Towing Dolly

I use a steering dolly about once a month, been told these are
only suppossed to be for recovery firms.
As i nearly got wiped out by someone i prob would not be covered by insurance.
also it says only 40mph on motorway is allowed.
Also if you have to go through town centre with speed bumps etc, car has never
fallen off but is still a worry...lol
i do worry about the wheels or axle breaking as it only has 10" wheels

 

wouldn't worry about the axle taking the weight, i'd be more worried about A) what you're towing B) what are you towing with?.
Think the max for anything unbraked is supposed to be 750kg

 

towing with a sharan, pulling a scirocco or golf cabrio size car.
ok if you drive it slowly, but was worried what would happen if
i had to break suddenly..

 

is it not a braked towing dolly?
I thought about getting one but I think the unbraked ones are abit of a no-no. i.e Illegal for just towing a working car all the time!
if you brake hard you'd better do it in a straight line I would have thought!

 

Are the wheels raised off the floor? Or is it a flat tow.?

As far as i am aware so long as the towed vehicle is road legal anyone can use a towing frame. jsut googled this very grey area
Often see them on any old piece of car ,at my local auctions.

 

I guess if they are only legal for recovery you could make your car always broken, pull the starter fuse or something, then if you get pulled it is a none runner..........

i will put on a flame suit before the Righteous brigade get here and tell me you cant say that blah blah blah,

 

non braked, only have towed with a mk1 golf or rocco, but some of them have
been falling to bits.
as long as the back wheels roll ok...
fronts are lifted up, sits in trays with locking plates behind the wheels, then you ratchet the netting straps over the wheels, pretty firmly attached to dolly then.
i only do 50 with the car on the back, as is quite hairy when you are rushing doing 80! you would never stop it. also dolly wheels turn on axles so it doesnt try and force the car off like non turning dollies.

 

Yeah they're basically illegal if made after 1968, since after that time trailers are required to have brakes operating on all wheels, if so fitted. If not, then you're subject to a 750kg TRAILER GROSS WEIGHT which is impossible to achieve pulling a Golf since its gross weight will be 1.4 tons or so....in fact impossible with all but the smallest microcars.

The only way to legally exceed the 750kg unbraked weight is to be taxed and licensed as recovery; or possibly some kind of agricultural use (they'll have 20mph speed limit, though).

 

might start hiring a trialer...only 35 per day
should get good money for the dolly

 

Can you clarify this bit? thanks!

 

you put pins in to lock the 2 wheels....when the dolly is empty.
take pins out when towing...makes car turn when you turn

 

Saw the AA towing with one this morning - surely they must be legit?

 

They are for licenced recovery firms. I don't know the admin or requirements to be one of them, though.

 

the aa ones are also braked. mine got brought home on one 2 sundays ago, very heavily engineered item the guy had. it folded up and was winched in and out of the back of the aa van.

 

The aa/rac use lots of stuff made by http://intertradeuk.co.uk/, sadly they remove them before they go to auction so my van hasn't got it

 

Im pretty sure that the car being towed must be insured/taxed and road legal?

Neil.

 

I think Riley's right, essentially A frames and towing dollys which don't meet trailer regulations are "recovery only" which means that anyone can use them BUT ONLY TO RECOVER A VEHICLE TO A PLACE OF REFUGE and the AA/RAC/other recovery firms, who are properly registered, etc, have an exemption from the regular towing laws so they can use these kinds of things for onwards RECOVERY back to home/garage.

The distinction is that RECOVERY means it was a fully road legal vehicle which has broken down or had an accident (which might have rendered it unroadworthy in itself, but still okay under "dangerous load" considerations once its towed) whereas if a vehicle has no tax, it falls into TRANSPORT not RECOVERY.

There are no exemptions for TRANSPORT. So, wheels on ground = tax/MoT/insurance etc

I believe there is also an exemption to tow a vehicle for scrapping and it doesn't need to be tax/MoT/insured.

Anything would need to be "road legal" in the sense that its not a "dangerous load", in other words if one end of the car were lifted, then the other end which is road dragged would need to have no significant faults, eg it would need inflated tyres with tread on them (moot point if its not raining?), suspension otherwise 20mph speed restriction, no bodywork/chassis contacting the road, etc. This is probably why bona fide recovery firms tend to favour flatbeds instead of spectacle lifts these days anyway.

 

See comments from Jetta TDi, post 8 onwards:

http://www.clubgti.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=170163

 

Accepted - however that was one police officer's OPINION on what counts as recovery and what counts as transportation. The AA have taken a different view (perhaps for a different reason, such as what their insurance cover, or the limit of the service they offer to their members) and only RECOVER, not TRANSPORT.

 

PM Jetta TDI a link to this? He may reference to actual legislation.