tow bar questions

[runnin4life]

hi all
i have a minor dilema
the rear bar on my 4B is fawked
here is the problem

there is a tow bar fitted to the vehicle but the tow bar is welded the the rear bumper

the bumper is only held on with 2 bolts and is made of around 2.5 mm steel and the tow bar is held on with 4 bolts

my question is
would there be any dramatic effect on the tow capabitly of the tow bar if i removed the welds so it was only attached via the 4 bolts

and then replaced the rear bumper with something not as fawked as this one

i will attach a little diagram of how the tow bar and bumper connect and so on

green is the tow bar
black are the bolts
red is the tow bar
and blue is the welds


also the vehicle is a 1.6 ltr so im thinking the car will be struggle before the tow bar would fail but i only really want to use it for recovery

[RockyF75]

your pictures are non-existant. But when you are facing th back of the car, what comes first? the bumper or the towbar? So in effect, is the bumper bar welded onto the tow bar, or, is the tow bar welded onto the bumper bar? If the bumper bar is welded to the towbar i'd guess that the 2 bolts on the bumper is the bumpers main support, and the towbar gets all of its support from the 4 bolts it has, and the weld is only there to stop the bumper bouncin around.

EDIT- Pic of the back of your car would be better than any diagrams imo

[runnin4life]

the bumper is welded to the tow bar

i get the feeling by looking at it that yes the 2 bolts in the bumper are like you say the bumpers support

cheers
elliot
P.S i duno what going on with the pics they are only small

[up2nogood]

Click on the pics, they're there.