Nimbus

Spotted a Motorhome on Sunday going up the M1. It was towing a 4x4 and looked to me connected via it's steering somehow as it was following the motorhome quite nicely. Even the indicators were working on it.

How do these things work? How is it connected to the steering? Do the brakes work on the car as well? Not sure how a servo assisted breaking system would work if there was no power to it?

S.B.

Not sure about the indicators but it was probably a towing frame which unfolds and fits onto the suspension then onto the towbar on the front vehicle and tow..(make sure steering lock is off on the following car)

Diablo

You use an "A" frame where the narrow bit has the tow hook and the wide bit (dead technical, eh?) is attached rigidly to the front of the car being towed.

Usually to brackets on front subframe or lower suspension arms if you don't want to weld something to the vehicle being towed.

The vehicle on the frame turns itself as a feature of steering geometry, there is no link to the steering itself on the A frame. When tow car turns, vehicle being towed just follows naturally.

Electrics are simple - just a suitably wired connector block to the tow car, like trailer lights.

Brakes..lol...not used, helps if tow vehicle is heavier than that being towed (in fact, its a necessity)

All in, though, much safer way to tow than on trailer and very stable. no vertical loading on tow ball either, so additional wear and tear on suspension.

Used to tow a competition mini this way.

Oh, and as poster above has pointed out - steering lock must be disengaged..LOL...

[Edited by Diablo - 04/08/2003 13:57:21]

Nimbus

Sounds pretty simple then. I wounder if they disconnected the odometer on the car being towed? Would this be leagel since it's not "driving" the miles it's being towed.

Diablo

doubt it, its distance travelled after all

Dunk

iTrader: (1)

I would hope that it wasn't in gear !

D

David_Dickson

Yeah, A-frames are commercially available for a few hundred pounds that come with various different clamping methods to attatch to the towed car. If you have a bit of skill with a welder its quite easy to make on yourself, especially if you only intend to tow one car with it ie a track-day car. Welding attatchement points to the track car will allow the frame to be attatched by roll-pins or similar.
You can either use a trailer-board for the lights but this means having the cable trailing over the car, or wire up the cars lights to a 7-core trailer plug at the front and make up a lead to attatch it to your tow-cars socket.

Bear in mind though that unlike trailers, reversing with a car attatched like this can be a complete nightmare as the cars steering tends to spin over to full lock when pushed backwards for some reason, jack-knifing the whole thing.

As for legality, well this is a slightly grey-area and i have heard differing views from pretty much everyone I have asked.
Technicaly, the towed car is classed as a trailer when the a-frame is attatched to it, but any trailer over 650kgs (i think its 650) must have operational brakes on all wheels. This obviously isnt the case with an a-frame though, (although I have seen ones designed for 2cv`s that use a trailer over-run hitch unit and brake cables to attatch to the cars brake-pedal via a hole in the cars floor.)
I have been told though that if the towed car is immobilised in some way (engine fault) then its classed as recovery so an a-frame is legal.
Conversely we get a lot of motorhomes at work that use them, generally towing small things like Smart cars or Westfield style kits and I have seen loads on the roads and the police dont seem at all concerned.
I would imagine if its all safely attatched with working lights and you arent taking the **** with the towed car being too heavy for the tow-car then the police shouldnt bother.



[Edited by David_Dickson - 04/08/2003 20:15:19]