36 replies to this topic

[Miniryan09]

just phone the police and report a robbery at you nearest bank......they will be to busy then haha

Liking that idea!

[jb93]

My mate did this with a Scooby. It was on a bar thing with only the back wheels on the ground. He got a £700 fine, and 6 points on his license

[Remylebleu]

£700 fine for reporting a fake bank robbery? not bad at all

Edited by Remylebleu, 24 March 2012 - 03:30 PM.

[daddy2coull]

i did this with a mk1 golf gti that i restored for a friend, we were a little concerned about the legality so called into the local police station for some advice. there advice was to use a solid tow bar and don't take the piss.

[daddy2coull]

just read the post about the scooby, i'm wondering if you'd put a trailer board (light board) on the back of the scooby, would it be classed as a trailer?? Looks like we were just lucky when moving the golf.

[SA MINI]

I tow cars to my workshop now & then. I always use a solid bar & put the number plate from car thats doing the towing on the back of the car being towed along with an on tow number plate. obviously get someone with a liscence to sit in the car being towed to help with braking & use of indicators.
I've never had any issues with police doing this

[tommy13]

Always worried when I read the use of tow ropes is illegal as we use them to tow vehicles in over short distances on a weekly basis. I have just looked on "Ukpoliceonline" and the general opinion is that they are not illegal. The towed vehicle must be road legal, driven by a qualified driver, the rope must be clearly visible if over 1.5 metres long and a Max length of 4.5 metres.
For 1/4 mile I would risk it, but think carefully about what could go wrong. Loss of control or break away of the towed car are the worst case I would think, so take it steady, do not snatch the rope and make sure the steering and brakes are fully functional and the tyres blown up. This is obviously irresponsible advice on my part as it is illegal in your case.
I could be wrong on this, but you never see people pulled over at about 1.45pm. Could there be a shift change at 2.00?

[Jordie]

you'll probally find doing it at stupid o clock will attract more attention

neighbours will be ringing police, reporting possible theft of a motor vehicle and such. police come to look around. DOH.

[toplessmini]

I have a one man A-Frame towing device. Got it off ebay and never used it....................... Tow on your own, no need for some one to be in the towed vehicle.

Will need a tow bar tho.......................

Edited by toplessmini, 24 March 2012 - 05:15 PM.

[bmcecosse]

The A frame device is now considered to be illegal - and certainly the car being towed must be fully legal.

[Jordie]

ive got one of those and if i remember right, the law says something like this about them

An A-frame attachment to a motor car can be used legally, but it is a device which is to be used to recover broken down vehicles to a place of safety, nothing else.That doesn't include towing broken down vehicles from a place of safety. The towed car must be roadworthy.

'A-frame' attachments are regularly used by used car sales businesses to transport a vehicle back from auction. This is illegal and dangerous in many cases, given that the trailed vehicle may have a similar GVW to that of the towing vehicle, which have a dramatic effect on the braking distances. They also have no breakaway cables in most cases, so if the attachment should fail there is no additional control over the direction or speed of the vehicle.

Legally, if a trailer is over 750kgs GVW it must be braked. All cars apart from one have GVW over 750kgs. Even then, if the trailer is fitted with brakes, those fitted brakes must work on operation of the brake pedal of the towing vehicle.

Some motorhome users have fitted a system which allows the brakes of the towed car to be operated from the footbrake of the motorhome, but from what I understand, they still cannot achieve the required braking efficiencies.

[daddy2coull]

just another thought to what i previously posted about regarding the towed vehicle as a trailer. you are not allowed to carry passengers for any reason in a trailer. when we ran bendy buses at work, the engine is in the very rear of the bus to get around this law

[Old Bob]

What a sad world we now seem to live in. I have been towed (and have towed others) considerable distances - on a motor bike. I have also towed (and have been towed) cars and vans on the odd length of strap, rope or thick piece of string.

Obviously, no longer acceptable but when did we as a nation lose our sense of humour, or is it the case that 'make do and mend' has been replaced by waving a plastic credit card?

Bob

[Miniryan09]

What a sad world we now seem to live in. I have been towed (and have towed others) considerable distances - on a motor bike. I have also towed (and have been towed) cars and vans on the odd length of strap, rope or thick piece of string.

Obviously, no longer acceptable but when did we as a nation lose our sense of humour, or is it the case that 'make do and mend' has been replaced by waving a plastic credit card?

Bob

Agree with that, everything has way too much red tape

[dannygee79]

as long as the car is insured you are ok to tow it,i got busted a while ago for the same thing.