Looking for a tow vehicle.

The brownshirts and cops used to get down the road here just before the freeway ,and pull over every tandem boat trailer of a Saturday morning,and weigh them and check brakes ...and probably rust too.

We can all live in hope that one day ALL road rules will be the same Nationally for all vehicles on the raods. For crying out loud this is suppose to be one Country.

John

It is many a long year since I have seen the mass car roadworthy checks on the side of the road. I think the police and Transport inspectors have better things to do. There are so many kids out there with lowered noisy cars screaming out "Pick me!" that they get their quotas without annoying the general public.

Last time I saw random checking was at Croydon in far North Queensland and they were weighing all the caravans, Of course they found numerous vans overweight (or tow vehicles under capacity). They had dozens off the road in this remote town with no option but to get a $1,000 tow back to Cairns or go back and buy a new vehicle.

It lasted about 24 hours before the politicians and tourist people were so besieged with complaints (why not inspect in Cairns instead of 1,000km away out in the boondocks) that people were given 48 hours grace to get back to civilization.

The towing figures on the vehicles are complete BS. Supposedly a calculation involving, power, braking capacity, vehicle weight and construction. Isn't it amazing that so many vehicles of completely differing calculation inputs all have exactly the same towing capacity? I think I understand this because after the engineers do their calculations it is handed over to the sales department for final adjustment.

lang

I have often wondered who decides the towing capacity of vehicles. We used to have a rule-of-thumb that a vehicle was allowed to tow three-quarters of it's own weight but that was too simple for the authorities.
Now I often see a car, ute or four-wheel-drive pulling a tandem trailer carrying a vehicle identical to the one towing it!

A few years ago, Victoria mandated that all shackles attaching safety chains had to be load-rated but there was no regulation on the safety chain or the fastening of the chain to the trailer. As my Daughter would say "Go figure"

"Opened a can of worms there," he mumbled, quietly creeping back into the shadows . . . :whistle:

cobbadog wrote: We can all live in hope that one day ALL road rules will be the same Nationally for all vehicles on the raods. For crying out loud this is suppose to be one Country.

Except that you can keep your stinking annual roadworthy scam. Having said that, modern cars stay roadworthy so much longer...

Jarrod.

It took a while to find our new vehicle for me to work from and tow our van. Old vehicle was a VE Commodore that was just legal to tow the 17' Jayco van. New tow vehicle ended up being a Toyota Hiace van turbo diesel and auto. It was one of only 2 vehicles that were rear wheel drive and the Hiace has a braked tow capacity of 1500kg and ball weight of 150kg. Nearly all other vans from Renault, Mistsubishi and Hyundai are front wheel drive brake tow capacity of 2000kg but ball weight of only 80kg. A loaded 6x4 box trailer would be ilegal plus they run adblue crap.
Sorry Lang didn't mean to hijack your thread,

No problem Cobba just an interesting extension with natural progression from towing the vehicles home. We all learn a little from each post even if it is just how smart or dumb we are or how smart or dumb the other bloke is - unfortunately I often find the other bloke is smarter.

Lang

All too often I fall into the same catagory. At least I can still smile about it.

Good idea splitting thread Gryphon, people can now give input to assist others in the search. I for one have towed caravans and car trailers with a considerable number of vehicles, some good, some hopeless!

But they're all in the memory banks now, and of course the bottom line is dependant on just what it is that needs to be towed.