An especially dangerous situation is one where your car breaks down on a highway. Too many people have been injured or killed after being hit by distracted drivers, so it makes sense to get off of the highway any way you can. For some folks, that means calling AAA, for others, it means ringing up a friend with a truck or SUV, and then having them yank you out with a chain.
As Jason wrote on Saturday, there’s a really wrong way for this to go, and it’s dragging the car from behind and letting it flop all over the place. Mike Harrell has some great advice:
…the lesson is don’t tow a car with the wheels that steer unsecured.
That’s not the lesson. The lesson is that the only correct way to flat-tow is with the towed car facing forward and the steering unsecured. When doing this with a proper tow bar, don’t let anyone ride in the towed vehicle. When, in an emergency, doing this with a chain or strap, have a driver onboard the towed vehicle to control the steering and brakes, making sure that both of these systems work properly before they’re needed. The driver being towed needs to understand that it’s their responsibility to steer their own vehicle and to keep the tow line from going slack.
It’s also the responsibility of the driver of the lead vehicle to, you know, keep watch in the mirror to make sure things aren’t going poorly.
Finally, and I can’t stress this enough, whenever possible use two SAABs:
The only thing that I would add is that some cars are flat-towed better when the steering wheel has a little bit of securement. The Smart Fortwo’s front wheels may sometimes oscillate when towed behind a diesel pusher RV. The fix for this is a bungee cord linking the wheel to the driver seat frame. It doesn’t hold the wheel in place, but provides enough pressure to stop the oscillations.
Anyway, Brockstar:
I guess they read the GCWR part of Mercedes’ post on selecting a tow vehicle but missed the actual trailer part of the article. See kids. This what happens when you skim through your reading assignment.
This morning, Matt wrote about the flood of car news you’re going to read this week. One of these cars will be the 2026 Toyota RAV4. The NSX Was Only in Development for 4 Years has a hilarious prediction:
My Rav4 prediction is that it’s going to look absolutely wild, everyone here will hate it, and it’ll be the best-selling vehicle of the last 450 years.
David is protective of his family, and whenever he writes about his wife, he calls her “Elise (Not Her Real Name).” Now, David is a dad and calls his kid “Delmar (Not His Real Name).” These have become inside jokes and they show up in the most hilarious places. 10001010 noticed something funny about the location of one of the cars for sale in this morning’s Shitbox Showdown:
Location: Del Mar Heights, CA (Not its real location).
I haven’t laughed that hard at the mention of a city in a while. Have a great evening, everyone!
Yay! Cheaping out on towing finally pays off!
Wooo!
That one had me rolling!
The best way to tow two cars is in a 3-car road train on interstates in Northeast Alabama, preferably driven by gentlemen of questionable residency status who are more trouble to pull over than it’s worth to the police. All that paperwork! Bonus if the towed vehicles are occupied.
Yes, this is an oddly specific example, but if you know I-59, you know.
The best way to tow a car? How about know wtf you’re doing?
Since I have no idea, and I have the means and experience. I call and wait. Also not trying to dodge a warrant. So there is that.
That being said, I’m not hooking up a vehicle backwards on a highway.
God that last post of 10001010 was the funniest thing I have read today. Definitely cord
I totally didn’t get 10001010’s joke dangit.
Really? In case you are seriously posting DT kid Delmar not his real name Del Mar CA not it’s real location. It’s right there and hilarious.
I grew up in the area so my brain fixated on the place, rather than the pun possibilities of the name.
I tried not to spoil it
More joy was had by more folks. 🙂