At any point you can become stranded and you'll need someone to come and help you. When that happens, you might need to know how to tow a car.
The road traffic act states that a towing apparatus can be made of rope, chain, a solid steel bar or a towing strap and cannot exceed 2.2m and cannot be shorter than 1.2m.
Begin by attaching the tow strap to the towing vehicle that is rated for the weight, then attache the strap to the towed vehicle.
Slowly take up the slack until the strap is taught. Work out a system of hand signals so that you can communicate while under way a slowly begin moving. The driver of the towed vehicle should depress the brake pedal slightly to keep tension on the strap.
Keep a steady pace and avoid busy roads.
!! You should not tow an automatic vehicle! the driven wheels are still connected to the transmission even if it is in neutral. If you choose to tow you cannot exceed 20km/h and cannot ravel past 8km. Rather call a tow truck!!
Many thanks, good video
How about talking on the phone (speaker) while driving?
you can tow an automatic, just put in neutral, same with 4x4
That's terrible for your transmission... sounds like a good way to blow a transmission to be honest, now if you were to drop the drive shaft sure, but until you do that, not good at all.
Shouldn't tow either really......
My transmission blew out lol so it doesn't matter.
@@towtruckaj no it isn't, do you know anything about transmissions or transfer cases?
@@leeferguson2140 yes you should if you have to, and it's fine
How NOT to use a carabiner 101.
can u go through the process of steps the one being towed
Some good helpful tips here.
Towing an automatic car is perfectly fine if it's perfectly fine. What I mean by that is that your manual will tell you if and/or how you can safely do so. In, for instance, a RAM 1500 4x4 you must put it in Park (not neutral) and then put your transfer case in neutral.
Doesn't putting it in park lock the wheels?
@@NabeelFarooqui No it locks the gearbox. Normally the gearbox would be connected to the wheels through a transfer case, but since that is in neutral the "connection" is broken. Im not entirely sure but I think the reason they do this is because the transmission doesn't cool itself properly if the fluids cant be pushed through the torque converter by the engine.
that's not 2 meters apart, js.
Well good thing I watched this video before I actually tired to tow my automatic transmission car
If you were to pull an automatic, do you need the engine running to power the steering pump to turn the car?
So what are you supposed to do with an automatic car when you're using a tow bar?
The biggest problem is to maintain tension in the strap for both the drivers. Specially if there are various speed-breakers and slow downs in the route.
Yeah my fiance and I had to flat tow our Expedition with our Ram 1500 from north Oviedo to the UCF area. We had about four feet of tow strap between the bumpers lol Ended up being on the phone the whole time so I could tell him when I was braking and when we were moving again
This is exactly the reason why I’m here! I got towed, and snapped someone’s chords because I lost tension! So keeping the break down constantly ever so slightly.. that’s key? Getting towed again in a few mins, hope it’s better this time!
@@Tommythepawn keep a hand on the hand brake and keep hitting it as soon as there's slightest of speed reduction. This way it will work.
Thanks so much!! All went well 😇😇
If you really needed to tow an auto car, you can disconnect the drive shaft/axle.
Is this what they do when you get your car towed? Cause not once has any body cared that the car was an automatic when called for a tow guy. They don’t ask over the phone they just come out and tow it .
Usually they lift the drive wheels. Most cars are fed so they can just lift the front. A rwd vehicle can be lifted from the back. Awd vehicles are only supposed to be flat towed, but if you're not going far and you keep the speeds low you'll probably be fine.
My question to you is that when you talk about towing an automatic vehicle you, are talking about towing a vehicle quite some distance, not just a few feet to dislodge them from mud or snow?
That is correct yes. Should you need to rescue an automatic vehicle from mud, snow or a situation where the vehicle is stuck, it's ok to tow it the few meters/feet required to unstick it. Prolonged towing over any significant distance is not advisable at all. [Chad]
I bet they got stuck at that first turn
"Tow Ball will will become a projectile" Whahaha, clearly not an engineer. That tow ball is rated at 3,5 ton to safety factor of 4. This means it can handle 4x the 3,5ton. This is exceptionally higher than the 220kg that carabiner is rated for that you secured the strap with. Thanks Auto Trade, fucking brilliant.
Never ever tow or recover with tow ball. Always use a receiver shackle
So you can't put autos in neutral?
I do it all the time
While putting an auto in neutral will allow the wheels to turn freely, the gearbox components will still be rotating and will be doing so without sufficient oil feed. This will cause overheating and damage the gears. This is why it is not advisable to tow an automatic car in this manner. [Chad]
@@Autotradersa Not for a long distance. However, my uncle told me if they ever towed long distance for less than an hour, they would put it in N and leave the engine idling for an auto.
drop the drive shaft and your good otherwise no..
So what would you say about towing a 4x4 car, that has auto transmission, that is now only gonna be used for spare parts, towing about 60 KM?
Engine will not start, BUT there is a downhill for about 5 min in one stretch, so maybe a tow truck with the towed car on the cargo would prob. be better ?
@@olliphoto 60km is an extream distance for this method, I wont do this for anything longer than 20km on a manual and 10km on an auto, doing 20km/h at max
@@abdallahmanasrah2317 I did decided to get it towed and my brother got it to start again.
So according to this if you are driving an automatic at 50 mph and then switch to neutral for whatever reason to just cruise you are hurting your transmission?
I think, based on other comments, the issue is heat build up when towing for long distances. Towing to a nearby service center or whatever should be fine but towing from one state to another is bound to cause issues because transmission oil also works as coolant so it has to flow (from the torque converter) in the way designed to keep everything lubricated and cool.
But wont the brakes on the disabled vehicle not work since the engine can not run?
The brakes will still work, but they will not have vacuum assistance, so the brake pedal will feel firmer and require more effort, but the brakes will still work. [Chad]
They will work . It's the same with all power brakes . Power brakes means "Power Assist " you just have to muscle up more .
@@johnmacleod8507 is it ok then to turn off engine on a steep hill going slow at around 5 -10 km/hr when there's slow moving traffic, will it affect the brake if we muscle up ?
Can you use a bungee to tow if you don't have a rope?
yes but you should double it up cuz cars are pretty heavy 😂
That tow strap looks like it's more than 2.2 meters as you have stated. Can you explain?
The strap in question is a 4x4 recovery strap and was used in lieu of the tow straps available from the auto store and as this video is purely demonstrative of towing procedure and we never left our company parking lot it is of little consequence. The law remains 2.2m regardless of our filming props.
Strap looked longer than 2.2m?
I think for us Imperir system users its 6 feet.
Why can’t you put an automatic transmission into the neutral position when you tow it? Doesn’t that free up the transmission so that you can tow it? If not how exactly would it damage it when it is a neutral?
The lever doesn't shift to neutral without starting the engine.
@@phuntsokangrup3871 that's not necessarily true. Some makes of Vehicles will shift to neutral just by turning the key. Also, some towed cars can be started long enough to be put it in neutral, although they will not run continuously.
Transmission wear, It's bad for your transmission, if you drop the drive shaft it will be fine, otherwise it will still be turning your transmission gears.
@@towtruckaj Is this true even if it's in neutral? I mean it might be turning some gears sure but the real issues I imagine would be with the clutches. The fact is, where I live we tow older autos all the time and I've never once heard someone say that it's bad for the vehicle.
@@jasonsahadeo5740 it just all depends on the vehicle but in general autos in neutral is bad, manuals in neutral is fine. A lot of autos don’t circulate oil when just in neutral with some you can get around that by leaving it running but I usually stay on the side of caution. The issue comes down to heat build up, if you are going long distances that’s when it will show, I had a guy flat towing a truck from Texas to where I am in ohio and he got impounded, when I got there I took both trucks and the one being flat towed was destroyed, it still drove around the lot but it was so clunky and stiff and I can only imagine it was done during the flat tow. Others I have heard of catching on fire on the interstate due to the heat build up.
That mk1 golf tho
That's a Citi Golf, a continuation of the Mk1 shape (with a few changes), that was made in South Africa up to 2009.
@@Autotradersa Hunday IT EVERN SIDS IT ON THE CAR FUCK.
I highly doubt that ball would snap off. I’ve seen campers and the tow vehicles on their sides and still connected at the ball.
Dangerous ! Never ever use the tow ball to attach a tow rope.
Does someone need to be in the car being towed?
Yes, you would need someone in the towed car to steer and apply the brakes. The towed car is actually mostly responsible for the braking while travelling to ensure that the rope/strap remains taught and isn't subjected to sudden snaps. [Chad]
just put the auto in neutral
This guy thinks its a good idea to say you cant tow an automatic vehicle way past the middle of the video
You can if you turn your key to put it in accessory mode, and shift it into Neutral
Yet another reason automatic transmission suck.
Yeah a shitty method in general... not safe at all really, not to mention most cars don't have tow hooks...
This is terrible