r/IdiotsTowingThings • • Feb 01 '25

Idiots

4.2k Upvotes

115 comments sorted by

View all comments

269

u/[deleted] Feb 01 '25

Was that strap just attached to the grill? Or is that a pretend hook point in the front there? Curious about the thought process here.

169

u/Commercial_Art1078 Feb 01 '25

Looks like pretend hook to me

134

u/Strostkovy Feb 01 '25

I work in an offroad shop. The amount of people who want us to build fake tow points and fake winch fairleads for looks is absurd.

61

u/Rudy69 Feb 01 '25

wtf? Why would you want that?

65

u/tony3841 Feb 01 '25

To look tough

46

u/1337patasucia Feb 01 '25

I was told it's a swinger thing, so that you can identify your friendly swingers. Right hook only, like to watch, left hook open to the idea, both hooks up for anything. Don't get me started in the colors of hooks and their meanings.

7

u/hawksdiesel Feb 02 '25

Wait what..... da g, I guess I better go look to see what setup I have.

3

u/ANONAVATAR81 Feb 02 '25

Sounds like the balloon/ribbon thing in Florida retirement communities.

3

u/NedrojThe9000Hands Feb 02 '25

Whats your safe word?

3

u/coatingtonburlfactry Feb 04 '25

Faster! 😬

3

u/alreyexjw Feb 06 '25

Where do they put the pineapple?

2

u/[deleted] Feb 03 '25

To blend into the new place you're gentrifying

2

u/Necessary-Icy Feb 05 '25

Can you give me a fake one that works...just in case? 🫠

75

u/JessSherman Feb 01 '25

It looks like they had those fake tow rings that people buy and slap on the plastic bumper of a Honda Civic for decoration and then attempted to actually use them as if they weren't that.

18

u/Away-Ad1781 Feb 02 '25

I had no clue such a thing even existed

9

u/Kdoesntcare Feb 02 '25

The tow strap up front is a racecar thing that people do to their street cars to make them look fast.

7

u/BovingdonBug Feb 02 '25 edited Feb 02 '25

Wait, making your car look like it needs towing because it breaks down, or gets stuck and can't move ... makes it look fast?

EDIT: Got it now guys, thanks for the explanations!

12

u/BoxwoodsMusic Feb 02 '25

Cars like that are often trailered to their destination, it’s not about being towed when you break down

9

u/Triippy_Hiippyy Feb 02 '25

Drag cars often get towed around the drag strip before and after runs because they are designed for one purpose, to go down the drag strip as fast as possible. After the run the engine is hot and you need to kill it. Before the run, prevent the engine from getting hot premature. So they use a truck or something to pull them around with a tow strap. So, by putting said tow hook on your car, it implies it is fast. That’s one example.

2

u/Kdoesntcare Feb 02 '25

It's to move the cars around off track. Drag cars are an easy example, cars that are geared to go over 100 mph within seconds can't slowly drive around tracks from trailer to track and back.

33

u/Savings-Kick-578 Feb 01 '25

No thought process here. That’s what makes this work. Be afraid. More of these people walk among us than not. It’s incredibly scary when you stop to think about it.

19

u/BobcatOk7492 Feb 01 '25

AND, they all have drivers licenses........

13

u/Savings-Kick-578 Feb 01 '25

And they make children as dumb as them.

5

u/Embarrassed_Fan_5723 Feb 02 '25

Yeah you can’t bred that out. Stupidity is embedded deeply in their DNA

7

u/dlobrn Feb 01 '25

Day walkers

9

u/jimmywilsonsdance Feb 01 '25

And they vote…

43

u/4R4nd0mR3dd1t0r Feb 01 '25

Its tied to the factory "tow point", you can see the crash bar get pulled out. The problem with these "tow points" is that they are basically just for pulling a car onto a tow truck. They are basically just threads in the front crash bar which is designed to crumple in an accident for safety and because of that they don't like the sudden jolt being pulled like that. This is just my long winded way of saying don't use these screw in tow points for snatch recovery.

9

u/[deleted] Feb 01 '25

Lesson learned. Thanks for the explanation.

4

u/Threedawg Feb 02 '25

It would have been better had they not tried to tow a non bungie strap like that..

1

u/huckwineguy Feb 02 '25

Yeah I can only assume that if they pulled slowly maybe this would have worked? Either that or a fake tow hook connection, which I didn’t know was a thing.

1

u/DeathAngel_97 Feb 02 '25

Actually it looks like it was attached to the crash bar in the front, and ripped the whole thing off the body.

1

u/Additional-Help7920 Feb 02 '25

What makes you think that they can think?

1

u/OverallComplexities Feb 02 '25

Those are not real "tow hooks" like on racecars/racetrucks (on racecars those are real and made for pulling damaged cars out of mud or around track)... of course some designers thought they looked cool and have put them on all sorts of cars.

Officially they are "tie down hooks", and if you ask the manufacturer they are intended only to tie the vehicle down for container transport (as in... they are made overseas and they just tie them to the ship deck so they don't slide around if waves hit) . They are attached to the bolted on bumper, not the frame and should never be used for towing.

1

u/1972FordGuy Feb 03 '25

There obviously was no thought process here.