Board logo

towing question from the posse
Volvorsport - 8/6/13 at 05:47 PM

right , need to bring a car back from belgium .

i can hire a trailer for 3 days circa 50 a day .

do i buy a towing dolly for 150 , and dolly it back from belgium , legally i think im fine to tow without an mot .

reason being my tow car with trailer/car combination may not be strictly legal whereas the towing dolly weighs next to nack all , also itll be easier on the way there ..

what do you reckon....

owelly - 8/6/13 at 06:15 PM

If any of the towed-car wheels are on the road, it has to be fully road legal.

owelly - 8/6/13 at 06:16 PM

....and dollies and A-frames are for 'recovery to a safe place' only.

chrism - 8/6/13 at 06:18 PM

Plus towing dolly is unbraked which is max 750kg tow weight in the UK, only supposed to be used for recovery iirc and max 50mph.

adithorp - 8/6/13 at 06:25 PM

quote:
Originally posted by chrism
Plus towing dolly is unbraked which is max 750kg tow weight in the UK, only supposed to be used for recovery iirc and max 50mph.


...and the Police are very keen on this in France and Belgium. I've got a customer who uses a dolly behind his camper and gets pulled over in Europe all the time. Fortunately he has a special rig on it that operates the brakes so he's OK.

designer - 8/6/13 at 06:28 PM

Go on Shiply.com, there will be someone on there, and it will work out cheaper in time and money for you.

Volvorsport - 8/6/13 at 06:43 PM

where do you get the information on dollies from ?

chrism - 8/6/13 at 07:05 PM

Cant remember where now, was a google search years ago when considering using a dolly to tow a car.

chrism - 8/6/13 at 07:22 PM

I found this

http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/dg_digitalassets/@dg/@en/@motor/documents/digitalasset/dg_200824.pdf

Pretty mush states that a dolly can only used for recovery if not braked and max 40mph on motorways and 20mph elsewhere.

Although interesting paragraph.

"However, if “dollies” are used for the transportation of perfectly functioning vehicles they will need to fitted with
an operational braking system. Additionally the brakes on the wheels of the towed car which are in
contact with the road must work and meet thespecified 50% braking efficiency required for a
trailer. The dolly would also be required by Regulation 22 of C&U to be fitted with suspension.

richardm6994 - 8/6/13 at 08:41 PM

A guy at my old work got pulled by the police (in this country) for using a dolly for transporting a car.

The police followed him on the motorway and after he had past 2 junctions they pulled him over as they deemed he was "transporting" the car and not recovering to a safe area (I.e off the motorway).