Has anyone ever done this before? I think it would be nice to have some good recovery points in the rear. I was thinking drilling through the plastic cover and somehow mount them to the reinforcement part.

 

Do not do that. If you want to have a recovery point on the rear you need to attach it to the chassis at the minimum. Ideally a hitch mounted shackle adapter.

 

The "reinforcement part" is just more plastic.

Get one of these:

SHACKLE MNT 2" RECEIVER w/HITCH PIN, RNA1022 - Rovers North - Classic Land Rover Parts

It will fit in your tow hitch.

 

I have always just planned to do as pictured in the case of a recovery from the rear; one end of my tree strap inserted in the receiver with a hitch pin holding it in place and the other end connected via shackle to another vehicle.. Or some variation on the theme. Is this a bad idea?

 

Well, have you ever tried to remove a bent hitch pin? It's not particularly easy.
And you don't want to use a non-elastic strap (which a tree strap is) in that kind of recovery.

 

Maybe you can weld a jeep bumper on with angle iron.

 

shots fired.

 

This.

Even the ****ty Harbor Freight version (that I own, don't judge me...) is a better bet than D rings in the stock bumper.

 

Okay, fair point re: the hitch pin. Would the largest possible diameter Grade 8 bolt holding the loop of a proper kinetic recovery strap be okay? Not surprisingly I'm not keen to drop $50 on a shackle mount if a $3 Grade 8 bolt will serve the same purpose with no compromise of performance.

But back to the hitch pin; why would we be concerned it will bend with a strap attached to it and not be concerned about it bending if holding a shackle mount? I expect the answer is that the load is distributed across the full width of the receiver with the shackle mount but may be more concentrated with a strap. Is that correct?

 

No, that will bend too.

Seriously man, if you half *** this, you're going to break ****. And if $50 isn't your speed, $10 should be.

D-Ring Receiver Hitch