I've got to pick up a donor for another project - anyone know whats the score on towing a car down the motorway. Is it legal - and what max speed!


It's gonna have to be towed about 150 miles -

cheers Chris

Chris,

Do you mean towing with a rope, or on a trailer?

If you mean on a rope then I'd guess that the police would take a dim view! Apart from that, I'd be too scared, myself...

Better on a trailer, if you can get hold of one. In which case, it's 60mph on a motorway or dual-carriageway, otherwise, 50mph.

regards,

David

No idea on the legality but I'd recommend using a tow bar as opposed to a rope if you can get one- makes things a lot easier.

Cheers,

James

Chris,

I towed my chassis down from Glasgow to Telford on a Dolly (rear chassis wheels on the road) i later found out it was illegal because the item being towed falls outside of the regs for a trailer and inside the regs for a car and as it had no tax/mot and was not in a roadworthy condition it should not have been in contact with the queens highway.

I did however ask a motorway cop a few months later if it was illegal to tow using rope or a frame on a motorway.

The answer was not so long as the car is in a roadworthy condition T&T and you have a suitable trailer board set up. And he also added that if it were illegal the AA and RAC etc would be breaking the law every time they recovered anyone from the motorway other than when using a recovery truck.

It was pointed out that a solid tow pole or A frame are the better options but the rope was NOT illegal.

Hop that helps, but i guess the donor is not T&T

There isn't honest - unbelievable!

According to THIS there is no law against it.

Just bear in mind though - the towed car will have to have valid Road Tax and hold it's own MOT.

and its own insurance...

i was told you could only use a rope for towing a car off to the nearest exit,when i was doing recovery work one of our boys with a spec was told he couldnt tow a car on a motorway with it by plod,bit like sva really,depends where you are

i tow motors up and down the M1/M69 all day long sometimes on a spec frame on the back of our recovery truck at work. bit scary really towing brand new cars around 2 days after i got my LGV2 license

Hellfire, interesting site.

From the question:
Q. I rarely see signs banning pedestrians. Are they allowed on motorways?


"<snip> Obvious exceptions to this rule are if your vehicle has broken down and you need to walk to a Police SOS telephone, in other such emergencies or if you need to recover an obstruction from the carriageway."

Reminded me of a couple of weeks ago. Came along the A3 at around 70 (evening rush hour) and there round a bend lying in the road in front of me is a mattress!
Can tell you that caused a slight twitchy ring moment!

James

We towed a very unroadworthy Sierra 4x4 35 miles on a rope from aylesbury to st albans (using my then car, a rover 414i). We avoided any motorways which unfortunately involved going round hemel's magic roundabout.
There's a loophole (I believe) in that you can tow it if it's on it's way to an MoT test centre (we had an appointment which was subsequently cancelled ). I bought the car and blueshift had insurance to drive other people's cars so I think we were reasonably legal. It took 2 hours and we didn't get busted. It's wise to have "on tow" clearly displayed on the towed car too.

M

several things are banned on motorways, such as animals, pedestrians, stopping, roadside picknics, street parties, vehicles under 50cc or not capable of 30mph. You are supposed to know these things - thats why they are not signposted....


atb

steve

quote:

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Originally posted by stephen_gusterson
street parties,

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imagine being towed on a ten foot rope at 70 mph! stuff that for a game of soldiers...

id rather drive it illegally than be towed like that legally...

We were doing about 25mph down the A41

Well, thanks for all the advice. We towed it back yesterday. 159 miles - no problems. Used a towbar from Machine mart (£25.00 for the one with the damper spring £10.00 without). What a revalation, after years of using tow ropes (for short distances mind you) what a great bit of kit a towbar is. I had to remind myself that I had a car behind me (it was a 3 door Sierra with a v8 in it !)

Mind you my mate in the Sierra wasnt so happy as it didn't have a windscreen - and yes it did rain!

Don't scrap the shell, you'll get a buyer for it after.

I've used a dolly a few times to move untaxed, uninsured, un-MOT'd cars around. Never had any problems, even on the motorway.

Just make sure you display a trailer board on the back and I can't see there being too much bother unless you're being really stupid.

I've got a feeling there are potential problems as a dolly is technically an articulated trailer. Would take an jobsworth copper to do anything about it tho.... oh, that'll be all of them then!

Chris

There's a discussion about this sort of thing on TOL - here's a link I posted there, which may help...

Clicky

rgds,

David

"blueshift had insurance to drive other people's cars"
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You are not insured even if your policy says you can drive any other car third party unless the other car is already insured by another party.