A-Frame/Buggy Dolly/ Towing a buggy

wagon

New member
In some kind of fantasy where I get my hog on the road by the summer....

I'd kind of thought about the possibility of towing it down to teh south of france on an A-Frame.

Anybody done it?
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Thanks in advance  :)
 

Phaeton

Moderator
Staff member
I hope that the Smart car is broken down & it is just being removed to a place of repair, or the driver of the camper is breaking UK law.

It is quite complicated & as per VOSA & DVLA totally illogical. If your car breaks down then as above it can be removed to a place of repair, the towed vehicle must be MOT'd, have a current VED & be insured, hence why they can be used by the AA etc.

However if the towed vehicle is less than 750Kg Gross then it can be towed & becomes a trailer, simple, not quite. Here is the rub, as it has brakes then they must operate in conjunction with the brakes of the towing vehicle, so if you add a simple A-Frame like in the picture above & there is no way to operate the brakes it's illegal.

As to what the law is in France or any other European country I don't know, all I do know is a friend of mine sold a rally car to a Dane. He travelled with his Transit van from Denmark to the UK & then set-off back with the car on a trailer also bought from my friend. He got stopped in Germany, as the trailer wasn't plated it was confiscated & destroyed. The rally car was impounded & he had to arrange professional transport to get the car back home which cost him a small fortune.

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Having said all that I use an A-Frame to tow my buggy, I have overtaken Police cars with it on the back, I also used it to take the buggy into the VOSA depot twice, once for the SVA & then again for the retest. If stopped I will argue that my buggy is less than 750Kgs & therefore a trailer & hope they do not know about the brake law.

Alan..
 

wagon

New member
thanks that's very helpful.

How do you stop the steering from moving? Presumably it needs to be fixed?

Do you know if you can use the lights on the buggy or would you need a trailer board?

How do you attach the front to the A-Frame? Have you welded on brackets?

I wonder what kind of system you'd need to use to make the brakes work  ???

Would a "dolly" be any more successful/legal?

Time for some googling
 

Phaeton

Moderator
Staff member
wagon":2tp31o8o said:
thanks that's very helpful.

No worries that's what this forum is all about

wagon":2tp31o8o said:
How do you stop the steering from moving? Presumably it needs to be fixed?

No! You have to allow the front wheels to steer, or all that will happen is you will rip the tread off the front tyres & put immense stress on the A-frame

wagon":2tp31o8o said:
Do you know if you can use the lights on the buggy or would you need a trailer board?

Using the buggy lights is perfectly legal, I was always going to put a tow bar socket on the front of the buggy & have a male-male cable for when towing, all you need to do is change the rear number plate to reflect the towing vehicle, only one should be displayed at the rear.

wagon":2tp31o8o said:
How do you attach the front to the A-Frame? Have you welded on brackets?

I removed the bottom arm bolts & used those to mount the bracket.

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wagon":2tp31o8o said:
I wonder what kind of system you'd need to use to make the brakes work  ???

I'm told they are available but you are looking at £1k+ I believe, they are set-up inside the car to operate the brake pedal, no idea how.

wagon":2tp31o8o said:
Would a "dolly" be any more successful/legal?

Exactly same rules apply

wagon":2tp31o8o said:
Time for some googling

As I said I have used one several times with the buggy, I've also used dolly's & done many thousand's of miles with cars on the back, many without MOT/VED or insurance. In all that time I have never been stopped or even questioned by anybody on authority. I'm not sure I would go abroad without knowing more though.

Alan...
 

Steves2580

New member
Best £200.00 quid I've spent!!

http://www.onroadbuggies.co.uk/?Towing

I towed Mary around 100miles, I've towed my lads buggy (similar to the one on the website) ;D
I've also towed a couple of BMW's with it, and my little Na (the Nova with the o and v removed)!!

Very simple to use, chain wraps around wishbone onto the ratchet straps, couple of clicks, leave keys in the ignition (steering lock) and off you go!!

Simples ;D ;D

Steve.
 

Steves2580

New member
Nah!

You only need brakes to stop, so just keep going!!!

You've just got to read the road a bit further in advance lol!

I've never had an issue with braking, saying that I've never needed to do an emergency stop while towing!!


Steve  ;D
 

wagon

New member
ha ha - I had to do one when I was driving down the A1 to Norfolk to collect my buggy from Boyd!

The trailer locked up! Scary stuff!!  :eek:
 

esdebe

New member
An alternative method that I'm considering is to buy part of an an old caravan chassis (they cost about £50 as a flat bed)  keep the hitch and the break mechanism  then discard the rest,  rig up a hook from the wire / rod on it to the handbrake cable to the breaking mechanism and away you go.. 
 

CAW

New member
That would be great getting a caravan chassis in decent nick, think I'd make a small trailer to suit the freestyle size, but in reality I need a trailer to fit through a 7 foot wide garage door, so think a custom made might fit the bill more, mine will be a off-road buggy only.

Andy
 

wagon

New member
Any thought on if there is any kind of "optimal" length for the draw bar?

Ie is there an optimal distance the buggy should be away from the back of the tow vehicle? 
 

Phaeton

Moderator
Staff member
Only in so much that when you get maximum lock on the front of the buggy would not hit the towing car.

Alan...
 

joncarter

New member
There is a company on ebay selling A franes for £100 new with all the test cert and for ten quid they will deliver it to your door i purchased one and its ok .
 

Phaeton

Moderator
Staff member
joncarter":3ayvfbpd said:
There is a company on ebay selling A franes for £100 new with all the test cert and for ten quid they will deliver it to your door i purchased one and its ok .

Link??

Alan...
 

Phaeton

Moderator
Staff member
Neilj":2c21tb1d said:
Where did you attach the brackets to connect the AFrame
I made some brackets for the front of the buggy, they attached to the bolt where the bottom arm goes

http://212.159.22.204/photo/share/y..._323031312d30352d31343136333530335f312e6a7067

http://212.159.22.204/photo/share/yaTWo5rQ/photo_4d725f42756d626c65_44534330303239345f312e6a7067

http://212.159.22.204/photo/share/yaTWo5rQ/photo_4d725f42756d626c65_44534330303239335f312e6a7067

Just understand the full legal position before you do use one.



 

Danny

Administrator
Phaeton":1885w8u4 said:
Neilj":1885w8u4 said:
Where did you attach the brackets to connect the AFrame
I made some brackets for the front of the buggy, they attached to the bolt where the bottom arm goes

photo_4d725f42756d626c65_323031312d30352d31343136333530335f312e6a7067


photo_4d725f42756d626c65_44534330303239345f312e6a7067


photo_4d725f42756d626c65_44534330303239335f312e6a7067


Just understand the full legal position before you do use one.




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