Should I Buy A Recovery Truck Or????

[warren t claim]

I've been pondering as to whether a 3.5 tonne recovery truck would be a shrewd investment.

 

I'm pissed off with work at the moment and I've been shifting a fair few cars lately so I'm wondering whether to branch out.

 

The sort of thing I'm looking to buy would be a Mk3 Transit/LDV for about £1500.

 

Should I get a beavertail or a spec lift?

 

Is there much call for £30 a time recovery jobs? I know a fair few people in the motor trade but I don't want to get involved in an ice cream van style conflict with other operators.

 

On the other hand maybe I should buy a cheap 18 tonner and become an HGV driving instructor? £895 for 3 days work sounds tempting enough.

[Tayne]

I can't offer advice as to whether you should or you shouldn't but I know Cavette has some experience with this sort of thing.

 

He'll also be able to point you toward the MoT exempt ones.

[wuvvum]

I believe Bruce_Wobbelaar of this parish had an LDV beavertail for a while so might be worth asking him too.

[Station]

Yes.

[Geep]

I had an LDV beavertail some years ago and if you have somewhere to keep it...yes.

 

The sheer usefulness of having it to pick up stuff for yourself or even avoid having to wait for mates to collect a car with you makes it worthwhile, let alone the weighbridge trips and general helping others out for a few quid. Weight is the big issue these days I think, VOSA seem to like checking them and some of the homebuilt steel bed conversions can leave very little of the weight limit for cargo. I would go transit instead of LDV if I did it again, bit more comfortable. It must be old age.

[Des]

^That's the answer, if you have somewhere to keep it, (or you're always home before your neighbours), then there's no question. If I could keep one, I think I'd be tempted to try a spot of fishing with an ad in a local paper / card in a newsagents missing kittens and whore window, along the lines of free car removals, it would be a bit like putting out snares for foxes, usually nothing other than having to cut loose the odd badger / swan / missing kitten, but who knows what you could unexpectedly score. What about a truck with a flatbed and spectacle, this has the potential for on-road storage of two vehicles, be they untaxed, uninsured, stolen, home to a tramp or ablaze, you're teflon and there's nothing your local curtain twitchers can do about it.

[warren t claim]

Let's open our minds real wide...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Scania-P93-22 ... 3f1efba996

 

£5250

[warren t claim]

LEARN WIV CLAIM

 

Maybe this is another avenue I should explore?

[Mr Lobster]

^ If you do that though would you not need an operators licence as well?

 

3.5t Transit recovery truck sounds a decent enough idea though.

[dollywobbler]

^ If you do that though would you not need an operators licence as well?

 

3.5t Transit recovery truck sounds a decent enough idea though.

 

Correct. Keep it under 3.5t. As Wuv suggests, I have some experience in this matter. The fact that you already have trade insurance is good, but I'd imagine the premium will rise a bit if you add a beavertail onto the policy. As a sole source of income, it's a hideous way to earn a living, which is why I didn't do it for long. As a hobby-with-the-occasional-job-for-a-mate, it's a much better idea if you've got somewhere to park it. It was very nice the day I was given a Vanden Plas 1500 in Russet Brown for absolutely nothing - and I just jumped in my mighty LDV 400 and scooped it up.

 

I only worked at it for a few months and in that time, I spent a total of 8 hours sat on motorways not moving. Often it'd be exceedingly long hours for little financial reward once you've factored in your costs. This was pre-Shiply, though I did use a similar website to scout about for work. It wasn't really paying its way though.

 

I'd say do it, but treat it more as a hobby that pays. Oh and buy a truck with PAS...

[catsinthewelder]

If the Learner Lorry had ramps on the back could you do both?

[stuboy]

my neighbor runs a house clearance/scrap business and he brought a transit with a beaver-tail and only used it twice in 3 months... he hoped to do vehicle scrapping and collection

[Cavcraft]

Don't bother with a spec, their capabilities seem restricted to me. For example front or rear damaged cars probably tricky, rwd autos pain in the arse, max train weight to contend with, etc.

Beavertail with minimum 15ft body, slide away ramps (wait til you get a truck without them and you'll see why) a decent (I.e NOT Chinese winch) and a Transit will be shit loads better than an LDV. Just remember no 3.5 tonners are MOT exempt and buy on condition, not age.

[oman5]

Let's open our minds real wide...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Scania-P93-22 ... 3f1efba996

 

£5250

 

oh yes! those 3 series are fuggin ace, they run forever

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I don’t know much about these trucks but it seems a fuggin minefield to me, it seems theres shitloads of incomprehensible rules about weights and tachographs that only VOSA know the ins and outs of making the whole job a bit of a lottery as far as I can see.

[dollywobbler]

I don’t know much about these trucks but it seems a fuggin minefield to me, it seems theres shitloads of incomprehensible rules about weights and tachographs that only VOSA know the ins and outs of making the whole job a bit of a lottery as far as I can see.

 

It's pretty simple if you keep it below 3.5 tons on a beavertail. Technically, a 4x4 towing a trailer should use a tacho where a beavertail doesn't have to. Go up to 5 tons and above, and you need a tacho.

 

The biggest issue that the payload of a 3.5 tonner isn't that much when you consider the weight of the truck itself has to be part of that figure. As cars have got heavier, it's actually quite easy to be overweight.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Why does a 4x4 towing a trailer need a tacho?

[dollywobbler]

Why does a 4x4 towing a trailer need a tacho?

 

Because the total gross weight usually ends up over 3.5 tons I think. Bear in mind most 4x4s are about 2.5 of that these days, a trailer is probably what 600kg? It'd have to be a pretty light car to not be over 3.5 tons gross train weight.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Blimey. If I had a few towing missions to do I would think ‘I’d better get a decent vehicle for this job, maybe a Discovery’ check the towing weights etc, make sure my trailer was in good nick and set off. Then I’d get pulled by VOSA and told I was busting the law because I didn’t have a fuggin Tacho?

 

[meshking]

Isn't the tacho required only for commercial work? (Mmmm taco)

[Cavcraft]

Anything over 3500kgs needs a tacho. If you look at some spec lifts they're plated to 3501kgs. It is a minefield as Mr B suggests, but if you do your homework it's reasonably easy to get through.

 

Don't forget if you need a tacho graph then you need an O licence and all the extra grief that brings with it, not worth the hassle IMHO unless you need to carry big vans etc. if anyone's interested I will knock a reply up later with the dos and donts of buying and running a recovery truck.

[dollywobbler]

Isn't the tacho required only for commercial work? (Mmmm taco)

 

Indeed. I presume this is the excuse people must use if they get a VOSAtug. "Oh it's a mate's car!"

[Albert Ross]

I believe that it's possibly to have a commercial "downgraded" weight wise, so a 5 tonner could be a 3.5 tonner with the correct paperwork. Therefore, even IF it has a heavy load on it, it won't look it.... I'm certain that when I worked at a breaker's yard, I used to drive a Ford D1010 Crew/Extended Cab, with Beavertail, Spec Lift and Hi-Ab, that was graded as a 7.5 Tonner. We found some D0710 badges on some spare doors.....lobbed them on, and got on with the work. Would that be right?

[Joey spud]

When i tow (RAC) i am over 3500kg,my gross towing mass is something like 5300kg and i dont run with a tacho...

 

What we do instead to get around tacho rules is stay within a 62km radius of our home address.we are all issued with a laminated map with our address shown and a big circle drawn on showing where not to tow outside of.

I can work outside my 62km range but am not allowed to drop the trailer out and tow anything.

 

I would guess if you are not taking a payment (hire and reward) then surely you can tow where ever you want subject to licence and weight limits.

[Cavcraft]

Yeah, they changed the law on that a few years back now. Supposedly it was to stop recovery drivers from (legally) driving anywhere with no tacho, as many would do several hundred miles probably with little or no breaks.

The tacho is supposed to be used for 'non-breakdown' work, so moving your own cars to auctions etc needs a tacho, ditto taking cars to scrap or collecting untaxed cars to move about. How the hell VOSA (or the coppers/whoever) actually know the car on the back is taxed, tested, insured and 'genuinely' broken down I don't know, but I expect to some extent they leave you alone if you don't do seem to be doing anything wrong. It's like all this 'MOT exempt' bollocks, you can get all the forms in the world from the Post Office to avoid having an MOT cert, and you'll probably even get past VOSA if they pull you. Until you do something wrong, have an accident or find the officer who actually knows the rules, then you're right up shit street.

 

 

Albert: you can downrate but are supposed to change the springs for the reasons you've mentioned. I think the big deal now is they (VOSA) are far more likely to stop you and rip you a new arsehole if you haven't followed their regulations.

[In The Pit]

if anyone's interested I will knock a reply up later with the dos and donts of buying and running a recovery truck.

 

If you could do that it would be great. I have for a while now been thinking of getting a beavertail to pick up the odd car here and there to sell on for a little profit. My mate thinks it would be better for me to get a tow bar fitted to my Audi A4 TDi and buy a trailer. I really don't know whats best to do.

[CreepingJesus]

One thing to be aware of in trying to 'get away with it', is ANPR. The Ministry and the plod run everything thro' it (surprise surprise), and one group of commercials which will get tugged regularly, are the ones that don't show up on the O license database. Just 'cos they're cunts like that.

FWIW, I was doing a bit of 'removal' work for Edinburgh council a while back; I had a 7.5t motor, with a substantial HIAB on it. What with the lifting frame, and all the kit, I reckon it was well over 5t unladen. Not a problem when lifting small cars, but the Volvo XC90 I picked up, must have put it well over...

They've got 10t motors for exactly that kind of circumstance, but they were pressed for time, so a blind eye order was given! I was told, over my teabreak, that it wouldn't have been the first time that one of those motors had been taken to a weighbridge, by The Ministry or the pigs.

[simmo]

Where a lot come a cropper on a VOSA weighbridge is on front axle overloading (but still be OK on GVW) , loaded 7.5 tonners with hiabs are usually over, as are diesel 3.5 transits with large motors on board. Its not normally an automatic nick but if you are 10% over they probably would do you.

[nigel bickle]

To me, this all looks like a fuggin nightmare.

 

I've been toying with buying a beavertail (-for personal use only) and am trying to negotiate with a reluctant Belgie for a 1970 Hanomag..Slow progress, sadly

 

However several good mates (off the blue forum), with a barn full of chod near Lewes, have clubbed together & just bought an old Talbot beavertail off thiefbay (2 days back - suspect I will be roped it to collect it!

I opted out, because I'd prefer to A frame (or Dolly) for single vehicle movement (I know, I know) & I strongly doubt that I'd be legal pulling 2 with it -even if it would cope.

 

I tried it recently (using a Transit beavertail) to haul an Opel Rekord & Saab 900 (on A frame ) from Wales. The journey was hateful, often reduced to below 30 on uphill sections. I dont consider that safe.

 

We now seem to be in a position where no one knows the law, definitively. Even most Plod. That cant make sense.

 

I know that A framing feels the safest option to me (lower CoG, wheels in the corners etc etc). To date- no one has hauled me over the coals.....

[wuvvum]

I've only ever been tugged once when pulling a trailer - and that was because the number plate on the trailer didn't match the one on the tow car. I was in a Saab 9000, towing a big fuck off plant trailer with a Maserati Biturbo on the back - I was obviously way over the legal towing weight for a 9000, and the copper said as much, but he reckoned that because the trailer looked safe and the Saab was obviously coping OK with dragging it down the A17 he wasn't going to try and do me for it. I suspect he was one of relatively few traffic cops who had a reasonable grasp of towing laws - I've driven past coppers whilst blatantly taking the piss (Saviem tipper just about wedged onto a trailer behind a SWB Trooper) and nobody's batted an eyelid.

 

Having said that, I've never been tugged in a recovery truck either, so maybe I've just been lucky.