cosrec

Moved on a little with my project today did first tentative lift with it today so just some body work to fit and taking for proof loading and she can have her coat of paint. Then she will be available for work[ATTACH=CONFIG]45078[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]45079[/ATTACH]

So we all agree it’s a good idea to get some air in to the vehicle being towed. But we have a little problem. Awhile ago some bureaucrat decided they would introduce a law that says in so many words it is illegal to interfere with the braking system of vehicle and to make it operate except at points put there by the manufacturer for that purpose. Hopefully someone on here will tell us the correct wording. Now I am basically a law abiding citizen so I thought hard about this. This is my take on it. If I introduce air in to the tanks of a disabled vehicle I am not making the braking system work just giving it the means to do so. So I can put air into the tanks by what ever method. As it happens lots of even relatively old vehicles have test points which you can screw on to with an adaptor and fill the tanks up. Failing that remember those airlines I wrote about earlier if you split the female connector and palm and screw the female into the tank drain tap on the first tank after the compressor it will fit in about 90% of cases there is always a way of getting air in some how. So if nothing else the driver of the towed vehicle can at least stop the vehicle he is steering by pressing the brake pedal. But I think the driver of the towed vehicle has enough to think about with out operating the brakes if he is struggling with no power steering and fretting about where the towing driver is going next. So if I was towing any distance I would be willing to split a pipe and connect into the feed for the back bogie and join on to with the yellow service line somehow. I think I could stand the wrath of a magistrate giving me a dressing down after I explained it was matter of mine and public safety. If nothing else I would feel happier towing it and have peace of mind knowing I had done the best I could to make the operation as safe as I could.

So we all agree it’s a good idea to get some air in to the vehicle being towed. But we have a little problem. Awhile ago some bureaucrat decided they would introduce a law that says in so many words it is illegal to interfere with the braking system of vehicle and to make it operate except at points put there by the manufacturer for that purpose. Hopefully someone on here will tell us the correct wording. Now I am basically a law abiding citizen so I thought hard about this. This is my take on it. If I introduce air in to the tanks of a disabled vehicle I am not making the braking system work just giving it the means to do so. So I can put air into the tanks by what ever method. As it happens lots of even relatively old vehicles have test points which you can screw on to with an adaptor and fill the tanks up. Failing that remember those airlines I wrote about earlier if you split the female connector and palm and screw the female into the tank drain tap on the first tank after the compressor it will fit in about 90% of cases there is always a way of getting air in some how. So if nothing else the driver of the towed vehicle can at least stop the vehicle he is steering by pressing the brake pedal. But I think the driver of the towed vehicle has enough to think about with out operating the brakes if he is struggling with no power steering and fretting about where the towing driver is going next. So if I was towing any distance I would be willing to split a pipe and connect into the feed for the back bogie and join on to with the yellow service line somehow. I think I could stand the wrath of a magistrate giving me a dressing down after I explained it was matter of mine and public safety.

Going to Lieghton Buzzard AM please contact me or company 01430 449309 or steve on 07808330329 any time

believe the BV belongs to a company called NK Recovery

gotcha recognise the vehicle on the avatar now small world

hi welcomw where abouts in East Yorks? I am from Blacktoft. I also put the post on about the militant but i know nothing about it apart from it seemed to just appear out of nowhere

Sure was. It was a small air cylinder that clamped to the brake pedal and had a strut that went up to the steering wheel and was all held in place with little ratchet straps it was connected to the yellow service line of the towing vehicle. We inherited one with a heavy wrecker we traded in we gave it to our main heavy driver at the time to road test. I have only today seen it rusting away in a container in the yard while trying to find something else. He said it was more trouble than it was worth. They were i believe made to circumvent a stupid law that was imposed on us by the EU. I was going to mention this in next post. I believe they were called brake buddies although i tryed goggling this and only found ones for electric one for towing vehicles behind motor homes

When on a pole two drivers are involved like every thing in recovery only one can be in charge of the operation. Common sense dictates this is the driver of the towing vehicle. As the driver of the towed vehicle you have to have faith in them hard at times I know especially when you can’t see where you are going. Also your sole purpose is to keep that pole straight follow towing vehicle and do as indicated by driver. The next thing to lessen the dangers to your self and every one around as pointed out by Gritineye is put some air in the towed vehicles tanks (that is assuming both vehicles have air brakes). A lot of ex Mod vehicles (not all) have couplings at the front and rear just for these occasions. Use them it makes life so much easier. The Mod seem to have settled on palm couplings (glad-hands) as standard although the civilian transport industry have settled in general for Male Female connectors. If making up a set if airlines it is possible to make one set do all with out multiple adaptors will put picture on to show how this is a trick I learnt of the ferries where they are pulling trailers of the ferries with different couplings. As you can see depending which airline to fit adaptor to you end up with two palm couplings or one male one female. Next post I will show what to do if no airline connectors are fitted [ATTACH=CONFIG]44958[/ATTACH]

Remember I said the vehicle being towed was unbraked and there is a gradient involved. If you look at this picture it is fairly obvious because of weight transference nearly the whole weight of both vehicles is being braked by the front axle of the towing vehicle. This in turn means the rear axle of the towing vehicle is actually tending to lift of the floor. Thus the rear axle which is providing the resistance to stop the whole lot jack knifing has very little weight on it. Add in a greasy road surface and it’s a fair bet the whole lot is an accident in the making. Now I am not saying don’t use poles but make sure both drivers are aware of the pitfalls when not in a straight line plus compounded by a gradient and maybe a poor road surface. There are other things you can do to lessen these effects [ATTACH=CONFIG]44869[/ATTACH]

As you can see the chances of the towing vehicle not doing a spin round or jacknife are pretty slim. But wait things are actually much worse than i first made out remember i said there was a gradient involved will put another picture on to show whats happening from the side

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Right we are using a pole to illustrate some of the pitfalls of using a pole I have picked an example where by we have a 10 ton truck towing a disabled vehicle with a gross weight of 20 tons this vehicle for what ever reason has no brakes. In an ideal world when every thing is hooked up and ready to go the pole will be at right angles to both vehicles running centrally and when viewed from the side will be parallel with the ground. So off we go no problems. A little ways up the road we come to a corner as we are still accelerating and take the corner in a nice smooth arc all still running fine. We then get up to a nice cruising speed every things ok. The road sarts to go down a steep gradient Up in the distance the driver of the towing vehicle sees a roundabout so being wary of the ways of towing on a pole he starts to brake well in advance while still in a straight line. He is now at a speed he can negotiate the roundabout safely accelerating as he goes around it . This how it should be done all braking done when in straight line accelerating when cornering. Right at the last moment upon hitting the roundabout a youth in bulled up Astra appears from nowhere. Driver has only one option swerve and hit the brakes at the same time person in disabled vehicle can do nothing to help in fact his problems have become worse because weight on his steering axle have increased. Picture shows what’s happening. We now have a force of 20 tons pushing at the towing vehicle at an angle the towing vehicle is trying to resist this purely with weight of say 5 tons resistance on its back axle

looks like pic taken at Pickering

Strange i never thought about cars when i started writing about Tow poles. You guys are going to come across all the pitfalls more times than most people with the amount callouts you get in a day. As you have mentioned already the complacent driver can be a right pain. One more thing in our contracts with all the motoring organisation we are strictly forbidden from using poles an light vehicles

i understand spoken german but struggle to read it i think it says I dont ship to australia for 1.50 HOW MUCH WOULD THAT COST

So we have decided to go along the route of using a tow pole is there anything to watch out for. Well yes actually quite a lot. The tow pole used to one of the most abused pieces of equipment on a recovery truck. Just have a look at any you come across on the back of wreckers and see how many are bent or twisted or have kinks in the tube near the fixing eyes. The biggest inherent danger with Tow poles is they lull people in to a false sense of security thinking they can go and stop quickly. Ask anybody who has worked in the recovery industry for a while they will all have stories about this or that going wrong. As I have mentioned previously the recovery industry rarely use poles in today’s world but if you do see them they will be usually travelling slowly with say a huge mobile crane on. They aren’t going slowly because the machine is heavy today’s heavy wreckers could probably tow them about at legal speed limits. No they travel slowly because that’s the way to go with poles. So straight away that’s one thing that’s helping people on this site the machines they are towing with and are towing aren’t flying machines

A bit more on towing. When I first got involved with towing 40 years ago things were different to today’s practices. In those days nearly all towing was done on poles. Reason only the biggest operators had equipment that could safely lift and carry large commercial vehicles. As modern vehicles developed body work became more fragile and they became more and more difficult to pickup and weights increased so making the whole job of suspend towing more difficult. Today I suspect using a pole to tow a broken down vehicle is the easiest option available to most members of this site. So a few facts tips about towing disabled vehicles on poles. Back then the person in the disabled vehicle was classed as the brakeman or steersman and as such didn’t need a licence to drive the vehicle being towed but had only to be old enough to hold one. The person in the towing vehicle had to have a licence to drive the vehicle he was in but not the one he was towing. The one he was towing was classed as a disabled vehicle and not a trailer. Disabled vehicle owners could not be prosecuted for having no working lights or rear mudguards. Now I don’t know for sure but if you regard the vehicle being towed as a disabled vehicle then nothing has changed. But please check to satisfy your self before doing anything involving above

Got a bit further over the weekend. But have convinced myself is is going to be a useful piece of kit when finished. not good pics but i think it shows boom hieght and reach [ATTACH=CONFIG]44704[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]44705[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]44706[/ATTACH]

Congratulations on a successful run the Old lady is a credit to all the hard work and detail you have all put in. She looks an absolute picture

All our vehicles have names although may not be wrote on them. I have no choice in the name its my wife or girls in office who name them so they can allocate them on jobs. The one it is replacing (the Foden) was called Hippocrocamonsterpig you can make it out across the front in chalk in an earlier photo. May just be it will inherit its slot on computer and hence name

Another milestone on my project today got the rear legs piped up and feet welded on should have main lift rams working over this long weekend if i dont get to distracted by the wedding :cheesy: [ATTACH=CONFIG]44481[/ATTACH]

watched a little bit but got fed up with the presenter who makes his living exposing the dregs of the earth on TV trying to do something which may be of interest to normal people and failing W+%"$R who senationalises everybodies shortfalls

Hi i stand corrected When i went to the states once i drove up to Chattanoga to visit the Towing Museum for various reasons i never got to see it. That evening i met Two recovery guys from Canada who had flown down to look at a couple of recovery vehicle they were having built. It was them who explained that Millers Ind were under pressure to sell out to the Dover Corp. Obviously it never happened. What ever regardless of what the badges say a large proportion of the western worlds recovery equipment sarts life in America

Some nice pieces of kit there. Jige is a French company but is owned by The Dover Corp of America same as Boniface from this country. The kit on the last two pictures is Made by Century in America also owned by the Dover Corp. They are built very close to the original birth place of the modern recovery gear designed by Earnest Holmes. Holmes are also owned by the Dover Corp Along with Challenger Vulan Tulsa Winches Garwood and many More companies who build recovery equipment. So although people in the recovery industry have strong loyalties towards certain brand names they are mostly buying off the same American company