Advice on buying a towing dolly/equipment

forgotmyname

What do you intend on using it for? What will you be towing it with?

As mentioned its an unbraked trailer. Even if the dolly has brakes the cars rear wheels wont be braked so still classed as unbraked.

For emergency recovery to a safe place to stop you are OK. But once you go beyond that you wont be legal.

I saw one on the A42 coming down from Notts. Car + dolly infront with a vehicle loaded. Police car behind me obviously spotted him some distance back. As soon as he passed the exit from teh A42 they overtook and the blue lights came on. End of the road for them.

If spotted on the Motorway your likely to get pulled and a big fine. Unless your towing a vehicle off the motorway to the next services or junction.

ratrace

Herzlos wrote: »

The thing about brakes is mostly about control; if you're pulling another car you've more or less doubled the weight but it's dead weight. That means your car has twice as much stopping to do and on heavy braking or steep descents the towed car will be pushing the towing car pretty badly. It's usually what causes fishtailing and jacknifing. With a braked system, the doll or towed car will do the braking for itself based on how hard you brake (using a spring in the hitch), so it's less likely to push the towing car about and will be better behaved on a hill. The legal limit for not having a braked system is 750kg, so as said that rules out pretty much every car built in the last 50 years.



A trailer is your best option, but it's expensive. You should be able to hire one fairly cheaply for the day though to collect a car, it also means you don't need to worry about what condition the car is in.

What about one of these is better its a braked version what the max you can tow

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Towing-Dolly-Heavy-Duty-/281405749598?pt=UK_Trailers_Transporters_Parts&hash=item418516f95e

BeenThroughItAll

Herzlos wrote: »

It's just a frame chained round the wishbones, which appears to pretty much be the definition of an 'A' frame (though some would argue it needs to attach to the frame somewhere). I'd assume it'd need wheels & brakes to be a dolly, so that it handles the steering and stopping.


Edit; you'll presumably also need a light bar to go on the back of the towed car.

I know what it is, I read the ad - but that was my point, does it fit the *legal* definition of an 'A' frame or a dolly? The seller clearly doesn't know, and I can't find any legal context against which to set the ad, hence my comment on both possibilities.

BeenThroughItAll

ratrace wrote: »

What about one of these is better its a braked version what the max you can tow

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Towing-Dolly-Heavy-Duty-/281405749598?pt=UK_Trailers_Transporters_Parts&hash=item418516f95e

Sorry, but as stated above, still only legal for recovery as the REAR wheels of the vehicle towed will not be braked.

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20120606172804/http://assets.dft.gov.uk/publications/dft-information-sheets/a-frames-and-dollies.pdf

forgotmyname

Exactly as above the cars rear wheels are not braked so its still an unbraked trailer.
last time i looked there were no type approved braking systems that would make it legal either.

If you want to tow a car any distance and not just local recovery you need a trailer or a truck.

ratrace

thanks guys for you advise an input

really helpfull

Herzlos

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

I know what it is, I read the ad - but that was my point, does it fit the *legal* definition of an 'A' frame or a dolly? The seller clearly doesn't know, and I can't find any legal context against which to set the ad, hence my comment on both possibilities.

I suspect the seller does know, but has put dolly in the title as well to get more hits.

I didn't realise that a braked dolly still counted as unbraked if the rear wheels were on the ground, I just assumed that if any of the ground touching axles were braked it'd be fine; you learn something new every day

onomatopoeia99

From the information you provided in the first post about your planned usage, you need a proper trailer as you are pushing the limits of what you can do with an a-frame or dolly past their breaking point.

That brings its own issues, like how much weight your tow vehicle can tow, maximum gross weight of the trailer when loaded, driving licence requirements if you're a youngster and so on.

knightstyle

We used one like that several times to tow a Smart For2, It was fine, I connected the Smarts lights to the towing car. The front tyres on the Smart wore out quicker than usual and when I towed in France I was told the system was illegal there as the towed vehicles brakes were not working when towed.
IMO I would use one again but only for short distances and make sure the towed weight is under that recommended for the towing vehicle.

Nodding_Donkey

Looking at the OP and what he wants to use the dolly/a frame for the answer has to be get a trailer. That's the only legal way to do it.