannot weld axle housings, you shouldnt weld hooks.

Thanks, I knew you weren,t supposed to do it but, I did not know the reason why. Now I do.

 

[Littlewhitexj]

glad to help, be safe.

 

[VegasAnthony]

just a note here .............I started this thread over 5 months ago...