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Post by Joepublic on Aug 12, 2022 16:02:26 GMT 1
Have a debate with this chump… fb hero   What laws is he potentially breaking? He towed from Somerset to Coventry like this… TIA |
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Post by chippie on Aug 12, 2022 16:29:59 GMT 1
Well from the look of the 2nd foto, the trailer maybe unbraked, so the max towing wt, for the VW maybe exceeded…
The trailer towing weight might be be exceeded by having the car on it…..
Can’t tell if the trailer is displaying the number pl. with the towing vehicle on it….
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Post by Joepublic on Aug 12, 2022 16:59:03 GMT 1
I thought those dolly’s were only legal to remove a stranded vehicle to a safe place?
Tow vehicle must have a greater weight + xx% than the combined weight of the trailer and load?
Vehicles being towed wheels on the ground must be legal at the time, taxed, tested, insured and roadworthy (no headlights).
He says it is a braked dolly, if they are in GWO only the lord knows?
Narrow track of the dolly, engine at window height makes an unstable load? The motorway pic was taken by a genuine Transporter driver with concerns
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Post by rhyds on Aug 12, 2022 18:58:22 GMT 1
The laws around towing have recently changed
Previously IIRC it was 3.5t max car and trailer combined but the trailer couldn't weigh more than the car (so effectively a max 1.75t car pulling a 1.75t trailer)
Now IIRC its 3.5t in any combination.
Personally I'd be worried that there's little to no reserve travel on the rear suspension of the towing car, the fact that the towed car probably weighs more than the towing car and the stability of the whole ensemble in an emergency stop.
EDIT: Is the towed car an Audi A2? Might be a bit lighter than it looks.
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Post by OldGit on Aug 12, 2022 19:42:05 GMT 1
This illustrates quite nicely that relying on 'revenue cameras' and HA to police the road network doesn't work. To travel that distance, even in the 90's without Traffic plod showing some interest would be the most amazing piece of luck. As long as both vehicles have tax & insurance, they don't speed and the HA are too busy putting in lane closures due to an errant crisp packet blowing around in lane three somewhere, they're good to go...
I'm one of the few 'civvies' to be on the 'Hendon list' (sadly it now means next-to-nothing), even back in the mid 90's there was a bemoaning in the brew room of the way traffic policing was moving away from having actual coppers that knew the relevant legislation on the roads, to just using tech to catch the low-hanging fruit, which generally are not the real life or death driving hazards.
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Post by Noberator on Aug 12, 2022 21:59:21 GMT 1
You can only use an A-frame or recovery dolly legally to recover a vehicle which has broken down.
If you tow a car that hasn't broken down using an A-frame or dolly then the law treats the combination as a trailer which must meet the appropriate braking and lighting rules.
Trailers under 750kg don't have to be fitted with braking systems but if a braking system is fitted to a trailer of any weight then the braking system must operate correctly.
This isn’t possible for normal systems fitted to cars particularly the brake servo which would not be working unless the engine was running.
Trailer regulations also require use of a secondary coupling system to make sure that the trailer is stopped automatically if the main coupling fails while you’re towing or in the case of trailers up to a maximum mass of 1,500kg that the drawbar doesn’t touch the ground so the trailer has some residual steering.
To comply with lighting regulations while being towed the car (in its capacity as a trailer) would need triangular red reflectors and the number plate of the towing vehicle.
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Post by valhalla on Aug 12, 2022 22:52:15 GMT 1
It's impossible to tell from these photos just how many laws are being broken.
The main one, which is obvious to any observant traffic cop, is that maximum gross train-weight of the red Golf has been exceeded. That is, unless the vehicle being towed has been stripped-out, then re-weighed to prove it and the trailer combined weight fall below the Golf's towing capacity (which is likely to be plated on the car, even at that age).
Those dolly wheel/tyres are often not rated to speeds/loads to permit motorway use, either, but you would have to stop the whole circus and measure everything to be sure.
Sadly, and this seems to have crept-in from the other side of the Atlantic, mainly through social-media, there is no law now against just being an idiot, a complete prat. In a permissive society as in the UK, the fact that everything is permitted until it is ruled-against, makes the need for an anti-idiot law even more important.
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Post by OldGit on Aug 12, 2022 23:03:34 GMT 1
Yup, the permissive society has a lot to answer for - such as the lack of Self-Darwinating due to ever more oppressive H&S legislation, it started with seatbelts back in 1964 (or 1955 if you have a Volvo).
There are still some observant traffic cops, mainly completing paperwork to prove they have completed their latest training on being inclusive, and observant of the 'needs' of the public, being careful to not mis-gender them... I'm sure some of the coppers I trained with (although they're probably long retired by now) raised a glass to the glorious past when the Police Force became a 'service'.
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Post by valhalla on Aug 12, 2022 23:33:29 GMT 1
I was quite shocked to watch a documentary series about Road Accident Investigation with Gwent Police (Newport) this last day or so.
Horrific as the accidents were, it was the sheer stupidity of the occupants that seemed to have killed them, primarily youngsters just fastening their seatbelts underneath their (somewhat radiant) bottoms.
This series did instill a lot more faith in the police service; I was quite impressed with their methodology and application of science to get to the root of each accident sequence - hence the reason why I wanted to watch in the first-place.
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Post by OldGit on Aug 12, 2022 23:51:20 GMT 1
The science is great - the Mrs. always aspired to be a forensic pathologist (!), to my mind, when they went from RTA to RTI, they were just looking to pin 'blame' on someone, purely for statistical reasons, a bit like the HSE
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remmington
Apprentice
Owns Spark Eroder
Posts: 4,974
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Post by remmington on Aug 13, 2022 6:49:57 GMT 1
Our local police have gone from using helicopters for air support and fast responce cars.
To using battery powered drones and scooters.
I kid you not...
I was fitting a battery on a customers car the other week on a "council estate" - Police were having some sort of operation "harrasing small time drug dealers". Loads of coppers tearing about on 125cc scooters (with L plates on them) - sky was thick with drones.
Chap I was fitting a battery for: Reckons the Police on scooters are more of nusiance than the kids on pit bikes. Plus he reckons the young lads get cheap drones and try and ram the Police drones in the sky for fun.
Got talking to this chap - retired - worked in wood yard on the docks all his life - real tidy front garden all pretty flowers and hanging baskets. I asked him what the estate was like - he said he had lived there all his life - raised two kids - reckons the estate was better now - he reckons it was really rough in the late 70's early 80's. To be honest driving back I had a good look at the housing stock - it did look tidy - no real eyesore houses sticking out.
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Post by OldGit on Aug 13, 2022 7:43:03 GMT 1
I bet there are a lot of those houses now in private ownership thanks to Maggies 'Right to buy' - it does make people a bit more houseproud when they actually own the property, the 70's & 80's were a bit rough all round, most of it IMO was just a continuation of the rivalry and fights in and outside of the football grounds at the time, once the scrapping classes had their gander up....
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