Hi all,

I wondered if anyone was using one of these?

linky

Thinking of getting one to tow the kit car to track days? The kit car will be road legal and taxed so i don't envisage any leagl implications but how does the car drive when you tow these things?

Thanks

Dean

There's plenty of other threads about these, but they're only legal for recovery, not for transportation. Also you're limited to 40mph.

People do use them, and you may not get pulled, but be aware that technically you will be breaking the law if you tow to/from track day with one of these.

Also, if you bend your car at the track day, you might not be able to tow it back!

Andy : Digs out a deckchair and a bag of Pop corn and plocks his ass down to watch the pending fight that will ensue..........

[Edited on 17/1010/08 by mad4x4]

valid points Gingerprince! Didn't think about what i'd do if i binned the car at a track day. Also wasn't aware of the 40mph imposed limit..

They are for recovery only, i.e. a broken car from where it broke down on the road to a place of repair / storage.

Legally they are exactly the same as towing one car with another using a piece of rope.

[Edited on 17/10/08 by matt_claydon]

What about these huge winnebago things with small cars behind them? They use a A type frame attached to the cars chassis??

How legal are they?

I think you will find that the brakes are connected to the towed vehicle from the camper van.

Bob

i heard that on a bec it will damage the engine something to do with when the car is in neutral the gears still turn or something but the oil pump aint proberbly am wrong though

the a-frames and a towing dolly are different things, dont get them confused. as someone said, the holiday campers tow their cars using an aframe, not a towing dolly (front wheels are off the ground with a dolly)

i was thinking about one too, but would be worried about a few things :
1) engine damage - not sure?
2) diff damage - would it?
3) car jumping into gear

Both are not nice to tow with, impossible to reverse, of the two an 'A' frame is preferable as its much more stable.

With regards to destroying the gearbox, a bike engine should be okay but an CEC auto box would not survive long.

Much better to commute or build a trailer that the car can live on if space is critical.

Regards Mark

As mentioned, do a search as this has come up many times.
Basically the are for recovery only as the towed car becomes an unbraked trailer, over the max
weight of 750k. Hmm.. Sevenesques are generally less than that ??

However, every copper I've asked didn't know the definitive laws for them and I've used one
frequently with no problems.
I did actually get stopped on the M6 once towing a Celica with a Chevette and the police
were only concerned that the light board was on the back window not on the bumper.
Had to do a battery swap and put the lights on the Celica and they went on their merry way.

I was checking a doc from the department for transport:

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roads/vehicles/vssafety/factsheetaframes.pdf

and they talk about "combined axle mass" and not gross weight. I think it this way a combined axle mass is the real mass on that time and not the gross weight.