Towing

[Ruairidh Dunford]

Bruce,

Is it therefore advisable to carry a rigid tow bar if touring France?

Can you also advise what correct tow signs must be like please?

[Reckless Rat]

Having looked at what's available on-line I think a three piece rigid bar as sold by Silverline would be fine. It would fit under the rear seat of your Opal The only 'signalisation' required is that the towbar must be visible - they seem to use a red flag or similar at the mid point, plus there must be a lighting bar & n° plate on the twed vehicle (same as a trailer plate with lights, indicators & red triangles)

In addition. Towing is not permitted on French motorways, except by authorised breakdown (ie the operator), nor on the Nationale network. Elsewhere it is permitted at no more than 50kph.

Personally if it was me doing the towing I would opt for a bar that connected with the drawing vehicle's 50mm tow ball and not the ring thingy behind the bumper - they are not strong enough and are only intended for fastening the car down on a transporter.

[Duncan Grimmond]

Tow-ball only! The ring thingy will serve for a bump start or a desperate short tow home with a driver in the towed vehicle but as Reckless says, they are tie-down loops and do not like the jerking of a half-ton of car with the unavoidable slack/take-up.

[Derek Simmons]

Having looked at what's available on-line I think a three piece rigid bar as sold by Silverline would be fine. It would fit under the rear seat of your Opal The only 'signalisation' required is that the towbar must be visible - they seem to use a red flag or similar at the mid point, plus there must be a lighting bar & n° plate on the twed vehicle (same as a trailer plate with lights, indicators & red triangles)

In addition. Towing is not permitted on French motorways, except by authorised breakdown (ie the operator), nor on the Nationale network. Elsewhere it is permitted at no more than 50kph.

Personally if it was me doing the towing I would opt for a bar that connected with the drawing vehicle's 50mm tow ball and not the ring thingy behind the bumper - they are not strong enough and are only intended for fastening the car down on a transporter.

When needing to tow, I've always favoured a rigid tow bar but can anyone tell me whereabouts the bar should be attached to the front of an A7 Ruby? Unlike modern cars older cars do not have a towing eye that screws into the car.

[Reckless Rat]

First of all, despite these rigid tow bars being available with just a loop at either end so they can be attached to a "so called towing ring" with the equivalent of an exhaust clamp - you do so at your own peril. As I have already stated these fixed or screw-in rings are NOT for towing the vehicle. They are to secure it in transit, either on a trailer or a car transporter. Read the advice in your owner's handbook. I would only ever contemplate using a rigid (or spring damped) towing bar that had a proper caravan style towing hitch at one end,  fixed to the drawing vehicle via a 50mm ball and an approved tow-bar.

As far as an Austin Seven is concerned, I would only sanction such an action in a dire emergency. It would be far better to recover the car by other means but if you have to do it the best place would be to attach to the front axle beam between the radius arm and the damper mountings, but do so WITH EXTREME CARE, making sure that the Driver of the towing car knows what they are doing as well as whoever is steering the Austin. Any snatching or excessive braking could well damage what you're trying to salvage. All large proportion of that effort will be taken by the front spring, shackles and radius arm to cross member mounting point, and the A7 is not as tough as an Abrams M1A1 tank!

[David.H]

First of all, despite these rigid tow bars being available with just a loop at either end so they can be attached to a "so called towing ring" with the equivalent of an exhaust clamp - you do so at your own peril. As I have already stated these fixed or screw-in rings are NOT for towing the vehicle. They are to secure it in transit, either on a trailer or a car transporter. Read the advice in your owner's handbook. I would only ever contemplate using a rigid (or spring damped) towing bar that had a proper caravan style towing hitch at one end,  fixed to the drawing vehicle via a 50mm ball and an approved tow-bar.

As far as an Austin Seven is concerned, I would only sanction such an action in a dire emergency. It would be far better to recover the car by other means but if you have to do it the best place would be to attach to the front axle beam between the radius arm and the damper mountings, but do so WITH EXTREME CARE, making sure that the Driver of the towing car knows what they are doing as well as whoever is steering the Austin. Any snatching or excessive braking could well damage what you're trying to salvage. All large proportion of that effort will be taken by the front spring, shackles and radius arm to cross member mounting point, and the A7 is not as tough as an Abrams M1A1 tank!

As RR says...read the manual. My current "modern"car says the screw in eye can be used for a rigid bar (being towed...not towing with), the welded on loops are indeed for lashing down.
For years I used a condemned(!) nylon climbing rope as a tow rope (nice & springy). It was frequently used... including for towing another Twin Cam Cortina Mk2 600 miles or so across Afghanistan during the 1968 London to Sydney Marathon at speeds that I shudder to remember. The stage was ~ 1800 miles from Teheran to Kabul (depending on the route chosen - we went via Kandahar) and we had a target time of 23 hours. Despite the towing we did it in 26 hours! I would not have liked to do that on a rigid bar!

[cardiffrob]

 I would not have liked to do that on a rigid bar!

I would not like to do that today!

[Bob Culver]

My solid tow bar (as distinct from A frame) has over the ages had various brackets to suit the front of family cars, and  as only mine had a towbar, sundry quick fit brackets to provide a temp tow ball on the others. Not necessarily in centre.
To transfer the Seven a bracket was bolted to the s.a. mounting.
All must be very secure. If the front of bar drops onto road could be exciting.

A serious danger with rope towing occurs if the slack rope is run over and wraps around the wheel. Pulls tight on the steering linkages.

[merlinart]

I have used a proper  towing A frame and twice had disastrous results.

I now use a French tipping trailer called a Lider Plateau.

It is a 750 kg gross trailer with a 520kg carrying capacity, on a sing axle, and as 750kg gross does not require brakes.

The bed tilts fully, so that you can drive up, in fact I collected my Ruby on it. Being single axle it is easy to manoeuvre.

See:   https://towing-trailers.co.uk/37360-8-fo...t9gqnmomd3

regards

Arthur

[Reckless Rat]

I have a smaller version of Arthur's trailer, made by Erdé. It is as he quite rightly states, tippable, but a word of caution... On mine, the tipping mechanism is just a hinge with a lock bolt at the forward end. I presume that Arthur was able to get the rear wheels of his Ruby up onto the trailer before the centre of gravity went forward of the pivot point and caused it to tip back to the horizontal, otherwise you could be in a pickle.

Unless of course you have some sort of arrangement to prevent the trailer bed from tipping until so desired. (perhaps it can be controlled by a trolley jack). Tell us how you did it, Arthur.