Ever since first reading my owner's manual and looking at the stock recovery points of the Defender, I've been stymied by Land Rover's money-grubbing move to withhold viable recovery points as an easy stock feature. A couple weeks ago I was out backcountry skiing at a snowed-in trailhead and found myself needing to access the front recovery eye to get a pull from another truck. For those who don't know, the front recovery point is hidden behind a plastic shield under the front bumper which requires 4 screws and pulling hard on about 8 clips to remove. Needless to say, this is a PITA and a massive inconvenience. Land Rover's solution is to offer a Front Undershield protector for $800 (for the part alone, which also requires bumper removal to mount). I know that it is made of metal and has a stronger mounting assembly, but if the factory eye already is made to recover the vehicle I didn't see the need for this additional part and cost.

So today I did some exploring and ended up doing a DIY mod of removing a portion of the existing trim so that the eye is always accessible. I wanted to keep the hook accessible but minimize the cutting of the trim and below is an outline of the process and result. Overall, I think this is a good way to save significant time in the field and doesn't take away from the original look.


This is what our cars look like with the stock plastic trim removed and in red is the recovery eye.



The first step was to cut the lowest part where the plastic 'bends' upward towards the main trim. You can see on the left and right of the area I removed the inner screw holes that are part of the 4 total screws that need to be removed. The marked area above was some templating I was doing to test the mount.


Here is a shot of the piece back on the truck showing the lowest part cut open. You can see how even just removing that lowest part gets you better access already, but not good enough as a tow strap would ruin the rest of the trim at this point. I ended up taking back off and cleaning up the edges a lot after the final cutting.


I then cut an additional 3.5" above where the trim bends, and angled the upper part in 1.5" narrower than the lowest part. This allows ample space to the left and right for a tow strap to move but also tapers the opening for a cleaner look. This is prior to cleaning up the edges/opening.



Final shot with all sanding and shaping done and trim installed again. Completely accessible now!

 

Well Done!

 

Doesn't it come as open? My X has it exposed.

 

Doesn't the X include the front aluminum skidplate / undershield as standard? Other models just have a plastic cover there, the undershield is an extra cost accessory, and unlike the plastic cover it has an opening for the front tow ring.

 

Yes it does. Didn't know it was not standard?