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Flat towing a sierra

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 7:42 pm
by built4thrashing
Ive seen a few pics of sierras in the states being flat towed with an A frame. Is it legal here in oz to do this? I intend on going away with the family and the zook is to small to carry us all and the luggage and hiring a tandem can be expensive.

I was thinking of making a Hitch reciever that will be welded to under winch bar and with a tow ball hitch on other end of a 5ft rhs tongue. Lights would be via removable boat light bar

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 7:49 pm
by ronoor
if this is legal i,m in great idea have u got any plans. cheers ron

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 7:51 pm
by St Jimmy
ring your local rta office but i think it's a no no in nsw :?:

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 8:28 pm
by Rhett
If you can get it under 750kgs its legal if not it needs to be braked.

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 9:19 pm
by Aerenandmel
I looked into it with NSW RTA. they told me the vehicle towing has to be at least 3 times the weight of the vehicle being towed with an a frame, I asked them if I put electric brakes on the car being towed could I overcome the weight issues. This confused them all ringing one another about it, one suggested registering the car as a trailer and the other said it might be ok but you would have to have it engineered to show police when pulled up and I would have to have major speed restrictions and after all that I’m still not convinced they had any idea what was going on. It might be worth checking with insurance also, might not even cover you in a stack!

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 9:26 pm
by built4thrashing
i thought that might be the case as ive seen this behind alot of busses.

Looks like ill have to buy a cheap trailer. A stock zook just fits in a 5x8 dual axle trailer

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 9:36 pm
by Aerenandmel
kinda fits on an 8x5, tis how I moved my spare parts when I moved
Image

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 9:41 pm
by Red_Zook
Aerenandmel wrote:kinda fits on an 8x5, tis how I moved my spare parts when I moved
that fits easy..
wisht my zook would fit on a box tralor :'( would save me getting a custom car tralor

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 11:15 pm
by fool_injected
Aerenandmel wrote:I looked into it with NSW RTA. they told me the vehicle towing has to be at least 3 times the weight of the vehicle being towed with an a frame, I asked them if I put electric brakes on the car being towed could I overcome the weight issues. This confused them all ringing one another about it, one suggested registering the car as a trailer and the other said it might be ok but you would have to have it engineered to show police when pulled up and I would have to have major speed restrictions and after all that I’m still not convinced they had any idea what was going on. It might be worth checking with insurance also, might not even cover you in a stack!
I seen a zook on the back of a camper at a show. It had an electric disc brake bolted to back of the transfer case

Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2007 8:16 am
by WasabiPimpNinja
Working at the WA/SA Border at the Quarantine Checkpoint, I saw this done many a time. Mainly by busses/coaches. Not sure on the legality of towing it with a smaller vehicle. Check this out, it should give you all the info you need: http://www.hitchngo.com.au/site/index.php

<EDIT>
Or try these http://www.swagman.com.au/index.php?opt ... &Itemid=94

Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2007 9:17 am
by grimbo
I looked into this in Victoria and the towing vehicle must be 3 times the weigt of the vehicle being towed, which is why you see motorhomes towing them. We used to flat tow a LJ behind our motorhome. You also need operational tail lights etc as per a trailer. This was a few years back so things may have changed

Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2007 7:08 pm
by built4thrashing
even if the vehicle being towed has electric brakes?




I like the idea of an electric brake on the t/case.

Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2007 8:50 pm
by ljxtreem
Seems to leagal over here, plenty of flat towed zooks ;)


Mock :D

Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 9:20 am
by grimbo
ljxtreem wrote:Seems to leagal over here, plenty of flat towed zooks ;)


Mock :D
behind what sort and size vehicles? Yes you can if the towing vehicle is 3x the weight in Vic so is it the same in WA?