Tow Bar Limits - A Stupid Question

[EmailAddress]

The initial message was deleted from this topic on 13 December 2023 at 10:38

[Nomme de Plum]

EmailAddress said:

Maths again.

If vehicle A had a towbar with a limit of 3000kg, it could potentially pull vehicle B as long as vehicle B <3000kg. (In very basic terms, ignoring weight of vehicle A etc.)

If vehicle A simply needed itself dead pulled by the same towbar. That same limit would apply wouldn't it?

So if vehicle A weighs 4000kg, then the towbar effectively could not be used to recover vehicle A.

The question being: there is not some extra force bring applied by the towing vehicle, or a lesser force when the vehicle is being, erm, submissive?

God I hate myself. I flunked physics

Not exactly sure hat you mean by 3T tow bar limit.

These maybe helpful.

https://www.gov.uk/towing-with-car/weight-and-widt...


https://www.witter-towbars.co.uk/help-and-faqs/wha...

[kambites]

From an engineering stress point of view, you'd need to use a fixed bar because the instantaneous load as a rope goes taught can be FAR higher than that on a fixed link towing the same weight. From a legal point of view, your "3000kg towing capacity" will be for braked trailers so you couldn't "dead tow" a car weighing more than the unbraked towing capacity (which will almost certainly be 750kg) without modifying the braking system of the car you are towing; I'm not sure what the rules are on towing with someone else operating the brakes of the car which is being towed.

[SkodaIan]

A car (or more likely a big SUV or pickup) can have a towbar which is rated to tow 3 tonnes.

What that rating means is that it is designed for a 3 tonne braked trailer to be attached to it, and it can be towed at legal speeds on all roads where that amount can be legally driven. (Plus quite a large safety margin).

You can't legally tow a 4 tonne trailer with that towbar on the road but pulling something of 4 tonnes slowly around a yard isn't going to break a 3 tonne rated towbar.

[Bobupndown]

I towed a stuck 7 ton lorry out of a field with my Discovery 2 which had a 3 1/2 tow limit. I've also towed a 5 ton load with my Freelander 2 which has a 2 ton tow limit. Tow bars, and vehicles can take a much larger load that their design limit. Not advisable though.