Law on Towing a car. Can i tow with A Bar?
Hi, i want to start off doing car recovery/scrap cars and want to test the water before i jump in. so dont want to invest in buying a truck yet. i have seen car dollys for about £150 or A Bars for about £70. Can i use these to tow cars without MOT/TAX or insurance. what is the law on all of this. thanks
You’re going to get a lot of answers stating that a towed car has to be road legal, in this instance they’re wrong. You are talking about driverless towing attachments where the law is different.
The problem you will encounter is that ‘A’ bars and Dollies can only be used for recovery to a safe haven (ie. off the motorway to a place of safety), they cannot be towed for any great distance as they come under trailer laws, any UK available car being towed driverless will be in excess of 750kg and therefore classed as an illegal unbraked trailer, the only defence against it being the ‘safe haven’ roadside recovery.
If you’re going to do it, you will need a trailer and adequate recovery insurance. It can’t be done in half measures.
EDIT: If you want to go into full-time recovery work it will have to be a properly equiped and insured recovery vehicle. If you intend to be registered on the police recovery rota you will also have to comply with VOSA and Health and Safety guidelines with regard to both vehicle and operator safety and equipment.
