Laws about TOADS?

Peralko wrote:
We once towed my parent's Grand Marquis backward on a tow dolly from Lubbock to Kingman and did not have any problem, but it it is not something I would do on a regular basis. As far as lights go, every tow dolly I have seen have lights, so no extra light is needed for the car.

The lights on tow dollys do not meet the requirements for lights on the rear of a vehicle since they are more than three feet from the rear of towed vehicle.

I was cited for that in Va and warned in NC before I bought the magnetic lights. NC was a warning because I showed the officer my previous citation and told him I was headed to Camping World in Statesville to purchase lights. On the other hand I see people doing exactly what I was cited for on a regular basis and not getting stopped.

popeye766 wrote:
I hope you have a wonderful trip...my opinion on the toad....I would never tow one in that position ....If that thing gets to whipping you cannot recover it.....buy an aluminum trailer.....My 02 worth...

Exactly.:E

wny_pat wrote:

The Texan wrote:

alogo4u wrote:
Cars dollies should not be used to tow cars in a backward position. Most dolly mfgs also note this caution. Just my $.02. Happy camping.

Please show us anything in writing that even remotely says not to tow a vehicle backwards, other than some legal beagle doing a CYA for the bean counters........I have looked and looked and found nothing.

I can't show you anything in writing, but can tell you what I once saw. I saw a guy doing that once and it looked very dangerous to me. The front of the car (part facing the rear) was about 18 inches to the right of the back of the car (part facing the front), and was swaying dangerously back and forth. It gave me enough common sense to decide that I would not do such a thing.

To settle this: It is not RECOMMENDED by the dolly companies to tow a car from the rear due to the very conditoin that you cite.

If you tow rear on the dolly and trust the rather anemic steering wheel lock to keep your front wheels pointed straight bad things happen, for this reason the dolly makers cover their,,, anatomy,,, recommending against it.

HOWEVER if you properly secure the steering wheel, as the original psoter claims he is doing, THEN it is safe.. and legal And towing companies have been doing it that way for a long, long, long long time.

The tower in your story DID NOT properly secure the wheel.

We once towed my parent's Grand Marquis backward on a tow dolly from Lubbock to Kingman and did not have any problem, but it it is not something I would do on a regular basis. As far as lights go, every tow dolly I have seen have lights, so no extra light is needed for the car.

The Texan wrote:

alogo4u wrote:
Cars dollies should not be used to tow cars in a backward position. Most dolly mfgs also note this caution. Just my $.02. Happy camping.

Please show us anything in writing that even remotely says not to tow a vehicle backwards, other than some legal beagle doing a CYA for the bean counters........I have looked and looked and found nothing.

Well haul states not to tow backwards in their rental contract. It is number 1 under "Information"
U Haul

Quote, Important towing information

Prevent whipping by properly loading the tow dolly. The vehicle-in-tow must be loaded facing forward (front wheels on tow dolly). Loading the vehicle-in-tow backwards can cause the tow vehicle and the tow dolly "combination" to begin whipping, which is violent and uncontrollable sway. unquote

bluwtr49 wrote:
Couldn't the caster angle cause some problems being towed backwards??

Not if the steering is locked.

I personally would not do it.

There is no law against towing backwards, as long as you follow the laws about which color lights face which direction. That said, I once towed a pickup truck backwards on a tow dolly and it was EXTREMELY unstable, but I think with a car that has closer to 50/50 weight distribution, it wouldn't be such an issue. It sounds like you've already towed it that way and not had problems.

I think the main danger in towing backwards involves how good you secure the steering wheel. If what ever you have on it comes loose then the front end of the car is going to start doing funny things. It may just fly over to one side or it may start fish tailing. One thing it won't do is keep going straight behind your motorhome. That is likely the main reason it is recommended against. I think if I were going to do it, I'd have two separate straps on it incase one fails the other is a backup.

hershey wrote:
I see trucks towed backwards a lot. I'm sure that you would need to add some aux lighting to the rear of the tow to allow the lighting functions necessary just like a trailer. I also hear a lot of babble about caster and camber etc but the fact of the matter is, I've never heard of a problem towing backwards. Most cars are capable of backing up, most have a gear built in just for that function. Called reverse. :)

Iam not about to say that towing backwards will cause weird tire wear because of caster etc but the fact that most cars have reverse for backing up as u like to put it they were not designed to back up at 60 MPH

The biggest issue with towing backwards is where the weight is. When the weight is not on the dolly, you have 2 issues. First, the weight wants to swing around, so it will tend to wonder. Towing a VW frontwards has this problem. The second issue is that the dolly brakes won't do much, because there is very little weight on them. It could make them more prone to locking up under heavy stopping. It may actually be safer not to have brakes, especially if the car is so light.