1st Gen. XL-7 Front Recovery Points

Anything related to 4WDs and 4WDing

Moderator: Committee

Post Reply
AleXL7
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu 25 Mar, 2021 10:01 am

1st Gen. XL-7 Front Recovery Points

Post by AleXL7 »

Hey team,

Got a 2001 XL-7 which I use as a daily, while also setting up for more camping and 4wding trips.

Have got oversized AT tires (235, 70 R16) that give me 22cm ground clearance from the chassis' lowest point, on stock suspension, which I will perhaps replace with a lift in the future.

Car also has a rear rated hitch recovery point on the stock towbar, along with a pair of Maxxtraxx, a proper 12v air compressor, a first aid kit and a fire extinguisher.

I would really like to join the club and join you guys on a fee trips, but I struggle with installing two front recovery points, which I understand are one of the requirements for joining the club.

I bought two front recovery hooks and asked my mechanic to try installing them, but he couldnt find a suitable spot for them.

What's your guys opinions and thoughts on this?
The only reason I was going to install them is to be able to join the club and do a few trips for starters, not looking for doing any extreme tracks with the XL7, just a bit of fun and renote camp spots.


Cheers everyone.
Alex
2009 Grand Vitara 3.2, 29" ATs
Jonno
Posts: 570
Joined: Thu 23 Jul, 2009 4:28 pm

Re: 1st Gen. XL-7 Front Recovery Points

Post by Jonno »

Hi Alex,

Best bet is to come down to the meeting and chat with a few of the members and bring the tow hooks, there will be a few people who can provide some good advice. I suggest speaking to Neo, Steve or Luke on this topic, they should all have experience with this.

See you next week!
User avatar
gwagensteve
Financial Member
Posts: 2162
Joined: Mon 13 Aug, 2007 5:20 pm

Re: 1st Gen. XL-7 Front Recovery Points

Post by gwagensteve »

Hi Alex, I’m the “Steve” Jon is referring to in his response- happy to provide some advice

There is no requirement for TWO front recovery points (only a front and rear point) and we don’t make rulings on what is “rated” or not because rating recovery points is fraught and largely pointless- they are a dynamically loaded element, that is loaded in unpredictable ways and directions, before the strength of the chassis they are being attached to etc etc.

Note for example that any rear tow bar is specifically NOT rated for recovery. Adding a rated point to a towbar doesn’t mean the towbar is now rated for recovery, only the point attached to it. See the complexity? That’s part of why we stay away from mandating ratings.

Over the years we have used the stock front tie down for recovery successfully on GV’s and XL7’s. During any recovery the focus is on reducing load on the recovery equipment as much as possible and always using the minimum force necessary to recover the vehicle. A good rear point so the car can be pulled back out of trouble is a good idea. For the front, the implication is there is a car in front of you so there’s options at that point.

As an aside, I still use the factory front tiedown on my 1983 Sierra and have made no effort to add or improve front recovery points. I understand there is a culture in other clubs (perhaps motivated by liability concerns) that all points must be “rated” but our club doesn’t hold this view.
michaelpiranha2000 wrote: The rear is in great condition. but has a broken crown wheel and pinon
AleXL7
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu 25 Mar, 2021 10:01 am

Re: 1st Gen. XL-7 Front Recovery Points

Post by AleXL7 »

Hey Jonno & Steve,

Thanks so much for your guys replies. Took me a solid year to realise that there were replies to my thread, haha. In the meantime I had abandoned the idea of joining a club, but now after seeing your replies I got very excited to know I had the wrong impression.
Thank you for the very informative messages, from my understanding my front recovery hook will do (Also, read in Suzuki Manuals stating that this hook can be used for recoveries, so if Suzuki is stating that too, then great). So now I can join one of the trips :)

Unfortunately, I do work on weekday arvos, therefore I could not attend the club's meetings on a Wednesday, but I can hopefully join in some trip soon to meet you all and hopefully have some fun out there. My all terrain tyres are probably not suitable for the your next trip in July, and Maybe it's too late to join the snow-trip you guys are going to ,in August, but I'll be prepared for stuff coming up after August!

In the meantime, I also have gotten a small lift, which gives me a tiny bit extra clearance.This has been very handy when having fun out there - done a few solo trips around Lerderderg, Wombat State Forest, Mt Disappointment and around Toolangi, and the XL7 has done pretty good, no major damages yet haha
2009 Grand Vitara 3.2, 29" ATs
Post Reply