Towing a car (1 Viewer)

[grumpybob]

:thumb:Hi i know all the views about towing on an a frame but do any of you think towing with a breakdown towing dolly would be tolerated in differant countrys such as Spain.It seems the main grey area with an a frame is you cant reverse which you can with the dolly What does anybody think ?
:Cool:

 

[oldfozzie]

Towing in Spain

The law in Spain requires all wheels of the car to be off the road, i.e. on a trailer / recovery vehicle, they don't even permit recovery vehicles which hoist the front wheels onto a lift on the back of the wagon

 

[old-mo]

Not 100% sure, but unless you are a bona-fida breakdown company, I dont think you legally can..

I stand to be corrected..

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[vwalan]

just as bad in spain as an aframe . plus speed restrictions apply here as well 20mph and 40 on a m,way.
googledft fact sheetoct 2005 note on a-frames and dollies.
shame as i have a lovely harvey frost tow boy here . but even the american versions that really look the part have to follow the same rules .
mind never knew about all these rules thirty years ago when recovery was racing all over with them . and unbraked aframes for bringing cars home from auctions . always buy the first one with a towhitch .boot full of aframes on the car you went with . those were the days .
even the breakdown companies need a licence to have a yellow flashing light on the top in spain. like mine . hee hee

 

[Reallyretired]

Not even legal in the UK I suspect unless you are a breakdown service. The Channel tunnel will not allow a broken down vehicle to be taken, luckily the one time when I had a breakdown I was towing it on an ordinary A frame (4 wheels on the ground) so they had no need to suspect it was broken down.

 

[darklord]

They are illegal in the UK , they are only legal...but frowned upon, if removing a car from a breakdown to a place of safety. I would suspect, that you would give your insurance company reason to void your cover in case of a claim.
We have several of them cluttering up our depot, none which have been used for a good few years now.
The only way to transport a vehicle safely, and legally, all over the EU, is on a trailer.

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[vwalan]

when i was doing accident recovery we used the harvey frost as it had a good winch. as time went by trucks had better winches etc , rac and aa wanted full lift recovery . as far as i know they arent ilegal . but not used as companies wanted full lift recovery .i still use mine certainly never been stopped and the dft letter was up dated in 2009 . havent seen anymore news on them. also unless its very local the speed restriction is ridiculous . ideal here in cornwall the police liked them as it meant less big vehicles at accidents . mind hi-habs etc are much more available and used by most. be intersted if you know more about the legallity of them.i take it they must be legal as i saw an aa van with a fold out intertrade one only last week and intertrade are selling them on their site . but they do sell recovery equipment . not really leisure use gear.

 

[darklord]

We used to use "dollys" where the front wheels would be in a "spec frame" and the rears, would be on a "dolly frame" creating a total lift. The police refused use of them on any of their jobs and they were relegated to use on Limo's.
"A frames" were also treated the same way, their use declined due to the lack of braking, the weight ration between the towcar and the casualty vehicle, and the fact that if you had to carry more than two passengers, you were likely to be using a crew cab or small rtuck anyway.

Straight bars are only used now, if the "towee" is very confident in being towed, and only for a very short distance.......you can imagine the risk assessments etc that go along with allof the above.

Over the last few years, the recovery industry has allowed the evolution of vehicles with alluminium beds, which totally slide off the chassis allowing even a Ferrari to be loaded damage free, I regularly use a travelling axle low loader (STGO) to recover tankers etc....all of this is because the H&SE, the rtade, insurers etc, accept that the safest way to recover a vehcile, is by total lift.

Ive been involved in the recovery trade since 1994, and over the years, taking into account the accidents and incidents ive seen, I would agree. This is why I support trailers over A frames, and try to advise against "dollys" or other "recovery" methods being used for long distance vehicle transporting'
It might interest you to know as well, that a professional recovery driver, will stop and recheck his load at regular intervals on a journey...because they know,..that webbing strops can, under certain conditions, work themselves loose, if you are going to use recovery equipment to transport a vehicle, you should learn to be a recovery operator.

 

[slobadoberbob]

Even on a trailer you need to check straps

You need to check the straps even on a trailer as you go... Even the wheel straps can shift ad it is wise to check them at the same time as tyres at regular intervals. I can remember a certain RV owner arriving at Statord missing hs ramps for his American front lift dolly..they were nt secure and came out of his locker. He arrived with a bits a red face, and he was an HGV driver. So it is not just straps, it is all the equipment that forms part of the movement exercise.

Bob

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