(Censored) cheapo unibody cars!!!

[JDgreen227]

Early this morning I took my tractor over to plow the huge driveway of the elderly couple across the road, there was 10 inches of snow overnight and their grand daughter missed the driveway about 10 pm and got the front end of her Chevy HHR in the soft ground. It was only about two feet from the pavement...I had a tow strap on my tractor and offered to tug it back, that would have been so easy to do, but after digging the snow out from underneath and looking under, there is NO place to hook a strap to...NONE. On one side was the muffler, and although there was a strut/reinforcement angle on the other side, I would have hated to bend her nearly new vehicle. So we finally got two of my other neighbors plus her husband and the four of us were able to push it back enough....and in the process the spinning tires painted a brown stripe on my coat and jeans....:laughing:

All that work and time wasted just because I couldn't hook up a strap to anything solid enough to take a 500 pound pull. Why can't automakers install a hook assembly on the unibody framework for situations like this? Cheapskate, penny pinching p-----ks IMO. I really miss the older full frame cars they used to build. Oh yes, there were a pair of bumper impact absorbers but to attach a strap to those would have crumpled the fascia when I pulled on the strap.

 

[Scooby074]

Get yourself a set of these:

And there wont be a unibody you cant hook to.

 

[JDgreen227]

Get yourself a set of these:

And there wont be a unibody you cant hook to.

The WAS a fairly decent size hole in the bottom of the passenger side frame rail...and I could have attached a J-hook I have into that hole....BUT...the rear bumper fascia bottom was over a foot lower than the hole...attaching the tow strap to the J-hook I had or any of the tools you show still would have made the strap crumple the fascia even if I had attached the other end to the lowest point on my tractor....the draw bar under the rear axle....thanks for the advice though.

 

[GPintheMitten]

I've never seen a set of hooks like that, but about 10 years ago, I hooked a chain to a hole in the unibody frame/box in my Chevy Cavalier and pulled. It tore the unibody frame open like a can opener.

I would be concerned that all the pressure of any of those hooks might do the same.

 

[boatyard]

I agree that it is a pain that they do not provide simple easy to find loops to grab on and pull with.

But on my Volvos they do provide a big eyebolt that screws into either bumper and works. The first one that I owned did not have the bolt and it was a while before I figured out what their plan was and purchased the eyebolt that fit. Metric, dealer only, expensive, of course!

And you are right to be careful about using the holes in the unibody for dragging a car. The last car that I purchased has a 3" long tear at one of the hold down spots. I think that the set of hooks/ holes in the unibody are really just to hold the car down on a flatbed truck and not for pulling the car out of a ditch.
Christopher

 

[JDgreen227]

I agree that it is a pain that they do not provide simple easy to find loops to grab on and pull with.

But on my Volvos they do provide a big eyebolt that screws into either bumper and works. The first one that I owned did not have the bolt and it was a while before I figured out what their plan was and purchased the eyebolt that fit. Metric, dealer only, expensive, of course!

And you are right to be careful about using the holes in the unibody for dragging a car. The last car that I purchased has a 3" long tear at one of the hold down spots. I think that the set of hooks/ holes in the unibody are really just to hold the car down on a flatbed truck and not for pulling the car out of a ditch.
Christopher

Concur with you and GP about using the holes in the frame rails for pulling, I am just wondering HOW to attach a tow strap. To be honest, I did think about putting the tow strap thru both rear wheels (open spoke type) and running the two closed loops of the strap to my clevis on the drawbar...seems to me with the ice that was on the ground, the rear wheels would easily slide back a few feet without damage...(front drive) but I decided not to.

 

[chucko]

Don't most of the jap cars have hooks that are used to chain them down on the boat ride over?

 

[Car Doc]

Don't most of the jap cars have hooks that are used to chain them down on the boat ride over?

Yes chucko thats exactly right US cars did too before the 80's!

I cuss the same thing JDGreen is cussing now I have to regularly pull cars into my shop that have broke down and were towed to me etc that have no place to pull on whatsoever. Its ridiculous even pickups some dont have a decent pull spot in front. (07 Titan worked on recently comes to mind)

 

[deepNdirt]

I think this topic might have answered and mystery My FIL has had since him wrecking his car, although the wreck was more like a slide off backward into a ditch while the road was wet during rain, He had bought a new to him a ''96 mustang ... being his age of '73 he must thought he needed a chick magnet ............ anyway it was too much power for him and he spun it out, He claimed to not have hit anything, although it did blow out a tire when sliding sideways, So when he had it pulled from the ditch onto a Rollback truck, He let the driver take it onto his garage to put another tire on it, Turns out he also needed the entire rack and pinion, for some unknown reason it had become bent and was not drivable, my father-in-law had suspect that the driver may have hooked to the driver side of it with the hook when pulling it from the ditch onto the truck, I'm sure this could been what happen due to not having a solid place to pull from,

 

[JDgreen227]

Yes chucko thats exactly right US cars did too before the 80's!

I cuss the same thing JDGreen is cussing now I have to regularly pull cars into my shop that have broke down and were towed to me etc that have no place to pull on whatsoever. Its ridiculous even pickups some dont have a decent pull spot in front. (07 Titan worked on recently comes to mind)

So tell us how you do it unless it's a trade secret lol....I did some research and it says the front suspension/engine cradle on most vehicles with unibodies is rather solid but the rear part of them is practically worthless for hooking up. Reminds me of when about 4 winters ago a lady skidded off the road, she was driving a Dodge Grand Caravan van, went off the road at 90 degree angle and ended up high centered in a steep ditch with the a-- end of the van about ten feet from the road. She hiked to my house, I went out and I hooked up a tow strap to the front cradle and tried to pull her loose with my JD, then my GMC. Couldn't even budge it and she called AAA, they sent a one ton Dodge 3500 dually wrecker, he parked in the middle of the road, hooked onto the rear suspension with something and pulled the van out at a 35 degree angle upgrade. I wish I had seen how he hooked onto it.

BTW my Lesabre recently had a Class 2 (3500 lb) hitch installed by me, I cannot help but wonder just how strong that hitch actually is and if it would work for recovery purposes. It is held onto the unibody frame by by two half inch grade 5 bolts and two 3/8 inch grade 5 bolts. Car weighs about 3650 with a full tank.