[NotThePainter]

We have a member of our off road club that has a Crosstrek, those hooks are not meant for recovery, he found out the hard way.

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.

 

[NotThePainter]

We have frame attached tie down points in the front. We have no front hook hole, and, while we have a rear one, installing the hitch deletes it.

I don't think the tie down points are good enough for recovery points. Tie means they are built for a downwards force, not a front force.

And the rear tow hitch is perfect, just get something like this:

Learn more: Amazon.com : I_S IMPORT Heavy Solid Shank 10K LBS D-Ring Receiver Hitch Tow with 5/8" Hitch Pin : Garden & Outdoor

That's just the first google hit, I'm sure there are others out there. I use one of these on my off road jeep all the time.