General What are the rules/laws for towing a car?

Currently reading:
General What are the rules/laws for towing a car?

Joined
Oct 26, 2007
Messages
382
Points
210
Location
Runcorn, Cheshire
Hi,

Ive checked the forum, doesnt seem to be anything on this.

My mates coil pack has gone and needs a tow to his dealer. My MW is fitted with a towbar, i have a proper tow rope, an orange beacon and were both Tax'd, Mot'd and Insured.

Am I safe to tow him? Am i breaking any laws?

Iirc, Im not allowed to use the Motorway am I?
 
not alowed to use a tow rope except to recover a vehicle to a place of safety in an emergency


you must have a rigid or a rigid damped draw bar (not on the towbar but on the towing eye


like this

car_photo_267099_7.jpg


an on tow sign for the car

ideally a lighting board on the dead car so you have no danger of a flat battery leaving the dead car with no lights


also check your insurance most will only cover you 3rd party whilst towing a broken down car


why not DIY the coil pack its not hard :confused:
 
Last edited:
You will need a light board with your registration number on, and no motorways.
just a thought how is the car behind going to steer/brake ? if you have already sorted that out just take it slow.

or even better buy a new coil pack and change it, it will take about 15 mins
 
Cheers for the replies.

The car is an 08 seat ibiza, the pack has completely packed up yet. Seat will repair it under warranty but sadly they wont offer recovery under the warranty and have said he will cause alot of damage and void his warranty by driving it to them (Stupid i know).

Where would I get one of these rigid tow bars in a hurry? Halfrauds?

Im assuming if he runs his engine in neutral it'll surive and give him lights, brakes, and steering.

Could i get away with putting my number plate in his back window?

Cheers,

Owen
 
Seat/VW coils are not expensive, so.... buy a new coil and fit it to the car.... Drive the car to the garage and refit the original faulty one..... Garage fits new coil under warranty.... Keep the new one you bought as a spare for next time.

Dave.
 
Gizmo you need the light board to duplicate your driving/brake lights to the back of the towed car, so a plate in the rear car wont realy make you legal. How far you gotta tow your mate?Halfords do a bar for £30
 
Gizmo you need the light board to duplicate your driving/brake lights to the back of the towed car, so a plate in the rear car wont realy make you legal. How far you gotta tow your mate?Halfords do a bar for £30

Surely my mate could just duplicate whatever I'm doing.. Braking, indicating etc. :confused:

Im only going about 15 miles or so.

Yeah I saw the that towbar. Ill get one tomorrow. It'll always come in (y)
 
I would go with dave's idea in post #6 :devil: a lot safer and a spare coil into the bargain
the coil packs are fitted to the plugs just like the stilo, so it's engine cover off, unclip wire and remove coil pack then refit 15 mins to do and simple
 
Nice one boys.

Ive looked into changing the coils. Looks pretty simple. Ill see what he wants to do. Certainly makes sense to me. As you say, it'll be safer.

Ill certainly invest in a towing bar aswell.
 
would the sensible solution be to just take out breakdown cover and get them to tow to the garage? By the time you've paid for coil packs and tow bars you might as well have got breakdown and at least you're covered for 12 months.

Dave
 
To do it legally you'll be needing a set-up like so:

IMG00009-20091019-1800.jpg

IMG00008-20091019-1759.jpg

IMG00010-20091019-1800.jpg

IMG00011-20091019-1801.jpg


As mentioned, the Towing bar, on tow sign, and a beacon or two helps make everyone aware of whats happening.

As for the light board its questionable as if people following behind towed car should know what the towed car is doing, or the towing car.

I'd use a light board if you have one, but in this instance I didn't have one to hand. Also handy if battery on towed car is flat.

Jon.
 
Nice one Jon. I remember seeing this picture on the forum, i was looking for it :yum:

Did you fit your number plate to the peugeot? Apparently this is only required if the towed vehicle is on an A frame.

Where did you get you bar from? Looks pretty decent, and also how is that connecting to your Towbar?

Owen ;)
 
Nice one Jon. I remember seeing this picture on the forum, i was looking for it :yum:

Did you fit your number plate to the peugeot? Apparently this is only required if the towed vehicle is on an A frame.

Where did you get you bar from? Looks pretty decent, and also how is that connecting to your Towbar?

Owen ;)

I didn't fit my number plate to the pug, mainly due to time, and the fact that it was a manned vehicle. If I had my light board then my plate would have been on the back, but I would have possitioned it so my plate and the pugs plate could both be clearly seen.

You can't fit them to all tow bars but I've a Ball and Pin towbar :D

So I attached it to the pin.
Photo0994noplate.jpg


Try Machine Mart they do 2 one solid
one with dampening spring.

One with spring is about £25 up to
2 ton capacity.

John

:yeahthat:

Thats where I brought mine. Was £26.99 about 9 months ago iirc. I went for the one with the dampening spring and it is rated to 2 ton (y)

Comes in a nice carry bag and the bar colapses into 3 smaller bits, and its always in the boot of the Stilo for the 'just incases', like the Pug incident was :p

Jon.
 
Back
Top