Warning about A-Frame towing

TonyEmm said:
I’ve been campaigning for towing safety for over 30 years, including a-frames! I don’t believe an outright ban is the way forward but I have been urging the DfT and DVSA to introduce controls and inspections.
The DfT have a lot to answer for with their view that an a-frame towed car will be acceptable as legal, provided it meets with existing towing legislation. None do (or can) 100% and, my view is that TOAD’s should have their own vehicle classification and relevant rules, controls and inspections.

Of course, that still wouldn’t make them legal in Europe! A number of EU countries (including France, Germany and Spain) have their own National laws that ban the towing of one motorised vehicle with another. 😏

Home | Tony's Towing Trivia

Campaigning for towing & trailer safety over many years, Tony’s Towing Trivia is a blog concentrating on CatO2 Trailers, and Towing a-frames as used by Motorhome owners for their ‘TOADS’. Safety, including minus standards, is paramount but, legality, both at home and abroad, is also vital..
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No car SHOULD be considered for A frame use without the original vehicle manufacturers explicit agreement....

There can be NO safe way of attaching towing gear without designing it into the Monocoque/chassis. At the inception
 
mistericeman said:
No car SHOULD be considered for A frame use without the original vehicle manufacturers explicit agreement....

There can be NO safe way of attaching towing gear without designing it into the Monocoque/chassis. At the inception
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Yes, and no. Go to many museums and you will see aircraft hung from the building, not one of those aircraft where ever designed to be hung in such a way, and I doubt any manufacturer will agree to it, but some of us are qualified to certify this.
p.s. you might note my avatar.
 
colinm said:
Yes, and no. Go to many museums and you will see aircraft hung from the building, not one of those aircraft where ever designed to be hung in such a way, and I doubt any manufacturer will agree to it, but some of us are qualified to certify this.
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I suspect ALL those aircraft have undergone significant analysis and stress load calculations from rather qualified people....
Before being strung up AND approved by the relevant insurance companies...

NOT dodgy Dave that can weld a bit and made an A frame to tow his banger and graduated to making them in bulk and flogging them on the Internet....
Without ANY sort of testing/certification/approval etc....

ANYTHING can be done....
Whether it can be done safely is another matter all together
 
Must be a full moon tonight.😂😜 Theres nothing in the world standard about any motorhome they are all basically stuck together do you think when they designed a truck for deliveries and builders that it was meant to have a two ton box on the back made of something just a little bit thicker than baking foil and balsa wood then stuffed with a bed and everything else you would find in a small house. I’m sure they weren’t designed nor tested properly to do that especially the bigger lumps like mine. I’ll carry on towing my wee car when I need it and enjoy it I know it’s not natural but so is sleeping in a big van when I’ve got a perfectly good house.
 
Towed many a skoda estelle on a home made a frame by removing the front bumper and fixing the frame to the bumper brackets which in turn are well bolted and plated to the front chassis legs.
 
mistericeman said:
No car SHOULD be considered for A frame use without the original vehicle manufacturers explicit agreement....

There can be NO safe way of attaching towing gear without designing it into the Monocoque/chassis. At the inception
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It is somewhat ironic that a Towbar at the rear has to be tested, type approved and is even subject to inspection on the vehicle’s mot yet the DfT don’t consider a-frames attached to crumple zones (and could also affect airbag deployment) worthy of the same standards! 🙄
 
Wully said:
O forgot to say by by for now see you all back here in another 3 or 4 years and we can have this pleasant chat all over again 👍
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Hopefully in 3 or 4 years time, the DfT may have had an inspirational moment and suddenly decided it was time for a change! A-frame days are numbered anyway unless technology moves on regarding EV’s…
 
TonyEmm said:
It is somewhat ironic that a Towbar at the rear has to be tested, type approved and is even subject to inspection on the vehicle’s mot yet the DfT don’t consider a-frames attached to crumple zones (and could also affect airbag deployment) worthy of the same standards! 🙄
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Never seen t bar testing and I have made many like the one on my van.
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TonyEmm said:
Towbars fitted to motorhomes first registered after October 2012 have to be type approved. The DfT don’t expect the tester to check the type approval label though! 🙄. They do however, have to check the electrics, but only if it’s 13 pin!
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At first they tested the electrics but last few years gave up from what I seen.
 
Wully said:
O forgot to say by by for now see you all back here in another 3 or 4 years and we can have this pleasant chat all over again 👍
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I seem to be having less and less in common every day with the members on here Wully, we should ban home conversions, they are not needed when you can buy a perfectly good motorhome built by experts.
Normal people (not that there are many on here) should not be allowed to work on their own vehicles, it cannot be safe if they are not fully trained mechanics, one of my neighbours changed his own headlight bulb last week, I do not feel safe driving at night anymore, 🙈🙉🙊
 
Tezza33 said:
I seem to be having less and less in common every day with the members on here Wully, we should ban home conversions, they are not needed when you can buy a perfectly good motorhome built by experts.
Normal people (not that there are many on here) should not be allowed to work on their own vehicles, it cannot be safe if they are not fully trained mechanics, one of my neighbours changed his own headlight bulb last week, I do not feel safe driving at night anymore, 🙈🙉🙊
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Slight over reaction from changing a bulb to bolting on and towing another vehicle in a way that hasn't been tested/designed for.
 
mistericeman said:
I suspect ALL those aircraft have undergone significant analysis and stress load calculations from rather qualified people....
Before being strung up AND approved by the relevant insurance companies...

NOT dodgy Dave that can weld a bit and made an A frame to tow his banger and graduated to making them in bulk and flogging them on the Internet....
Without ANY sort of testing/certification/approval etc....

ANYTHING can be done....
Whether it can be done safely is another matter all together
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I missed your reply.

Once again, yes and no. From what I can tell, back in the day it was hit or miss as to if any suitably qualified person certified hanging of aircraft, then some years back a major museum in the US 'dropped' an aircraft. In the 'small world' of museums this news spread like wildfire, and since then most places only employ qualified persons to do the job, but surprisingly there are still cowboys who think they can do the job.
 
There are garages here who think they know about cars, funney how some still ph me up with problems, im now stopping this practice as retirement looms if my health lasts.
 
trevskoda said:
There are garages here who think they know about cars, funney how some still ph me up with problems, im now stopping this practice as retirement looms if my health lasts.
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Many years ago a friend came to ask my father about a problem he had with his car, a Imp. The thing is he worked at a Chrysler garage where his father was the manager!
 
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