towing/trailering non road legal cars

[James]

what's the score?
I know you can put what you like on a full trailer, but I've seen dollies for sale where the front wheels just sit on and they use the car's normal back wheels and these are loads cheaper and easier to store. Anyone know if I can use one of these with a non MOT'd trackday only car? I don't know where I would find out....
Would it need insuring? I hope not.

[gaz.thomas]

I'm pretty sure that if the wheels are touching the ground on a public road then it needs to be road legal. Insurance might not be necessary but I'd get theft only cover anway - it's not all that expensive (I think I paid about £50 for my lancia through a classic restoration policy)

Gaz
-x-

[JB]

You could tow that way, no problem as long as what you're towing displays the registration mark of the car doing the towing. Also you'd have to get one of thos lighting boards so that brake lights, indicators were visible from the rear.

Whatever you tow will need to be insured, however you tow it.

[Ant]

I saw a transit van towing something the other day in Stafford but they had wired the indicators up wrong cos when the van was indicating left, the trailer wanted go right! :D

[PhilMorrison]

Originally posted by JB

Whatever you tow will need to be insured, however you tow it.

Doh!!!:( any1 know how u go about insuring a race car? (a sh!t 1 ;))

[James]

what if it doesn't look anything like a road legal car?;)

I've been having a dig around some newsgroups and if your trailer is over 750kg it needs to have brakes. A dolly'd car counts as a trailer so it needs brakes if it's heavy enough and that gets really complicated. plus you are only legally allowed to tow a car with an A frame or a dolly if it's being recovered. Not for general transport:(
So it looks like the options are to get a V light car or a massive braked trailer.

[JB]

To be honest a braked trailer sounds like the best and safest option if you're going to be towing regularly. Then it's just a case of adding trailer insurance on your car policy.

[James]

how an earth does one of those work? it must be mechanical, but how? Say for example I want to tow with my S14.

Only other option is a sub 750kg kit car, eh Phatty?

[PhilMorrison]

but it'd have to be sub 750kg with trailer would'nt it dude? and unless u wnat to get into gokarting, that is gonna be a little expensive :rolleyes: MMmMMmMm Carbon Fibre Trailer ;):D:D:D

[JB]

The action of braking the car shunts the trailer forward and activates some kind of mechanical braking thingy on the trailer (stop me if I'm getting too technical).

Don't forget that the car you intend to tow with will have a maximum towing weight (and that includes the wieght of the trailer as well as what's on it).

[James]

ahhh, some tricky kind of inertia braking. I had some horrible visions of cables attached to the handbrake arrangement or something:)

And yeah you're right about the towing weight being proportionate to the weight of the towing car. I've got a nasty feeling it's half:( maybe I can put slabs in the boot or something;)

[JB]

Not thinking of towing with the Nissan are ya?

[NikB]

You have to be careful about towing stuff. If you go over the rated towing capacity of the towing vehicle this invalidates your insurance, somebody on pistonheads got prosecuted for this a while back. And it's very easy to go over the towing weight with some car trailers.

I think the braking works by connecting a bar to the tow hitch, if the trailor starts to catch the car, the bar pushes the brakes on.

Nik

[PhilMorrison]

Well... The car was gonna be towed in style by the phatmobile, but it looks like that aint gonna happen :rolleyes:

[NikB]

I may well have mis-read the implications on this, and don't really have enough time to re-read so here is the link:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=42&t=22227

[Jason]

seems like a lot of effort and $$$ to me - sod it, put a set of no. plates on the race car and boot it to wherever you were going;) :D

[Pete C]

Originally posted by Jas
seems like a lot of effort and $$$ to me - sod it, put a set of no. plates on the race car and boot it to wherever you were going;) :D

I agree completely (nice wheels by the way ;) ) but it is nice to not have to worry about being stopped by the plod. Then you can get on with booting it :D

[James]

we were also considering having it painted like the General Lee :) not the most inconspicuos of vehicles.....

[James]

Every vehicle manufacturer has to give a maximum towing limit. This can be found in the vehicle handbook and also on the chassis plate, usually found under the bonnet. The information can be presented in a variety of ways. The clearest is when the plate gives the towing limits for both braked and unbraked trailers. Sometimes the car’s Gross Train Weight (GTW) is given. This is the combination of the car’s Maximum Permitted weight (MPW) sometimes called Gross Vehicle Weight (GVW) and the trailers Gross Trailer Weight (GTW). To get the towing limit simply deduct the MPW from the GTW. It is an offence to exceed the car’s towing limit. quote from National trailer and towing association website (http://www.ntta.co.uk/faq/default.htm) (now that sounds like a thrilling place to work;))

it seems like the answer is if what you're towing is over 750kg it needs to have brakes of some kind so dolly's and A frames are actually illegal unless you're towing a kit car or something.
Also you're only really allowed to use them for recovering vehicles not transporting them.

So really you need a trailer that fits all 4 wheels on with built in braking. these seem to start at about £250 second hand for a manky one. but as above, the total weight of the car and trailer can't exceed the towing vehicle's maximum towing limit. Anyone know what this is for an S14?

[JB]

Originally posted by NewClearBomb
quote from [URL=http://www.ntta.co.uk/faq/default.htm]Anyone know what this is for an S14?

About 6 kilos I think :D

Actually, the person to ask is Wak as he uses his to tow his caravan around from fairground to fairground at this time of year :D

[tallpaul]

I could be wrong, but from what I remeber, unless the wheels of the towed car are more than 18inches off the road, the car must be road legal, i.e. taxed MOT`d and insured??:rolleyes: