To be sure, I’m talking about the screw in round headed bolts that go into the bumper, under a plastic cover. hmmm, checking the owner’s manual, page 418, nope, we don’t have those on the front but we do have one on the rear. The front just has eye underneath.
Our guy bent the rod one, not the underneath one.
Right now I don’t see a realistic way to perform an off-road recovery with an Ascent. One tow truck driver in our club has had some success using soft recovery webbing through the wheels or, if you need to, through a front control arm. The issue with the front control arm is that you need to avoid a tie rod of CV shaft, that would be an expensive mistake. (He thought rear controls arms were too weak.)
A rear trailer hitch can be used, just don’t use a ball, get the dingus that lets you put a D-ring through it.
The problem with these hooks up is it assumes that you are pulling with a winch, which is a nice gradual pull. If you are extracting with another vehicle you’ll be putting an uneven force, which may have bad consequences.
The general consensus with our club was that traction mats, and people pushing might be effective. The conjecture here is that muck and mild high centering are the obstacle that you’re facing, often, when off-road rigs get stuck it is something much worse and more force is needed.
Also, if you don’t know what you are doing, it is really easy to damage your vehicle. So join a club and learn from others, which is hard for us non-truck people.
