Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

Now I am also worried about the towbar mounting of my 2012 LWB Pajero GLX.
I have read about the minimum 2 bolt vertical and 2 bolts horizontal. I have those but am not sure that mine will have the desired effect.
Attached are photos of a new towbar and mine as fitted.
On the new towbar you will notice an L-bracket welded to the bar. This is for the 2 vertical bolts.
Mine has the L-bracket but there is no sign of welding. One horizontal bolt appears to be the only thing linking the bar and the bracket.
Maybe invisible welding?
In my case the L-bracket looks like an add-on and perhaps the welding was forgotten?
Or am I wrong?

No, yours should be fine. As long as it has at least 4 bolts per side, ie at least 8 bolts in total, fastening the towbar to the chassis. Your towbar design without the welding is done that way to make installation easier, I think, but should not detract from its strength and load spreading if fitted correctly.

CATS

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I loosened all the bolts and confirmed that the L-bracket is not welded to the towbar.
This means that the towbar hangs by only 2 bolts per side. These are horizontal bolts.
One of these is through the chassis and L-bracket thereby spreading the load on the chassis.
However all torsional loads are carried then by the top horizontal bolt which passes through the chassis without reinforcement.
@ CATS - I agree with the ease of fitment/installation idea if the L-brackets are not welded pre-installation. But if tack-welded once fitted, the assembly can be dropped for full welding.
Then it will truly be 4 load carrying bolts per side.
I plan to have this done on Friday.
Please let me know if there is a reason not to do it.

If the hole and the bolt connecting the L bracket to the towbar is snug surely that will bind the two? Similarly to it being welded? Or am I wrong and missing something here?

I suppose welding the L bracket to the bar cannot do any harm if done properly. Just maybe tack first and remove to see if it will affect the removal and fitting of all bolts before doing it up propper.

CATS

CATS

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@ CATS
My understanding of the situation is that the L-bracket bolted to the chassis becomes actually part of the chassis. The towbar is connected to the chassis by one bolt through the L-bracket and one more bolt higher up - so 2 bolts per side holding the towbar in place.
My worry is the load on the 2 bolts per side. Are 2 bolts per side really enough?
The next worry is spreading the load on the chassis which is where the L-bracket does some of the job.

No, it needs 8 bolts in total, 4 each side.