Impossible to recover a car?

bery_451

Maybe a daft beginner question however if a car has no tow hooks on it and there's no car keys to it then is it impossible to tow the car or winch it on a recovery truck or use a trailer for the car or whatever automotive recovery method available out there?

Scrapit

Not impossible. A skate under the wheels and the winch onto the sub frame or something like that would do it. And of course there are firms that have hiabs trucks.

alembicbassman

Modern cars usually have towing sockets under a plastic cover on the front bumper. The towing eye (from the spare kit) screws into the socket. Otherwise there's a welded-on bracket under the car for attaching a cable.

There are various shims and skates that can be put under wheels to move a car that has seized brakes.

If you're not bothered about tyres, most recovery trucks have a powerful winch that can just drag the car onto it.

Cars usually get towed rolling the non-driven wheels. Gearboxes and differentials can be damaged otherwise. A good recovery agent should know what to do.

Some recovery agents have a crane hoist that attaches to the 4 wheels. The whole car is then lifted onto the truck

bery_451

Scrapit wrote: »

Not impossible. A skate under the wheels and the winch onto the sub frame or something like that would do it. And of course there are firms that have hiabs trucks.

Wont it cause damage to the sub-frame?

bery_451

alembicbassman wrote: »

Modern cars usually have towing sockets under a plastic cover on the front bumper. The towing eye (from the spare kit) screws into the socket. Otherwise there's a welded-on bracket under the car for attaching a cable.

There are various shims and skates that can be put under wheels to move a car that has seized brakes.

If you're not bothered about tyres, most recovery trucks have a powerful winch that can just drag the car onto it.

Cars usually get towed rolling the non-driven wheels. Gearboxes and differentials can be damaged otherwise. A good recovery agent should know what to do.

Some recovery agents have a crane hoist that attaches to the 4 wheels. The whole car is then lifted onto the truck

Okay so every modern car has a welded-on bracket underneath each car for winch cables only? Not for towing cables or ropes?

When you say tyres you mean they can be damaged by attaching a winch to tyres only? Confused, you mean alloys wheels?

twhitehousescat

on modern cars there is a nut welded onto the CHASSIS , you screw the "rung with a threaded part" in your toolkit into this . you can then tow the vehicle or winch it onto a recovery truck . providing you are out of gear *FWD) the wheels tyres will rotate causing no damage (take h/brake off as well) if car is is gear or brake on your tyres may be damaged as they are dragged

Car_54

twhitehousescat wrote: »

on modern cars there is a nut welded onto the CHASSIS , you screw the "rung with a threaded part" in your toolkit into this . you can then tow the vehicle or winch it onto a recovery truck . providing you are out of gear *FWD) the wheels tyres will rotate causing no damage (take h/brake off as well) if car is is gear or brake on your tyres may be damaged as they are dragged

Modern cars don’t have a chassis, with or without the upper case.

Car_54

bery_451 wrote: »

Maybe a daft beginner question however if a car has no tow hooks on it and there's no car keys to it then is it impossible to tow the car or winch it on a recovery truck or use a trailer for the car or whatever automotive recovery method available out there?

Tow eyes on cars are a relatively modern innovation. We managed to tow cars quite happily for decades without them.

twhitehousescat

Car_54 wrote: »

Modern cars don’t have a chassis, with or without the upper case.

it was easier to say chassis rather than explain what a cross member was

twhitehousescat

Car_54 wrote: »

Tow eyes on cars are a relatively modern innovation. We managed to tow cars quite happily for decades without them.

yes they had chassis then

AdrianC

Car_54 wrote: »

Tow eyes on cars are a relatively modern innovation. We managed to tow cars quite happily for decades without them.

twhitehousescat wrote: »

yes they had chassis then

Monocoque mainstream cars have been around since the 1930s, and almost ubiquitous since the 1950s. Towing eyes have been present for just about the entirety of that time. They've certainly been ubiquitous for at least the last half century.

If there's a vaguely mainstream car which doesn't have a towing eye designed for recovery, then it's almost certainly because it's been removed during modifications.

Recovery people are perfectly used to recovering cars which don't roll or which have collision damage which renders the towing eyes useless.