They were purposely testing to the failure point. It's not very often that a pickup would have a Cat earth mover behind it, nor is it likely that the average person would be pulling with a D8. The front receiver hitch failed at about 21,000# of steady pull and the rear at 24500#. Pretty impressive actually, the average pickup will never exceed that in a steady pull.Field testing a recovery loop here. Steady pull, not dynamic recovery. Several receiver failures.
Bruce
Most people don't understand you're not supposed to "Yank" the stuck vehicle so hard, just a little momentum is all you need.I bought a 'Yankem' for my use. Not cheap. I use it to pull unfortunate souls out of the ditch during snowstorms when they get stupid. We have deep ditches on each side of the roads out here. I've never 'yanked' on any of them. I get the Yankem taught and dead pull them and of course I always have them attach the end to their vehicle. That limits my liability should I pull their bumper off or screw un a suspension component. So far (5 years and numerous ditched vehicles) not an issue.