Project Tow Hook ..... or mitigating a $28,000 worry

dtbaker61

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If you are debating whether or not to put a towing hook on the rear of your MME, but figure that getting towed from the back is rare, it does happen.

tow point on the back is reeeeeealy nice if you stick your nose in a snowbank, or a ditch.
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scoopman

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tow point on the back is reeeeeealy nice if you stick your nose in a snowbank, or a ditch.
I've ordered the Stealth Hitch that's coming out this month to carry bikes occassionally, but really to make sure I have a way to winch my car from the back.

Part of my thought in buying a Ford instead of ______ (insert EV startup here) was that they know sorta how to make cars, which sometimes need to be towed from the back as well as the front.

I just wanta say that it's just completely unacceptable that Ford couldn't get its #$#$ together in the towing accessibility for our cars. How tough is it to engineer a tow hook for the car for the front and back?
 

HuntingPudel

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I've ordered the Stealth Hitch that's coming out this month to carry bikes occassionally, but really to make sure I have a way to winch my car from the back.

Part of my thought in buying a Ford instead of ______ (insert EV startup here) was that they know sorta how to make cars, which sometimes need to be towed from the back as well as the front.

I just wanta say that it's just completely unacceptable that Ford couldn't get its #$#$ together in the towing accessibility for our cars. How tough is it to engineer a tow hook for the car for the front and back?
What’s worse is they did engineer a front tow hook attachment point for EU cars that does not get put into the NA cars. Oh, and that crazy factory tow hitch available for the back of the EU cars too. The stuff exists but they couldn’t see their way to getting those onto the NA cars. 😕🐩

Don’t get me started on the forward cargo rings. 🤬🐩
 
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scoopman

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What’s worse is they did engineer a front tow hook attachment point for EU cars that does not get put into the NA cars. Oh, and that crazy factory tow hitch available for the back of the EU cars too. The stuff exists but they couldn’t see their way to getting those onto the NA cars. 😕🐩

Don’t get me started on the forward cargo rings. 🤬🐩
The Stealth Hitch will hopefully be a good solution for this concern... (and I hope I never need to test it out!)
 

dtbaker61

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What’s worse is they did engineer a front tow hook attachment point for EU cars that does not get put into the NA cars. Oh, and that crazy factory tow hitch available for the back of the EU cars too. The stuff exists but they couldn’t see their way to getting those onto the NA cars. 😕🐩

Don’t get me started on the forward cargo rings. 🤬🐩
I bought an aftermarket front tow hook... but haven't had time to pull the frunk and see if I can weld a nut on the back of the front bumper easily... or figure out some other decent mounting method.

I hate having the only tow points under the front belly.... completely inaccessible if you are in a snowdrift or ditch.
 


HuntingPudel

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I bought an aftermarket front tow hook... but haven't had time to pull the frunk and see if I can weld a nut on the back of the front bumper easily... or figure out some other decent mounting method.

I hate having the only tow points under the front belly.... completely inaccessible if you are in a snowdrift or ditch.
I bought a real EU MME tow hook. There is no hole behind the access port on my GT. Additionally to that (and more of a pain), the hook has an odd-sized metric left handed thread for which I can neither find a tap or a nut. I really need an EU bumper to go with my hook. 😱🐩 Because of that weird threading, I gave up on retrofitting my car for the factory hook. 🤬🐩
 

dtbaker61

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I bought a real EU MME tow hook. There is no hole behind the access port on my GT. Additionally to that (and more of a pain), the hook has an odd-sized metric left handed thread for which I can neither find a tap or a nut. I really need an EU bumper to go with my hook. 😱🐩 Because of that weird threading, I gave up on retrofitting my car for the factory hook. 🤬🐩
totally insane not to use the same bumper and include the screw-in tow hook in the tool kit.... so, we'll have to mod it. ;)
 

CAL465

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I'm in for a set of the TOW stickers. Only 6 (now 5) left at Amazon when I purchased a minute ago. $10 to potentially save $28,000 is better than the extended warranty return rate I paid for, so this is a no-brainer.
3 left now :)
 

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The Stealth Hitch will hopefully be a good solution for this concern... (and I hope I never need to test it out!)
Hey Andy. I've seen some chatter on this topic before, pulling a mach-e from a rear hitch.

If I remember correctly the concern was that of the hitch is rated to pull less than the mach-e, and in some cases 3000 lbs less, how confident can we be that this wouldn't cause an insane amount of damage if the hitch failed while pulling the car out of a ditch for example?
 
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scoopman

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Hey Andy. I've seen some chatter on this topic before, pulling a mach-e from a rear hitch.

If I remember correctly the concern was that of the hitch is rated to pull less than the mach-e, and in some cases 3000 lbs less, how confident can we be that this wouldn't cause an insane amount of damage if the hitch failed while pulling the car out of a ditch for example?
I wouldn't be that confident pulling with a lot of force especially if the car is stuck... But it would have helped me in normal situations where my car died and needed a tow. I'm sure if the car has free moving wheels that a rear hitch would be handy to winch or reposition the car.

The best measure to prevent these types of tows is for my car to have had better quality, but that's another discussion....
 

AlpaChino

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I wouldn't be that confident pulling with a lot of force especially if the car is stuck... But it would have helped me in normal situations where my car died and needed a tow. I'm sure if the car has free moving wheels that a rear hitch would be handy to winch or reposition the car.

The best measure to prevent these types of tows is for my car to have had better quality, but that's another discussion....
Truth! Thanks. :)
 

21st Century Pony

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Precisely because I have the same concerns, I want this thread's readers to know that I figured out how to and installed a real front tow hook. Details in this thread:

https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...front-bumper-knockout-cover.22826/post-584625

And partially to add a capacity to pull the car out of some unforeseen ditch / dead end + big battery fault / Zombie attack, I bit the bullet and added the Ford Euro tow hitch which bolts solidly into the frame rails and has a sizable horizontal tow capability.

The worst PITA about my method of adding a front bumper tow ring is the dismounting & remounting of the front bumper cover, which is yuuuge and pretty much a two person job. Apart from this, adding the actual front bumper tow ring is fairly easy.
 

Mach-Lee

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First, I'll remind everyone that a tow hitch is never meant for recovery use. Towing your vehicle out of the ditch or up onto a flatbed truck via the hitch is dangerous and wrong. Recovery forces when the vehicle is stuck far exceed the weight of the vehicle (2-3x) and the rating of a trailer hitch. You cannot tow a 5000 lb vehicle onto a flatbed with a hitch rated for 3500 pounds.

Precisely because I have the same concerns, I want this thread's readers to know that I figured out how to and installed a real front tow hook. Details in this thread:

https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...front-bumper-knockout-cover.22826/post-584625

And partially to add a capacity to pull the car out of some unforeseen ditch / dead end + big battery fault / Zombie attack, I bit the bullet and added the Ford Euro tow hitch which bolts solidly into the frame rails and has a sizable horizontal tow capability.

The worst PITA about my method of adding a front bumper tow ring is the dismounting & remounting of the front bumper cover, which is yuuuge and pretty much a two person job. Apart from this, adding the actual front bumper tow ring is fairly easy.
Do you have a topic on the euro hitch install? How is it adapted to tow US trailers with safety chains?

And sorry to be a pain, but I think that front recovery hook is going to bend or tear the aluminum crash bar if it's ever used. Nobody has done an engineering analysis on that to see if the aluminum is thick enough.
 

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This may work in the Bay State area, but in snow country none of that will hold up.

Also, for those of us that are retired / empty nesters, we aren't interested in buying the 7 year old... ? ;) #GrandparentsGetToGiveThemBackWhenTheFunIsOver
Is your house the one with the "You kids! Keep off the Lawn!" sign? 😀😀😀
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