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Towing with a MV


Petelgv1

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Do any of you guys tow modern caravans or modern trailors with your commercial MV.

I have a ward Lafrance wrecker and often get the problem of getting the wrecker and my caravan to shows.

is it legal to modify a tow bar to fit on and tow a caravan with a MV ?

Can anyone post pics of modified towbars if you have ?

I've seen some suspension hitches on lorrys, does anyone have one and where would I get one ?

thanks, Pete

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We don't tow a caravan with ours but yes it is legal to and you can modify a tow bar to suit. You need to make sure the tow bar and bracket you make up are strong enough for the job. I would think that a similar set-up to a Landrover Defender one would be a good starting point - vertical drop plate bolted to the rear cross member then a couple of braces coming from the bottom up diagonally to a further forward point on the chassis. Depending on the strength of the drop plate you might not need the diagonals. Dixon Bates do an off the shelf sprung hitch that will bolt on to their drop plate.

 

HTH

Ed

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As mentioned above...

 

As long as its primary use is not a piece of "mobile plant" (crane, cherrypicker, generator), it can tow.

How much it can tow is dependant on manufacturer's info, Gross Train Weight (if it was ever assigned one in a past civvie life?) and sensibility/looking "OK"!

 

Being a wrecker, there should be no probs weight-wise (considering the weight of a caravan), just make sure the hitch is well made and up to the job (it pre-dates construction and use regs), and that the lighting is up to scratch (bit trickier as all the caravan behind the WLF would need for being towed is triangles and tail-lights, but would be sensible to have indicators and brake lamps plumbed in as well). It goes by the age of the towing vehicle and the regulations governing it, but if some monkey following you decides you should have indicated, grey area.

 

Find/build yourself a mammoth 1940s caravan with matching colour scheme to tow behind! :cool2:

 

Best of luck and show us photos! :D

 

Alec.

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We were instructed to remove the Dixon-bate Bradley auto jaws from our works vans after a major uk civils company had one 'spring' open on the motorway and send trailer & mini digger on their solo way. Indespension usually stock a good range of components, we use both sizes of their ball & pin hitch now when fitting to 3500kgs & 7500+kgs tow vehicles.

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Thanks for the help. <br>  Our ward has had a re-wire on the lighting side before I got it. There is a hidden 7 pin trailor socket under the back. I had it all tested and then fixed a 7 pin plug to a flashing beacon so when I turn lights on the beacon works.<br>all I would need is a short extension lead to run the complete lights for my caravan.<br> The fabrication would be easy and I hope to make it removable. Tootall Mike warned me that I needed a suspension hitch. Our Ward will cruise at 40mph so would I need a slow vehicle sign ?<br>I would have liked a living wagon but that may not look good behind a tank recovery vehicle.<br><br>Ok, another question   :) <br>  Are recovery A frames ok, or am I pushing my luck now.<br>i did think about towing my transit on an A frame, that way I'll have a back up van and I can sleep in the van.<br>The wrecker itself is set up to lift tanks. I did wonder if I could modify something to lift the front of my transit like an old Harvey frost design.<br><br> <img src="http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/attachment.php?attachmentid=126218&stc=1" attachmentid="126218" alt="" id="vbattach_126218" class="previewthumb">

image.jpg

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