Towing

Once restored, my series 3 might be doing some light towing and stuff like that, but when i went to see a guy about tires, the cross member on his series 2 it was completely bent backwards because he had been doing snatching/towing around his yard. I do NOT want that happening to mine, what are safe towing options? is there something like the 90 tow hitch i can use, that has beams that run along to the chassis rails to solidify the structure? What have you guys done to solidity the towing point?

Have done some serious towing with a series in the past and never had a problem. Even done some snatch recovery at 4x4 events and not bent anything. Chassis just has to be in good solid order.

Some replacement rear crossmembers dont have the interior strengthening the originals had or not as well done. I have toyed with the idea of a few steel straps welded in as you say but I dont pull owt very often so havnt bothered. Its a fair old lump of iron to bend.

Have towed all sorts with nothing fancier than a spreader plate on the inside of the cross member.

Never had any problems.

It would take excessive snatch, corrosion and weight to misshapen the rear cross member. You should fit an adjustable Dixon Bate drop plate. It will take a DB combination ball and pin. You need to order the high tensile bolts n screws. It will or should bolt straight onto the holes on the cross member. A drop plate gives' you the right height for hitching trailers etc otherwise you'll potentially have problems with too much 'nose up' weight distribution.

Right, so my X member is a replacement unit, but i think the bent X member may have been badly corroded to have bent the way it did... it was very bad, it's a shame i didn't take a picture of it!