Bad Karma

I've been planning on making my own front tow hook. Anybody know the thickness of the front metal bumper so I get the right sized rivet nut?

RX-Ben

Relatively thin, just a guess but maybe .090"

brkntrxn

For a tow hook, I would use a bolt and nut. Any reason why not? It might be a pain to get a wrench in from the end, but definitely doable.

ErnieN85

you will need to remove an accordian like part from inside the bumper I used a big chisel then put it back after bolting in the tow hook
the rivnuts were just too difficult to set

Bad Karma

I need to get another look at it, but I had an idea about doing it without removing the bumper. I'll take a closer look at it before I finalize my plan (read order the rivet nuts).

I used rivnuts before in my old Jeep and they worked, but it was for something that saw much less stress, so I may decide to listen and just go with a backing nut.

brkntrxn

Food for thought: Ever seen how hard it is to pull a car out of a gravel trap? How about when the brakes are locked up and all for sticky Hoosiers are sliding on the ground as the tow truck winches the car up on the rollback?

I have seen both... and I am not sure a rivnut would live up to it.

RX-Ben

Yup.
My 1/4" steel toe hook got bent up when my PCM died, and that was with 4 rolling wheels, towed from grass and and then towed around one turn.
For the mount, I'd weld nuts to a sizable plate and weld that to the bumper thing, then fasten the tow hook to that, keeping in mind that the toe hook may get twisted and abuse some body panels.
I saw an aluminum tow hook on a BMW race car that had to be towed (again, with 4 rolling wheels) - it was fastened to the unibody equivalent of a frame rail - after the tow the "frame rail" was bent and the tow hook was toast.

Bad Karma

Thanks for the advice guys.

My idea was to bend the rear of the tow hook 90 degrees and bolt to the back side of the bumper so the force was pulling into the back of the bumper instead just on the bolts underneath.

Of course... I guess I could also just forgo all of that and weld the hook to the frame.

Last C5

I used rivetnuts for both my tow hooks and I've been towed several times. I've also loaded the car on the trailer from both front and back with no problems.

Last C5

Here's a couple more pictures. .

Bad Karma

Thanks! That's right on par with what I was planning.

Z06Tracker

I watched my car get dragged onto a flat bed when all 4 brakes were locked. Very glad my tow hook was not held on by rivnuts. I would not even consider that option.

Z06Tracker

Ok, maybe with the designed pictured above.

trackboss

Some of the above experiences are why I use soft hooks. Threaded inserts are great for some things. Tow hooks are not one of them.