Towing

[bernardgreen]

Time to confess.......

Dusseldorf 1972, Me and P were working for a German company both with cars on UK plates. The engine block in P's Cortina was damaged by sub zero temperatures and no antifreeze, To repair the car in Germany would have been very expensive. Simple solution, tow it back to the UK where P had a spare engine. So with my trusty Triumph Herald we set out. We made it OK to the German Belgium border where we were stopped with the Herald in Belgium and the Cortina the other side of the white line and thus still in Germany. The German border officer was livid and explained how many laws we had broken but as I was in Belgium I was "safe". The Belgium border office was smiling. I pulled the Cortina into Belgium and the Belgium officer then said we could continue to the channel but only if we used a tow bar instead of a rope and avoided motorways. He then suggested we towed it to a nearby village were there was a garage with a skilled motor mechanic who could probably repair it for a reasonable price. We could use the rope for that short journey if only to get the border crossing point clear.

With the head off the engine the full extent of the damage could be seen. It was beyond repair. We left the Cortina there and went onto the UK in my Herald. A week later we returned with the replacement engine in the Herald's boot, we then discovered the border officer and the garage owner were related to each other.

 

[Avocet]

There are specific exemptions in the Construction & Use regs for "a broken down vehicle", otherwise you're right, they would be regarded as an unbraked trailer and way too heavy.

Power steering shouldn't be damaged by being towed, it'll just be heavy. Good practice to avoid turning the steering wheel whilst stationary though.

 

[ericmark]

Some gear boxes have twin oil pumps, so you can actually push start, I know USA cars often have a warning against tow starting and say to push start, seen it done with Lada Niva's back in the 80's but not sure today's bumpers would survive, but many cars towing a mile likely you would get away with it, but much further it may cause damage, I know I had to strip a Rover 3500 gear box and replace parts after it had been towed by a motoring organisation off the motor way without removing the prop shaft.

It seems there are so many gear boxes, hard to keep up. The Mariana said in the instructions you could put the gear box into low, and the gear box would not change down until the road speed was low enough not to damage engine, however the mini had a free wheel in first gear, and it would over speed engine in second gear.

The Rover said only use D2 for towing, normally use D which would not use first gear, it started in second, so for most of the time only a 2 speed gear box.

Today even cars have a 8 speed gear box, and I note the towing weight limit is higher with a Jaguar XE auto than with the manual, I would assume since the automatic has a lower first gear.

Even old vehicles using the Wilson gear box often had air operated gear shift, I remember going to drive a bus, gear stick marked 1, 2, 3, 4, R, D so thought do it easy way, select D, seems D stands for door, designed so can't open door when driving.

But the epicyclic was not only used with pre-select and automatic boxes, many over drives were epicyclic, so you have brake bands and clutches, which need oil circulating, ever the synchromesh has cone brakes, so needs lubrication, although the splash system is often enough, but out of gear the idle gear at bottom may not be turning, so may not even get splash feed.

I would tow a car to a straight bit of road in interests of safety, but unless I know the gear box, or have removed prop shaft would not want to tow far, and how many cars have a prop shaft today. I know my Kia again manual has brake discs etc inside the gear box, not sure if part of diff lock, or 4 wheel drive, but would not want to tow it far, and the drive chain and brakes are linked, the ABS and 4 wheel drive use same sensors.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Some gear boxes have twin oil pumps, so you can actually push start, I know USA cars often have a warning against tow starting and say to push start, seen it done with Lada Niva's back in the 80's but not sure today's bumpers would survive, but many cars towing a mile likely you would get away with it, but much further it may cause damage, I know I had to strip a Rover 3500 gear box and replace parts after it had been towed by a motoring organisation off the motor way without removing the prop shaft.

Watching some of the HGV breakdown operator documentary programs on TV, what they have to do is - remove a series of bolts at the wheel hub and pull a drive shaft out, before attempting to tow.

 

[norseman]

I'm pretty sure that all the autos I've owned have instructions in the handbook regarding a max recommended distance/speed for them to be towed with the drive wheels in contact with the road; both mine are RWD/4x4 & I don't recall any suggestion of removing a prop-shaft so long as the stated procedure is followed.
'Ah yes, the good 'ole Wilson epicyclic gearbox; I have driven the old AEC RT buses, great 'box, but you needed to keep the operating pedal held down when initially building up air pressure, in case the last driver parked it up in gear

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Try moving a Citroen with hydropneumatic suspension (and steering and brakes) like my XMs, Xantias or the C5 I had and see how far you get (basically you wouldn't).

 

[Avocet]

Try moving a Citroen with hydropneumatic suspension (and steering and brakes) like my XMs, Xantias or the C5 I had and see how far you get (basically you wouldn't).

I have that particular (LHM-splattered) T shirt! I bought a CX GTI once, with an "ECU fault". The seller said it would start up and idle (which it did) and it would drive in reverse (which it did), but as soon as it moved forwards, the engine would die. I thought "well that's OK, I'll just get my mate to tow me with the engine idling, so that I've got some brakes at least" (if not suspension and steering). Unfortunately, it didn't work out like that. As soon as it went over any kind of bump, it would die. I then had the bright idea of taking the plugs out and asking my mate to tow me in gear to keep the hydraulic pump working, but even with the plugs out, his poor little car couldn't drag the CX up any kind of hill! In the end, we settled for towing it (quite slowly!) in neutral, and whenever we were going downhill or coming up to a junction, I'd let the clutch out in gear to turn the engine over and give me a little bit of engine braking, some residual hydraulic braking (and handbrake, of course)!
Incidentally, when we started looking at it properly, the "ECU fault" turned out to be a broken wire to the coil! As the engine moved, it would tug on the wire and contact would be lost!

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Citroens - brillant ideas, poorly implemented, especially the XMs. I loved my XM estate, massive in the back, really smooth, quick for a big car, a bit like driving a comfy armchair. The electrics, however, were truly awful. I spent more time working on electrical problems on that car (5 years old) than I did working on a Scimitar GTE when I had one of those