How to tow a car with faulty brakes?

Grrrr....

Fiat Bravo 1.8 - split flexi hose on driver's side rear. Got the replacement hose and came to fit it today but a combination of rain and awkward access to the underside of the car meant I couldn't sort it. Rang the AA and got them to tow it to Tyresales up the road, bloke said he would bung a new hose on for me. Couple of hours later he rings me and says the flexi has seized onto the rigid hose and no amount of lube, heat, hammering, etc will free it. Ideally would like to get the car home to have a play in the comfort of my own drive, but need some way of towing it home - I recall being towed in the past by an AA guy using a towpole (big bar with a spring on which hooked onto a towing eye), where he expressly told me not to use the brakes but to steer and keep the bar as straight as possible, could I get a mate to tow me using one of these even though my brakes are shagged? Do you need a towball on the towing car or can you just hook it from towing eye-to towing eye?

Cheers

Hellraiser..............>

Reply to
Hellraiser
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I don't know personally. I'd assume that the towing eye is designed to be pulled though. Under braking from the towing car, his towing eye would be pushed by a tonne and a half of Fiat. It'd *probably* be strong enough but you're putting a force on it that it may not have been designed for. Given that, the AA do the same on the front towing eye using it to brake your car so it may be that the rear eye is similarly re-inforced. I'd try it if there were no big hills involved and no high speed sections where you can't keep the speed down without restricting other traffic too much. You'd also need to heavily trust the experience of the tow-er. He's not going to get an even braking experience with your car pushing at an angle from the back when he tries to stop.

It'd only be worth trying if you can test it a little somewhere safe and off the road for a while to build up knowledge of what will happen and how it will behave

Reply to
Warwick

It's only a bloody Bravo. They don't weigh a tonne and a half.

Reply to
SteveH
[The subject says enough]

I remember an old riddle based on this. You drive the car with dodgy brakes, towing one that's got nothing wrong with it. But it's probably still illegal.

Reply to
Tony Houghton

Yes, absolutely.

If I were using my own machine, I'd want a towball, if for nothing it puts it in the dead ahead.

Reply to
DervMan

According to the manual, it weighs 1360KG which is pretty close, never realised it was so heavy when my old Tipo was about 975kg!

Hellraiser.............>

Reply to
Hellraiser

Cheers all, might give it a whirl then.....

Hellraiser...............>

Reply to
Hellraiser

The message from "Hellraiser" contains these words:

Good god, that's only a tiddly bit less than my monster Audi 100! You sure that isn't the maximum kerbside weight?

Reply to
Guy King

That's definitely wrong.

Lightest version is 1010kg with the heaviest coming in at 1190kgs for the 5 pot HGT.

Reply to
SteveH

Hmm. I'll double check the Haynes manual for confirmation, but I definitely recall thinking it was bloody heavy and wondering where the extra weight had come from!

Hellraiser..............>

Reply to
Hellraiser

Except for the fact that almost all towing eyes are offset to one side or the other... Hopefully the towing vehicle's eye is on the same side, or one of them has two towing eyes.

Solid towing bars (Machine Mart sell them) are designed to fit to the towing eye, I don't think they would fit a towball (I might be wrong there). I have one I fabricated myself from an old trailer drawbar which does go onto the towball. Works nicely.

Reply to
Chris Bolus

I *hate* those solid towing bars with a vengeance - there's just enough slop in the eye bolts that you DO still need to keep them taught, under deceleration - if you don't it's BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG as they go slack- tight-slack-tight.

I'd rather use a rope, to be perfectly honest.

As for towing a car with fooked brakes - no question. Trailer.

If it's just round the corner, I *might* risk it with a bar, but certainly no further.

Reply to
Adrian

Give me the bar any time - drive smoothly and there's minimal banging.

Drive very smoothly and the towed vehicle need not brake.

Reply to
Tim S Kemp

I assume the models with a damping spring are the best bet if the towee's brakes are shagged?

Hellraiser.............>

Reply to
Hellraiser

Tim S Kemp ( snipped-for-privacy@timkemp.karoo.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Maybe it was just that the one I had was s**te.

With the eyebolts secured round the towing loops, there was probably about

3-4" of fore-aft play each end.
Reply to
Adrian

The message from Adrian contains these words:

I took the hook of one end of my towpole and fitted a trailer coupling. That's half the slop gone to start with. I've never really noticed it going bang bang.

Reply to
Guy King

Guy King ( snipped-for-privacy@zetnet.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Mine was disposed of after herself decided to park on the other side of the road to me.

Reply to
Adrian

The message from Adrian contains these words:

That /is/ a lot. Even before I cut the hook off and welded a trailer hitch to it mine only had perhaps 1/2" each end.

Reply to
Guy King

Guy King ( snipped-for-privacy@zetnet.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

OK, so I had a pikey s**te towing bar, and am basing my loathing for the concept on that...

Reply to
Adrian

The message from Adrian contains these words:

Ooops. That's pilot error, that is.

Reply to
Guy King

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