Worst towing experience?

[scaryoldcortina]

I was chatting to autofive about this earlier, I thought this might make a good winter evening thread. What I want is stories of terror and near death on the end of a rope... I'm sure most of us have at some time realized too late that your life is in the hands of a madman, and that you are going to die.

 

For example...

 

I once popped in to see the guy at the MoT station, he asked me to help him collect a car. Stupidly, I agreed. We jumped into his brand new Mitsubishi L200 "Animal" and set off towards a village about 12 miles away, along some ver.y hilly and twisty roads. Eventually, we arrived to find a knackered citroen AX, and Mick connected it to the L200 with a rope.... Up to this point, I'd assumed it was a "drive it back" type of job, but OK, we are here now... towing. I reassured myself with the thought that, with 20 years in the trade, Mick would know how to tow. Off we went, on the way up the street I tested the brakes on the AX. No discenable difference... tried horn, nope. No lights either. Opened the window, waved to mick. He waved back, and carried on. Bad became worse.. country roads that I'd not usually drive at 50 were taken at 70, less than 10 ft from the back of a pickup. I couldn't actually see where I was going and mostly had to rely on memory. On one of the rare straight bits, he overtook a volvo 940 that was doing 60... I still remember the driver's look of shock when he saw me! I waved at him, then carried on holding on for dear life. Less than a mile to go, I'm starting to think I might be ok... there is a roundabout, then a bit of by-pass and we are back. Turn right at the roundabout, road clear, mick takes it at almost 50, the AX understeers, then oversteers, then slides to the outside held by the rope like a tupperware pendulum before being dragged rudely (and sideways) up the bypass.

 

When we got to the garage I noticed that the towing eye on the AX was one spot weld away from detaching, the nearside bottom ball joint had given way, and my legs and bowels were refusing to behave. I've never ever let him tow me in anything ever again.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I've never had a speeding ticket, but i've been busted twice for towing trailers with unsatisfactory/missing lights, numberplates, brakes etc. Both times with the same trailer! That was a good few years ago now though when i was more of a nobhead.

 

I have also been towed from Washington to Sunderland in a Suzuki SC100 using a 5m domestic extension cable as a towrope.

[Richard]

The worst I've had was being towed to the scrapyard in a Mk2 Escort. When the towing driver (and owner of the hateful Escort) lurched away from the first crossroads I discovered the seat wasn't bolted down and fell over backwards. At the same time I realised the stupid aftermarket steering wheel didn't have room for fingers between the wheel and the top of the dashboard. It was a pleasure to leave it in the scrapyard.

[eddyramrod]

I've never ever let him tow me in anything ever again.

 

You mean you let him live? You're getting remarkably tolerant in your old age...

[HillmanImp]

I have lost count of the times the towing car has pulled out into a tiny gap in the traffic. You just cant do owt but like you say wave.

 

Every time though they have starting shouting at me, not the twunt that pulled me out there in the first place.

[Akron]

I was behind a towed car when the tow vehicle tried to nip out into traffic, oncoming vehicle ran over the towrope and the towed car rolled straight across the road in front of a bus and ended up in the hedge opposite. I believe it was his missus in the car and the words she was using were most un-ladylike.

[Pete-M]

Girl I know used to drive a Citroen Relay van (could have been a Boxer) and the clutch had gone on it, so I arranged to collect it with the mechanic who was going to fix it. The clutch had properly given up, so it needed to be towed through a maze of side streets before reaching the easy bit on the main roads back to his garage.

 

Approaching the main road, I'm doing the towing with my Range Rover and my mate Carl the mechanic is in the van behind. I'm crawling toward the junction so the rope is tight and Carl is doing all the braking when some numpty goes to pull into the road we're trying to get out of. I stop and point out to the numpty that the van behind is on a towrope, so he'll have to wait until we can get out.

 

I release the footbrake on the Rangie and it begins to crawl forwards again, just as this girl pedestrian decides to walk between the Rangie and the van. I hadn't seen her because she'd walked up alongside the van, ignored the rope between the two vehicles and decided to go between 'em.

 

Carl spots her just as she appears between the two vehicles, which are now rolling along slowly, beeps the horn and stamps on the brakes....

 

... just as she's standing on the slack rope. Which instantly becomes very non-slack. She shot up in the air like she'd been fired from a bloody cannon. Or course I still didn't know what was going on but hear the horn on the van, so I look in the mirror and see Carl absolutely cocking himself with laughter as this girl appears from about 6ft in the air looking very, very confused.

 

Nowadays I use very bright and obvious ropes.

[autofive]

in the late 80s i was towed in a 70s corolla with two flat front tyres by a lunatic driving a passat. i told him to stick to 30 mph or less, but he prefered 50+

 

18 miles of terror as the corolla veered around the road, bumped kerbs and no amount of braking had any effect. when we finally arrived he was smirking and i was ranting. i evened the score some time later when i towed him and his xr3i with a volvo

[Albert Ross]

I once dollied a Mk1 Fester from Lincoln to Nottingham, one Sunday morning, as I had a lot to do that day (Down to Burton to collect the remains of an XR3) Thoughtfully loaded up the night before, got to the address, Started to roll the Fester off the dolly, the pivot lock snapped, and one ramp fell out. There I was, one wheel on, one wheel off, trying to figure out how to sort it out. A few minutes of pondering, and a pub footy team wandered past, one of them saying "poor bugger, shall we give him a hand?" So they did. Lifted the front of the Fessy, plopped it onto the ramps as I sat it in and rolled it down. I gave them a tenner for half time oranges. ("Oranjeboom more like," said one wag!) On to Burton, and discovered that the XR3 was more than half a car. It drove onto the dolly..... I got it to Lincoln, and guess what, the bloody thing fell off when I tried to unload it. Cunting thing.

 

On the other hand, A-framing a Sierra with a Sierra in a blizzard, with plod right behind, is a sobering thing, (Considering I had beed celebrating long into the morning) especially when they pull in behind you at Newark services, and thank you for keeping it slow. Half an hour later, I passed the same Police car, as they were scraping up a 9 or more car RTA in a ditch/field. I tooted, they waved back, waggling fingers at a couple of kids who I presume caused the whole shebang. I lke A-frames.

[DCLane]

OK. To start this I don't tow. And when this happened I used the only cheap tow rope I could find.

The car was a Bond Equipe. It was in the 'free' section in Practical Classics in August 1997. And of course I phoned and the donor let me collect it. I asked him whether it would start and he said "no, don't think so. I hasn't moved in a while".

 

Not to be deterred I set off with SWMBO and my company Rover 414 the 20 miles from Middlesbrough to Hartlepool-ish to collect. We got two tow ropes just to be safe.

 

A while was an understatement. The car was outside under a tarpaulin. With no floor. Or brakes. Or seats. It hadn't moved in 10 years and there was no way it was going to start or move, or even stop. I'm nothing if not determined though.

 

We found a spare seat in a shed, tied it over the chassis and put SWMBO in. Using the tow rope I pulled off ... slowly. And onto the A19 to Middlesbrough.

 

We did the 20 miles at 20mph on the A19/A66 using the tow rope to tow ... and the back bumper of my Rover to slow it down. This worked well and I was nice and warm in the Rover, music playing. SWMBO was behind in the Bond with no floor or brakes.

 

About 5 miles in I saw SWMBO waving, so waved back quite happily. We went slowly along the A19/A66 which was deserted for a Sunday afternoon, probably because it was the day Princess Diana died.

 

Suffice to say we made it back without a pull, with the odd slow *bump* to slow us down and without further incident or so I thought. The waving was because one of the tow ropes had snapped and she could see it dangling under the car. SWMBO wasn't happy. Not happy at all. It took a few days for her to calm down, which meant she was really angry with me!

[autofive]

towing is one thing, a-framing is another matter

 

this is how i used to weigh in my dead cortinas

 

[red5]

As a 17 year old apprentice being towed by the garage proprietor ( a 60 year old rogue whose favourite saying was 'the quick and the dead my boy') along the recently opened Bewdley bypass...in a seized 900cc Polo behind a LWB Shogun on a 6" chain. It was fine up until the bypass - nice and steady. Then a mile and a half of sheer,gut-wrenching terror and two footed application of non servo'd brakes. Must have looked very odd - this lunatic teenager 2 yards off the bumper of a 4x4 apparently gesturing to pass...

 

1st time being towed.

 

 

 

Can tow anything now, anywhere. In any traffic. Wouldn't recommended it as a learning experience mind.

[Mr Lobster]

In about 1999 I was offered a Mk1 Renault 5, 5door Automatic. It was free although it needed to be moved ASAP and apparently the gearbox was borked and had some unspecified electrical fault. I needed a parts car so shot off to Stockport after work with a woefully inadequate Daihatsu Charade 1.0 to drag it home behind.

 

Gearbox was indeed borked but it would roll happily enough. Owners wife didn't know what the electrical problem was but it wouldn't run but I wasn't that arsed / too concerned so attached it by means of some old rope to the Charade and set off. And got lost. And more lost. And ended up somewhere around the rougher bits of south Manchester as it starts to get dark.

 

It was then, as dusk appeared that I discovered that the mystery electrical fault was no lights. And I'm 30 miles from home. So at this point I have that sickening 'wtf have I done now' feeling you get when you know you've cocked up a bit. In a measure of desperation I rang a mate with a garage near Stockport and begged him to open his yard so I could dump the thing. Used all the back streets to avoid my darkened tow vehicle having to use the main roads and eventually dumped it at far too late o'clock.

 

These days I'm sensible enough to just hire a trailer.

[Stroller133]

I had a Tomos moped and the chain had snapped in town. I started the 7 mile push home and had done about 2 miles in the freezing cold when a familiar car passed by. It was my mate and his dad in his mid 80s Senator. They pulled over and when they finished laughing looked in the boot - as luck would have it they had some rope in the boot.

Off we went, the first mile or so was fine through a village at a steady 25mph. Then when we got to the s-bends leaving the village and down went the throttle! The moped could maybe do 33 downhill and now it was swinging around the back of a senator doing about 60, mostly on the wrong side of the road as we were quickly changing direction. My first reaction was to try and wave to signal to slow down but as soon as my hand came off the handlebar I discovered I REALLY needed to hold on tight. It did only take 10 muns to get home, but if I was in the same situation again I would take the 2 hour walk everytime.

[trigger]

I snapped the injection pump belt on my old Escort 1.8TD many years ago in Chelmsford so i rang my dad for help who turned up in his Transit with a old rope which he doubled up around my tow eye and his tow bar.

 

We travelled back to Colchester along the A12 without any problem and all was going well, My dad's house is on the other side of the A12 which is the very busy duel carriageway from Ipswich to London and to cross the carriageway to get to his meant pulling into a gap in the central reservation, then waiting for a gap in the traffic and then flooring it across the two London bound lanes.

 

My dad saw a gap in the traffic and floored it, The sudden jerk managed to snap one half of the rope with me length ways across the two lanes of the carriageway with cars bearing down at me at 70+ mph with just a very thin piece of rope left to pull me out of the way!.

 

My dad had no idea until i managed to pull over and showed him of the rope hanging on the floor, I really thought i was going to die that day, I even think a bit of poo may of come out.

 

Not long after that they closed of the gap due to a newlywed couple being killed their whilst crossing it in a Cortina.

[andrew e]

Touch wood I have never had a bad tow, had more than a couple *technically* dodgy ones though - two that stick in the mind were the bare rolling chassis dutton (no brakes, lights or bodywork ) and the bedford Rascal one... it was the tow car

[warren t claim]

Using my 1.9D BX to tow a 28' static caravan on the public highway was probably not a wise idea. Just as well it was 4am and I was only towing it 2 miles.

 

On a similar note using my Xr3i to tow a Mk3 Escort GL, nothing unusual with that but the Escort was on the back of a 7.5t Ford Cargo...... My clutch was never the same again.

[r.welfare]

Last year, when the 405 caught fire (turned out to be the a/c relay) - called the AA out for recovery to the local garage, 3 miles away. Freezing cold morning with pelting rain, couldn't turn on the ignition (as smoke instantly began curling out from under the bonnet if you did so), and this dipstick is towing me on the end of a 6ft metal bar at 60mph on a busy main road (rush hour) with lots of bends. I could not see a bloody thing (couldn't put the wipers on), and had no PAS or servo for the brakes. When we got there I gave him a piece of my mind..."Sorry mate, I completely forgot about that...".

 

The car still had the indentations from my fingers in the steering wheel when I sold it a few months later.

[Shep Shepherd]

My worst was in 2006 when The Volvo's fuel pump relay failed three miles from home. The AA bloke decided to tow me home using a bar attached to his van, which was quite nerve-racking due to the car being an automatic and really requiring a lift tow to prevent the transmission from being damaged. Thankfully - and luckily for the Association* - everything was fine...

 

 

*The bloke said that the AA would pay for any danage caused to the car, but that wasn't the point...

[wuvvum]

I've pulled some fairly daft towing stunts when I was younger and stupider, but my only near-death experience was when the Mk4 Zodiac I was trailering home behind my Volvo decided it was going to try and overtake on a downhill stretch of the M11. The towing jobs I expected to be disastrous (towing my mate's 900 Turbo 15 miles to a Saab specialist behind my Kia Pride, dragging 3 tonnes of Saviem tipper on a trailer back from deepest Gloucestershire etc.) passed relatively without a hitch (apart from a blowout on the trailer when the shagged tyres decided they couldn't cope with the weight any more).

[meggersdog]

Think I mentioned this back in the summer.

I've got one of those tow poles and having towed a 5 berth campervan down the A1 then the next day 10 miles to a garage I would like to think I know how to use it.I've used it to back a dead Citroen Relay onto a drive in the snow too.So anyway,a friend of a friend's Clio broke down 25 miles from his home.I go out to it and hook it up to the tow pole.The Clio's only got one towing eye and it's on the passenger's side.I connect the pole to my passenger's towing eye to keep it straight and tell matey not to worry about braking as the pole will do it and just follow me.We've only gone a couple of hundred yards when I slow (not brake) to let a car out from a side street.Matey pulls out into the middle of the road to see what's happening.Every time I slow or brake twat-head straddles the white line to see what's happening.Each time he does this it shortens the pole pushing it upwards into his bumper eventually flicking the headlight glass out.Smash.Once he pulled so far into the middle we nearly jack-knifed.All this stupidity took it's toll on his one towing eye which ripped from the chassis three miles from his house.Luckily I borrowed a rope and tied it to the front of his subframe.Telling him to keep the rope tight at all times concentrated his mind long enough to get back safely.

[Pete-M]

One of my favourite towing experiences is one I'm not sure my mate has fully forgiven me for..

 

About ten years ago I got a phone call from him, sounding frantic and freezing, giggling, but begging me to rescue him. Turns out he had been to visit his (now) wife's relatives in Leeds and on the way back the cambelt had gone on his trusty but wilfully abused Sierra 1.8LX. Would I, could I, go and tow them back. He was near Huddersfield, the junction after the 'Little House on the Prairie". About 60 miles away. It was snowing. They'd been there for an hour, the Police were getting furious with them, he wasn't in the AA and was skint anyway. Them turned out to be him, his wife, her insane mother, and her ex-special forces 'Scottie Road' grandmother (Who's about the coolest customer you'll ever meet. Pushing 80 and still doing booze'n'fags runs to Belgium as a little earner, lived on a hard arse council estate and ran the bloody gaff, a proper legend).

 

I had my trusty Carlton GSi 24v at the time, so I went to save 'em.

 

My mate's mum and wife jumped in the back of the Carlton and brought all their assorted detritus with 'em, xmas presents, booze, boxes of fags, kids toys the bloody lot. I couldn't see a thing out of the rear window. SuperGran jumps in the front, gets comfy and starts taking the piss out of everyone. My mate is in the Sierra on the end of the rope, lights on, but no heater. Windows all fogged up because there's been four of 'em in it for the best part of two hours. We set off on the mission back home. The weather is improving somewhat as we pass Manchester and SuperGran is getting impatient "Go faster, it's ok, he'll keep up...", speeds gradually increase and there's a good little convoy on the go. Me and my mate have towed a lot of cars in the past, so doing a long tow wasn't a problem. Eventually I think to myself "Hmm, wonder if this thing will tow on cruise control?" and set it to about 60. Left it on for ages as well. Eventually my mate can't see any more as his windows have completely steamed up, he's buggered if he's gonna try and wipe the window and steer with one hand at 60 so he brakes to try and slow me down, but we're going uphill and the Carlton ignores it and carries on at 60. For about three miles. Eventually I spotted the smoke coming from the Sierra brakes and released the cruise. He wasn't a happy bunny....

[fotorabia]

Berlin 1994.I had the impractical fantasy of restoring a blue 1302S Beetle i was given by one of the squats.I bought another rusty yellow one for 200DM..and got a friend Christina who had a black Beetle to tow me back to the squat where i was going to begin the dissection.So we re hooning down Karl Marx Allee..black towing yellow..in the middle of rush hour traffic and the tow rope snapped leaving me in the midst of a whole lot of impatient Trabants and Wartburgs.Eventually we re tied it..and got it back to the squat...i had to give the idea up as it got to winter..and they got stripped by the local East Berlin beetle club..

[STUNO]

Somebod else's worst

On the motorway I saw a chap in a mini towing a trailer. Nothing unusual there, but half on the trailer was a Morris minor, front wheels on the trailer and rears on the road. That combo probably put a lot of pressure on the tow hitch.

Something broke, and I assume mr mini hit the brakes, this resulted in the now detached four wheeled trailer ramming the mini into the armco barrier, I well remember the mini's bootlid coming off at that stage too.

But the trailer had not stopped, it was off down the motorway at speed. Fortunately nothing else got hit and the minor/trailer stopped in the central reservation.

Then the police arrived and I continued on. And still laugh about it.

[garethj]

Moving my old Tatra 603 to the workshop, we loaded it onto a trailer to be towed by a Rover 800. The Tatra’s a big old car with the V8 in the back, so we loaded it on backwards for better stability. 40mph was as fast as we could go without the whole thing getting terrifyingly out of shape.

 

And when it hadn’t moved for a while the handbrake seized on. No problem, I thought. Towrope on the back of the Suzuki Cappuccino and I’ll just tug the Tatra forwards a bit.

 

No.

 

A surprising amount of wheelspin, from the Suzuki, absolutely no movement from the Tatra, not a millimetre. So I got the starting handle out, started the Tatra up, knocked it into first and it moved easily with a little clunk as the brake shoes freed themselves. Has a Tatra clutch really got more grip than 2 Suzuki tyres?

[dollywobbler]

The AA get my vote for crap towing skillz0rz too. Getting dragged through Birmingham City Centre during rush hour was horrific but I guess it wasn't the AA man's fault that as he stopped at some traffic lights, some dickhead students decided to cross between me and his truck. That car probably still has the scratch marks across the bonnet...

 

A Peugeot 306 with the brakes on cannot stop a Vauxhall Brava from accelerating it seems...

[nigel bickle]

A-framing a derelict HY van home with an illegal Saab comes high on my list.

 

Down hill to a roundabout - the tow hitch gently seperates. The van slowly overtakes me, A frame pointing forward like a huge lance, effortlessly negotiates the roundabout,(unassisted,by bumping around )and then shuffles up the central armco of the facing dual carriageway.

 

I stopped, realised that the A -frame was now well buried under said Armco, lifting the front wheels clear of the ground by around 2feet. There seemed little chance of recovery - so we snatched the trailer board, plates,tools and docs and legged it.

 

250 yards up said d/carriageway was a pair of Trafficcops.....

 

2 years later coincidence found the van at a local ''specialist''. Seems the Council sold it to him,unseen, at an inflated price. Only when he got it back did he realise how badly he'd been mugged. Even my wife laughed!

[cms206]

Was towed from Paisley to the east end to Glasgow at rush hour in a completely dead Peugeot 206 behind a white Fiat Fiorino 1.7D with almost every single removable panel swapped with that from a red Fiorino Chairman... I don't really fancy repeating that to be honest!

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Yo Bickle, did you find out what made the tow hitch come apart?

[nigel bickle]

No-scary.

 

It was one of the old type A frames (-big rubber buffers against the bumper) but the damn thing was still properly attached, tight, to the front of the van when it sailed serenly past.

 

Towhitch on the car was fine,undamaged, lightly greased, 50mm ball etc. Noscuffs on theback bumperwhen it seperated. No excess speed, smooth road surface ,gentle braking only.

 

Never did find out. nearly put me off towing (nearly)