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-   -   S-Cross' suspicious build: Towing rips out the tow hook & front members (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/technical-stuff/203093-s-cross-suspicious-build-towing-rips-out-tow-hook-front-members-4.html)

At times, all things may not go in favor. Today while doing postmortem of events, many things could have been done differently. On the ground, realities, pressure, experience are very different.

It was a 5 ton tow rope/strap which was used. Not a steel cable.


Thanks Thad. You had said exactly what it is, and should be the point of discussion

The tow hook should be able to reasonably withstand the abuse that it is reasonably expected to take. And of course, its the owner and not a professional experienced at these.

The cross member must / should take reasonable stress, that's the point. Else it should not be designated as a towing point.

I have had the displeasure of towing few cars/SUV's and once, I was being towed, for ~100 kms and that too the roads were as bad as you can imagine to be. The road had craters, so big that a bus/truck's rear overhang used to scrape.

I was being towed by a big thick telephone cable [ the fat one which is being used to lay down new cables]. Because of bad roads, there used to be a lot of jerks but nothing went wrong, I too sometimes thought that something would go amiss, but was glad that save for tightening of few screws, all was :thumbs up.

I assume am using the same cable and it is strong and does its job, that 2,500 - 3,000 was totally worth it.

Those of my friends who are saying that the jerk was brutal etc, what if the said S-Cross was in a deep rut/mud and had to be given jerks for it to come out and one couldn't winch it? What then?

Sheel ideally you shouldn’t even tow a jeep or an Offroader like you said, let alone a poor car. First of all the S-Cross isn’t designed to run in mud or deep rut. If, by chance you ended up there, you should ‘winch’ the car slowly up. And if you have no winch you should be using a kinematic tow rope.

This kind of tugging and jerky pulling is a strict no-no. Not only is it harmful to the car, if something breaks,it’s outright dangerous too.

Watch this - https://youtu.be/ETFFeUoq5Vw

Ideally one should not, I fully agree here, but, how many of us have a winch fitted on our daily drives?

I watched the video again and to be honest, the jerk was not very violent, it was a mild one in my books to gain momentum for a slight incline as the 5084 express doesn't have a 4WD, it might have suffered from wheel-spin.

But all said and done, the design is bad for a recovery. It should have been incorporated better.

You cannot fit a winch on the car. You should seek the help of a vehicle fitted with a winch.

Laluks so sorry to read about your Kungfu Panda. The manner in which the front member sheared off looks terrible. Tow hooks and front member frames are designed to pull the car out of a rut or to haul it onto a flat bed truck. It seems like lower gauge metal members was used by MSIL. Poor show on their part. I think MSIL should cover this damage under warranty given your video evidence. Hopefully they will ensure structural integrity is not compromised when it's being reassembled with new parts.

These vehicles may resemble SUVs but are called soft roaders for a reason. The stress is on the word 'soft'. Unfortunately most overestimate the capabilities of these cars and wind up in trouble. I'd recommend treating a soft roader just as one would treat a car especially on rough roads and whilst towing - carefully.

When my Chevy Beat was towed, it was attached to a Maruti 800 from the garage through a thick, heavy iron chain. Throughout the towing distance of approx 3 KM, we went through heavy evening traffic of Gurgaon, through 3 large speed breakers and 2 traffic signals with constant jerks. Nothing happened.

And I am a complete novice when it comes to proper towing technique.

P.S. Beat was connected to the towing point at the front and MS 800 was attached to the rear beam.

:Shockked:
That's the worst damage you could do to any vehicle, though the distance is only 3km.

Even the rear tow hooks on (most) cars are not designed for towing purpose, they are actually 'tie' hooks to secure the vehicle during transit / shipping (though we follow several other methods like wheel / tire lashing, etc)

Can someone please share online link to buy "kinematic tow rope" in India preferably of the one which has been used by one of the members here.

What if you have to recover another vehicle? If the rear tow hook should not be used, what is recommended? Attach the shackle to the hook that is in the front lower section (under the body) and have the rope exit from the rear? Would it not rub the underside of the recovery vehicle and weaken?

Well, I assume the garage guys who came to tow my car to their garage were pro who do this towing job every day.

Exactly the point.The fact that the lower gauge materials were used is the point of discussion.

The jerks were to get the SCrosss engaged from stand still.

It was not used like a SUV, it was taken through the sections like I care for my Civic. But then if something has to happen, it has to. Blame it on Murphy!

Posting some extracts from S Cross owner's manual





Well, you may use it at emergency situation, but not a Hatchback to tow a SUV (for an example) Even the rear tow hook is designed for shipment purpose only, the one on a heavier vehicle should be designed to tackle the vehicle mass during transportation. So the factor of safety to tow a smaller vehicle will be higher.

The one doing same job everyday may not be a professional, IMO.

BHPian Sree73 had posted about the towing experience of his S-Cross.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techn...xperience.html

Luckily he has not faced anything like the car here. It was pre facelift model. The construction and design looks similar though the part numbers of Front crash bar are different.

That's Kinetic tow rope

Currently unavailable in amazon.in
https://www.amazon.in/Ymiss-Durable-.../dp/B06Y6334GD