Anyone made a tow dolly?

Getting bits together for a tow dolly now. Searched the webternet for pics and found loads and they have given some good ideas.

I like the one in the pic as it seems simpler than most, being a box and angle affair, but I wonder what hubs could I use? What car could be a good donor? I dont fancy forking out megabucks for some heavy duty new jobs if I can help it.

What do you think?

Mmm, theres one MAJOR DESIGN PROBLEM with that dolly there no pivot under the carring frame. .

Fine for straight line recovery just try going around a sharp corner, plus added fun of reversing around a corner...


I wouldn't waste my time building that..

Hi,

I bought one like that once, it was advertised as heavy duty specially built for towing Transit vans.

The 2nd pivot is where you strap the towed vehicle wheels to the dolly and with the key in the ignition the front wheels turn, it sort-of works.

So I picked up a Transit van...

the first sharp bend I came to the dolly tyre slipped under the footwell and put a hefty dent in it. Fortunately I wasn't going very fast at the time or it might have shredded the tyre.

I took it back and got my money back as it was obviously no good for towing Transits.

The other drawback is the width. It pretty much fills the carriageway on a standard 'A' road as it's about 6'8" wide where the smaller dolly is only about 3 feet wide.

I'd prefer to build a standard one but with two wheels each side, either one in front of the other or doubled up. That way you could get away with smaller wheels. Have a look on ebay for the different designs.

The laws on towing are a bit more complex now so you'll have to be very carefull what you build and how you use it.

Something that bolts on to the towing vehicle without wheels and lifts the front end of the towed vehicle may be a better option?

Regards
Peter

You can't rely on the vehicle steering if it has Ackerman steering - it would be OK if the steering pivoted in the middle of a beam axle like a traction engine!

A neigghbour built one and he had a pivot arrangement at the towball, but on overrun it went all lopsided and the hitch nearly ended up at right angles to the towing vehicle.

Added to all that they are illegal. At least you'd need to have brakes if the all-up weight was greater than 750Kg, and the brakes have to work on all four wheels.

it looks pretty high off the ground . Ive been wanting to make one as well ,but was worried about the same stuff the zzr1200 was saying and allso my cars are all lowered ,so maybe you might want to work that into your idea ?

good luck bud id like to see what you come up with

These dollies were discussed a few weeks ago here. Like RTB says, unbraked ones are illegal fullstop, braked ones are only legal for recovering broken down vehicles to the nearest safe point, once you proceed beyond that safe point it then becomes transportation of the vehicle, not recovery and is therefore illegal.

made one sometime ago,short distances only had to have the steering lock set to unlock.

to go better seach out the RAC ones, steering wheels and braked

Hi,

I saw something years ago for sale on Ebay and, AIR, it was something like a standard dolly but with an extra axel for the rear end of the car.

Basically the car was driven onto the dolly as normal, then the back end of the towed car was jacked up and the rear 'dolly' attached. This rear end dolly had two rails joining the hubs together and these were bolted in place just before using it, so it collapsed down and went in the car boot when not in use. The rear wheels were 'outside' the towed car, like the original photo above.

So now you've got a very light weight four wheeled car transporter trailer. It'd be low to the ground and wouldn't be a problem for 'sporty' cars with skirts, etc.

Obvioulsy the laws have changed since I saw this and I believe you need all four wheels to have brakes, but I'm sure something with flexible cables could be rigged up for the rear dolly and attached quickly.

How about a set-up where the second dolly was left fully made up and attached to the front dolly with clamps when not used for a car. This is similar to the HGV's that transport very long steel sections.

This idea is that the weight of a trailer and a car on top is generally higher than a standard car, such as my Mondeo, can tow legally. With a lightweight trailer it may be able to take something up to the size of an Escort or Peguot 306/309, etc.

Regards
Peter

Four wheel trailers have the axles close together to prevent scrubbing. There is a design called "1 metre spread" where the edges of the wheels were 1m apart and these were allowed to do 70 mph. I don't think they caught on though.

Just knew it wouldn't be straight forward!..I can see the problem with the lack of pivot too. Major rethink imminent.

Now pondering an A frame that goes under to the track arms and ratchet straps/chains around them for one man towing.

Thanks for the replies everyone. Saved me a lot of headache.

Hi,

I think it's still classed as 'recovery only' and you're not allowed to 'transport'.

The problem isn't with the overall (train) weight but that the trailer, ie, towed vehicle, is unbraked and it's usually over 750kg.

I bought some plans for making 'A' frames a while ago but never got around to it as the rules for use are still a bit strict.


Regards
Peter

The laws are making it very difficult indeed to get a cheap towing device. So the only way to transport legally is in a braked car trailer which I dont have the room or cash to buy.

I am still sticking with the A frame as I need a way of towing and to hell with the regulations. It may be foolish of me but they got my back against a wall!!

(well thats what i will tell them in court)

When you see the utter rubbish that some people build, and call trailers, it not difficult to understand why things are becoming stricter.

A friend of mine asked me to weld his trailer up for him, just a little patch he said.... i t not something i do anyway, but hada look when i was over there oneday.
It was a trailer tent thing that had been butchered. It was so rusty one of the axles had come right off.

The worst trailer I saw was a chipboard box with the Indespension units bolted directly to the chipboard floor! The boltheads just pulled through

frame that goes under to the track arms and ratchet straps/chains

Click to expand...

my friend had one very good till the merc230 slid out while being towed round a wet roundabout

That's why I drive a Beetle, a towbar for it only takes seconds to bolt in place, and the cops usually think it's a legal means of transportation.

yes but then youve got the struggle of finding somewhere solid enough to bolt to
(disclaimer/asbestos underwear, I pulled the framehead off a chassis on a rotten beetle towing it like this)

dollys are used by the recovery services (what i do for a living) for more than just "emercency recovery to a place of safety." the AA and RAC regularly use them for journeys of 100+ miles as they are exempt from tacho laws (provided the combination remains under 3.5T which is why they use the lightest vans possible)

i think the main difference between the ones that we use and the ones that you can buy (or most of the home made ones i've seen) is the way they connect to the towing vehicle. next time you're behind an AA van, have a look at the tow hitch. it's not a standard ball, so the dolly (they call them 'rapid deployment units') can only be used on that vehicle.

white van man 2 said:

dollys are used by the recovery services (what i do for a living) for more than just "emercency recovery to a place of safety." the AA and RAC regularly use them for journeys of 100+ miles as they are exempt from tacho laws (provided the combination remains under 3.5T which is why they use the lightest vans possible)

i think the main difference between the ones that we use and the ones that you can buy (or most of the home made ones i've seen) is the way they connect to the towing vehicle. next time you're behind an AA van, have a look at the tow hitch. it's not a standard ball, so the dolly (they call them 'rapid deployment units') can only be used on that vehicle.

Click to expand...

But aren't there implications for the brakes? You effectively have a four wheeled trailer and brakes must operate on all wheels?

Hi,

AIR, last time I saw one on it was on an RAC van...it's part of the van.

They somehow extend it backwards and put two of the cars wheels on it. This is maybe classed as part of the van and the cars rear wheels become a two wheeled trailer.

I've also seen breakdown recovery trucks with a drop down spectacles sections, ie, the top of a dolly, but as there's no road wheels underneath it they end up with a two wheeled trailer.

I was thinking a while ago of making something similar that would attacht to the back of my Mondeo. Obviously I'll need to research it a bit more but I reckon I could tow another car as long as it's smaller than mine, the front wheels are clear of the ground, and only two of the towed vehicles wheels are on the road.

Regards
Peter