Past Towing Safety Considerations in Ormond Beach, Florida
On occasion, our car, van, truck or sport-utility vehicle can break down and need to be towed. Decades ago, it wasn’t uncommon to see a friend, family member, neighbor or Good Samaritan towing the stranded vehicle home for a needy driver. It’s rare to see this today– for good reason. Towing practices, like today’s vehicles, are more sophisticated than they were years ago– so sophisticated, in fact, that there are more rules and “don’ts” than ever before. Even AAA, the largest member-supported roadside assistance service in the United States, offers a tow truck manual for tow truck operators that has “more than 350 pages of details involving every make and model,” said Larry Keller, editor at AAA of Michigan. No, towing isn’t a simple procedure where someone throws a rope or chain around a car’s front bumper and “tows” the vehicle home. If there’s one key thing to remember about towing, it is that you should always follow the owner’s manual and make sure your towing truck operator does, too. Find another towing truck in Ormond Beach, Florida if he refuses to do so. Otherwise, you can face the risk of damage to your vehicle.
Current Towing Safety Considerations in Ormond Beach, Florida
These days, there is much more emphasis on safety in towing, with the realization that there’s a potential for injury or even death during towing maneuvers. In the early 1980s, a Good Samaritan driver was killed in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan when he attempted to tow another driver out of a snow bank. The man died when the chain he had attached to the other vehicle broke and the loose end flew into the back window of his truck cab, striking him in the head.
There are other towing dangers, too.
Do-it-yourself towed vehicles don’t have lights and flashers that Ormond Beach, Florida tow-truck drivers use to alert other drivers that they’re approaching a disabled car. So other drivers can come up quickly at the back of these vehicles-in-towing and rear-end them, since they typically aren’t keeping up with traffic.
It is important to understand that brakes on a DIY-towed vehicle typically are crippled as well because with the vehicle’s engine not on, there’s no vacuum boost to help the brakes work normally. Thus, if the vehicle that’s pulling a disabled car stops suddenly, it’s likely the towed vehicle won’t be able to stop in time to avoid rear-ending the tow vehicle.
Steering can be another problem, with so many of today’s vehicles featuring power-assist steering systems, not to mention steering wheel locks. Note that when the engine is not operating, there is no power assist, so attempting to steer a towed vehicle requires substantial extra effort. For a quality 24 hour towing truck company in Ormond Beach, Florida call Saxon’t Wrecker & Automotive Service. They can tow your vehicle anywhere or they can tow it to their repair shop and do the repairs for your.
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