Al9

hi all,thinking of getting a car at auction.i have a tow bar,to take the car home.Is this legal to do?ie obviously the car that is doing the towing has mot/tax/insurance, the car i buy will have mot BUT no tax or insurance until i get it home, just wanted to know if i could tow it like that with no hassle from plod.the car being towed would obviously have its hazzard lights on. any help appreciated al

cster

I think you will find that you need a flatbed mate.

Al9

thanks for reply,so i guess you are saying its against the law to do it that way? can a car(saab 9-3 1.9tid 150bhp) pull a flatbed ok,just that i saw an advert for a flatbed trailer and it said not to be pulled by a car only a 4x4 or van.

dunx

iTrader: (3)

Any vehicle on the road needs to be covered by an insurance policy, towed makes no difference, unless you are a pikey with no insurance, and no address.... then they can't be bothered to process you !

IMHO

DunxC

Odds on

Different vehicles have different towing capacity's.

Trailers have different 'nose' loads on the tow bar, that's another consideration.

You can pull more on a braked trailer, than an unbraked one.

You need to see what the trailer is capable of, then check the tow vehicle is ok with the requirements.

Not difficult to work out once you have the info.

Edit - the insurance advice above is also worth considering.

Al9

thanks for replies, with a towing dolly does anyone have to be in the towed car, or do you just lock the steering?cheers

ronjeramy

iTrader: (1)

The car/vehicle thats pulling also needs to be heavier than the trailer with its loaded weight

Odds on

My 1.8t L200 is allowed to pull 2.7t in the right configuration.

Edit - A tractor unit to pull an artic, weighs only a few ton's. But the trailers weigh over 15 times that in some cases. (Some even more.)

Wenker Man

Please don't do that.

Hazards are only to be used for very slow moving vehicles (crawling speeds), manouvering or when a stationary vehicle poses a danger to other road users.

The towed car should signal its intentions using indicators like normal. Or use a trailerboard connected to the towing car.

However, feel free to use a flashing yellow beacon on the roof of the towing car and "on tow" signs to warn other road users.

phoenixgold

iTrader: (2)

I think the kerbweight of the towed combination should not exceed 85% of the tow cars kerbweight. Most cars allow for 50-75kg of noseweight. (The amount of lift required to support the trailer at the hitch. The limit of an unbraked trailer is around 750kg iirc.

At the end of the day, it is going to come down to what car you are looking to tow. If you are looking at a small car (fiesta/corsa), I think you should be ok with hiring a flat bed trailer. Any bigger and you are on dodgy, potentially dangerous, ground. Are there any local private recovery firms that you could use to move it? I had a car moved at my cost a couple of years ago and I found a private firm that charged me about £40 for a 10 mile run.

GC8

85% of towing vehicles weight is only a caravan club recommendation. More importantly it mustnt exceed the vehicles towing weight (clearly stated on the chassis plate): and a trailer with a car on it almost certainly will.

Auctions are snided with n'er-do-wells with beavertail transits looking for work: Id invest a few pounds getting the car delivered.

David Lock

My garage mate has a neat towing bar that hoicks the damaged vehicle's front wheels off the ground. This disables the towed car and I think this is all legal. dl

billythekid

Just pay to get it moved mate by a proper company. The BiB hang around auctions for this reason.

If you do try and tow it on a trailer and your over weight its 3 points and £60 and you wont be able to tow it any further either as I doubt you could get it under the allowed weight as I reckon you will be way over.

And forget towing it using a hitch etc, as if you are stopped the car will be taken off you (no tax or insurance) and its going to cost you atleast a couple of hundred quid to get it back and a trip to court.

David Lock

My apologies as above is slightly misleading in your circumstances.

It is legal for my garage mate to recover a vehicle and take back to the garage. However this method cannot be used for general transportation.

"An A-frame or dolly can only be used to recover a broken down vehicle to a place of safety. Transporting a car is, therefore, illegal. A-frames may be offered with a braking system that applies the car's brakes. These do not conform to the law as the car then becomes a "braked trailer" and has to conform to European Directives contained within the Construction and Use Regulations. It does not conform to the European Directive 71/320/EEC and amendments regarding braking requirements in any way. The use of this A-frame for transportation is illegal. It is still OK for use to recover a vehicle to a place of safety."


A flatbed seems the obvious choice. dl

David_Dickson

Find your cars tow capacities here....
kerbweights

Any trailer over 750kgs gross has to be braked, so thats all car transporters. There are very few cars out there that will legally tow a trailer and a car of similar size, to do so legally, you need a 4x4. Most are 2.8tons tow weight, and land/rangerovers are 3.5tons.

Dollys and a-frames are not legal for transporting cars. I dont know if things have tightened up recently or not,but the police seemed very lenient on a-frames a while back. I actually asked some police and none of them could give me a definite answer regarding its legality.

Regarding getting the car back, towing it illegally would land you in serious bother if caught. Why not insure and tax it to drive back? as a minimum, consider using a short-term insurance policy and risking the fine regarding tax? Its your choice in the end.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

I'd not go above the "85% of your car's weight" if you have little, or no experience of towing. It's NOT just down to hitch it up and away you go

Also, the post about artics is a bit misleading. If you look at a car's towing point, you'll see it's BEHIND the rear wheels, (often quite a long way behind), and this allows the towed vehicle to exert a leverage on the rear of the car, often setting up a pendulum effect that is hard to control if you don't know how, and which can result in loss of control, and loss of towed vehicle AND towing vehicle when both flip over. Believe me, I've SEEN IT HAPPEN!

Artics, on the other hand, are hitched IN FRONT of their rear wheels, making the above almost impossible, and the resulting combination inherently stable.

Alcazar, (towed caravans for years)

apples24

iTrader: (1)

i used to use a frams great bits of kit, ive towed all sorts, and because its attatched the car legally becomes a trailer, but as its over 750kg its really supposed to be braked so technicly is still illegal, but i done thousands of miles with a frames, only thing is you need to lay on floor to attatch it to the car to be towed.

a transit van and a trailer would be ideal

i now have a recovery vehicle so now i have no issues,

if you go to yell.com, look for breakdown recovery, there will be a fair few free ads on liners sort of things, ring those chaps you will find a half decent one that does a half decent price to move it for you

Luan Pra bang

Just speak to companies like cargos prodrive etc and they will drive it where it needs to go on trade plates.Or is it if its near to me I will find someone who can move it legally for a bulls eye. Which auction is it ?

dunx

iTrader: (3)

Depend on your age, your licence may not cover you for towing a trailer at all, if you are young that is...

DunxC

pwhittle

just to add, there's companies on ebay who deliver cars / bikes at a fixed £/mile - obviously there to pick up the folk buying cars remotely.

I towed a stripped race fiasta on a trailer with a variety of large cars, but including the trailer (around 400kg), it was always close to the limit.

I've just swapped the Mondeo for a shogun as the turning over on the motorway issue is a serious concern with a family on board

Wenker Man

Some tow companies can be quite cheap. I used one to transport my car (whats left of it) from a Police impound. 15miles away. Cost me £50

Which was not bad seeing that it had no wheels, so had to be hoisted by a proper Hi-Ab recovery truck

I did get a quote from another local guy with a flatbed transit, but he was £70. Which made the Hi-Ab seem a bit of a bargain.

Klaatu

Get it transported!