[B-Z]

The Problem: Canada built without front tow hooks.

All photos here are from weeks after the install and i did not take any video either. I thought some people here might like to see one solution. Much better than what i did would be to have the hooks on the front bumper area where they belong. I was not going to take down the front and cut around on it though.
Throwing into the mix was my wish to add a skid plate. So, I ended up combining the two. I had a call with Nathan from NWP and he said he would consider adding tow hook threads to the gen5 skid plates.... but they haven't made any at all.

Having the tow hooks down by the skid plate might not be helpful when you're stuck in deep muck and need to be pulled out forward, but for lots and lots of other scenarios i have hooks.

I bought a LP skid plate because i didn't want to wait any longer and added a climbing bolt hanger "inside" the skid plate.
This is the bolt:

It's a Bonier bolt that has two hangers. Typically climbing bolts/hangers only have the left one. Using one that has both sides makes it so both hangers/hooks pull straight instead of tweaking slightly.
This bolt hanger has a 10mm hole. The supplied LP bolts are 1/2" or 12mm, so i needed to drill the hangers out to fit the hardware. Then I shortened the LP spacer by the thickness of the Bonier hanger to keep the skid plate at the right height.

The next photo is a side view of the installed set up. From the bottom up, you can see the bolt with washer, the skid plate, the Bonier hanger (Spray painted black. Don't ask me why i did that 🤷‍♂️), and then the LP spacer. The rest is the frame and other car parts. It's the same on the other side.

Instead of hooks with threads, I can clip a carabiner in either or both.

Some of this is different and unconventional, but i have access to all the climbing gear, ie bolt hangers and carabiners.

Strength: The Bonier hanger is rated to 30KN, so you could hang 2 rav4s off of one hanger. The LP bolts are 1/2" and there are 4 of them. Not sure what the shear rating is but it's 4x tons.

Ps: I ended up cutting the orig plastic under parts to fit the empty spaces that the LP skid plate misses.

 

[B-Z]

pps:
I don't know if you could just add the bolt hanger without the skid plate.

ppps:
The plastic panel that sits in front of the skid plate does not interfere with the tow strap.

 

[SeanBeanDiesInTheEnd]

Awesome work around, glad a credible solution now exists for the made in CA variants. May the winch be with you✊

 

[Lindenwood]

Nice work!

I can't say how well the mounting bolts will like being pulled on from ~2" off the thread plane. Still, it is at least as good as my solution, which involved drilling and tapping the factory tow hook holes to 3/4-10, and building my own hooks.

For any recovery in which these vehicles should be involved at all, that should absolutely be plenty! If we are having to snatch our Rav4s with 20000lb of dynamic force out of mud bogs, we probably deserve to toss a hunk of steel through a window .

 

[B-Z]

Nice work!

I can't say how well the mounting bolts will like being pulled on from ~2" off the thread plane. Still, it is at least as good as my solution, which involved drilling and tapping the factory tow hook holes to 3/4-10, and building my own hooks.

For any recovery in which these vehicles should be involved at all, that should absolutely be plenty! If we are having to snatch our Rav4s with 20000lb of dynamic force out of mud bogs, we probably deserve to toss a hunk of steel through a window .

Originally I wanted to attach the hanger on the frame side of the spacer to avoid the extra 2" but that would have interfered with other things in the front. Then i realized that the entire load would also be distributed to the back bolts through the solid skid plate and this would avoid any bending leverage on the 2" spacers.

 

[B-Z]

Awesome work around, glad a credible solution now exists for the made in CA variants. May the winch be with you✊

Thanks!

 

[myang001]

I have LP skid plate installed and thinking directly hook on the spacer/bolt. However, in some cases accessing that may be much difficulty than a front bumper tow hook.

 

[B-Z]

I have LP skid plate installed and thinking directly hook on the spacer/bolt. However, in some cases accessing that may be much difficulty than a front bumper tow hook.

Yes the hooks would be a pain to get to when your stuck in mud up to your knees, or deep snow. Having seen stuck cars in deep snow, they've all been pulled out backwards since going forward is not the right direction.
They're easy to get to if you need to be towed on roads... and if youre the rescuer.

 

[BrandtGoot]

The Problem: Canada built without front tow hooks.

All photos here are from weeks after the install and i did not take any video either. I thought some people here might like to see one solution. Much better than what i did would be to have the hooks on the front bumper area where they belong. I was not going to take down the front and cut around on it though.
Throwing into the mix was my wish to add a skid plate. So, I ended up combining the two. I had a call with Nathan from NWP and he said he would consider adding tow hook threads to the gen5 skid plates.... but they haven't made any at all.

Having the tow hooks down by the skid plate might not be helpful when you're stuck in deep muck and need to be pulled out forward, but for lots and lots of other scenarios i have hooks.

I bought a LP skit plate because i didn't want to wait any longer and added a climbing bolt hanger "inside" the skid plate.
This is the bolt: View attachment 157652

It's a Bonier bolt that has two hangers. Typically climbing bolts/hangers only have the left one. Using one that has both sides makes it so both hangers/hooks pull straight instead of tweaking slightly.
This bolt hanger has a 10mm hole. The supplied LP bolts are 1/2" or 12mm, so i needed to drill the hangers out to fit the hardware. Then I shortened the LP spacer by the thickness of the Bonier hanger to keep the skit plate at the right height.

The next photo is a side view of the installed set up. From the bottom up, you can see the bolt with washer, the skit plate, the Bonier hanger (Spray painted black. Don't ask me why i did that 🤷‍♂️), and then the LP spacer. The rest is the frame and other car parts. It's the same on the other side.
View attachment 157653

View attachment 157656

View attachment 157654

Instead of hooks with threads, I can clip a carabiner in either or both.

Some of this is different and unconventional, but i have access to all the climbing gear, ie bolt hangers and carabiners.

Strength: The Bonier hanger is rated to 30KN, so you could hang 2 rav4s off of one hanger. The LP bolts are 1/2" and there are 4 of them. Not sure what the shear rating is but it's 4x tons.

Ps: I ended up cutting the orig plastic under parts to fit the empty spaces that the LP skit plate misses.

SO - you had to drill the 10 mm hole into a 12 mm hole and then you were able to attach the bolt through it? SO buy the bolt from an outdoor store, drill it out, and attach it. IT's that simple? I bought a 2020 Rav 4 and need a bow line tie off now. This is the best fix I have seen - thanks

 

[B-Z]

SO - you had to drill the 10 mm hole into a 12 mm hole and then you were able to attach the bolt through it? SO buy the bolt from an outdoor store, drill it out, and attach it. IT's that simple? I bought a 2020 Rav 4 and need a bow line tie off now. This is the best fix I have seen - thanks

Yeah that's it. I would only do that if you can sandwich it between the frame and skid plate.

You can also buy a bolt hanger with a 12mm or 13mm (1/2") hole. The two standards are 10mm and 12mm/13mm. I used this Bonier bolt because it has two lips and I only had that one as a 10mm.

You can find bolts on amazon or directly at the mfgs.

Fixe PS 1/2 Bolt Hanger TAN

Product Code: 013T-1/2

fixehardware.com

 

[B-Z]

My friend makes these bolts but i dont know if there is a distribution in the states ( duPla - BONIER ). I can ask him if he can send me a box again, but there are quite a few other brands and options readily available here.
The other brands are Fixie, Petzl, Metolius, MadRock, etc.
Just get the 1/2" hole. When you use the normal "one lip" bolt hanger just make sure you fasten it in the direction of the pull and that there's enough space to clip a carabiner into it.

 

[JFox562]

If I was going to add additional tow points to the front, I would add these D rings. The link below is where the thread starts but I ask question which are replied to with additional pictures.

Tow Hook/Eyelet Help

As we all know by now, the Canadian built RAV’s don’t have the bumper covers for the towing eyelets, or eyelets at all. But, after removing my entire bumper to find where these eyelets screw in so that I can just drill through my bumper to use a basic feature, I’m at a loss. Judging by other...

www.rav4world.com

 

[Lindenwood]

Originally I wanted to attach the hanger on the frame side of the spacer to avoid the extra 2" but that would have interfered with other things in the front. Then i realized that the entire load would also be distributed to the back bolts through the solid skit plate and this would avoid any bending leverage on the 2" spacers.

Still, I would expect the bolt will bend within the tolerances of the mounting holes (i.e. the bolt bends about a mm over, and then pulls the skid another mm until the skid is pulling on the other bolts). Then, between elastoc wallowing of the mounting holes, and overall stretch of the skid, you probably have a couple more mm of bending on the primary bolt before significant load is transfered to the rear bolts through the skid.

Just food for thought! I imagine it will be just fine for any casual recoveries, and you could probably determine its long-term viability with some careful inspection after its first use or two!

 

[Lindenwood]

I think you mentioned this, but were you not able to flip the hook over so its mounting surface could be above the LP spacer, against the mounting point? I looks possible, perhaps with some trimming of nearby plastic. If nothing else, you might at least be able to cut the LP spacer in half or something and mount the hook upside down in between the two spacer halves, which would reduce leverage on the bolt.

The pure shear strength of a 1/2" Grad 5 bolt is over 14,000lb, so the closer you can get the hook to the shear plane, the better!

 

[B-Z]

I think the problem was that the frame has a bend just before the bolt and drops down a little. So there isn't a flat surface where you can place the hanger. Idk if cutting the spacer in half would work well with the space needed for the height of the hanger.

 

[B-Z]

I can take a look again later...

 

[B-Z]

I think you mentioned this, but were you not able to flip the hook over so its mounting surface could be above the LP spacer, against the mounting point? I looks possible, perhaps with some trimming of nearby plastic. If nothing else, you might at least be able to cut the LP spacer in half or something and mount the hook upside down in between the two spacer halves, which would reduce leverage on the bolt.

The pure shear strength of a 1/2" Grad 5 bolt is over 14,000lb, so the closer you can get the hook to the shear plane, the better!

I tinkered a little with it today and got the hanger closer to the frame. It's not a bend in the frame that stopped me from having it flush against the frame but the recessed area where the bolt is. During the tightening of the bolt i pulled on the hanger to have it hard against the bolt.
I doubt there's any noticeable difference in strength to the way i had it before but... i'm done with it now.

 

[Lindenwood]

Well done! Let's go wheelin'!

 

[BrandtGoot]

My friend makes these bolts but i dont know if there is a distribution in the states ( duPla - BONIER ). I can ask him if he can send me a box again, but there are quite a few other brands and options readily available here.
The other brands are Fixie, Petzl, Metolius, MadRock, etc.
Just get the 1/2" hole. When you use the normal "one lip" bolt hanger just make sure you fasten it in the direction of the pull and that there's enough space to clip a carabiner into it.

I looked at this more closely and have several questions: 1) Where do you find that spacer? How long is it? 2) What is the thread pitch and details so that when you buy the longer bolt it will thread into the original 10 mm bolt hole? Is that a standard size thread? and 3) the skid plate is how big? Where did you find that? My RAV 4 (2020) is all plastic underneath.

Appreciate your help. There should be a tow hook on this car. I expect to drive it in serious ice and want to be able to pull it out if something goes awry.

Thanks-

 

[B-Z]

I looked at this more closely and have several questions: 1) Where do you find that spacer? How long is it? 2) What is the thread pitch and details so that when you buy the longer bolt it will thread into the original 10 mm bolt hole? Is that a standard size thread? and 3) the skid plate is how big? Where did you find that? My RAV 4 (2020) is all plastic underneath.

Appreciate your help. There should be a tow hook on this car. I expect to drive it in serious ice and want to be able to pull it out if something goes awry.

Thanks-

I'll try to answer but i am afraid that the answers won't help that much...

1) The spacer is part of the supplied hardware for the skid plate from LP Aventure.
2) Use the LPA hardware that comes with the skid. You don't need a different bolt. It's a 1/2" bolt, not 10mm.
3) LP Aventure front skid plate - 2019-2020 Toyota RAV 4

Good luck!