On 07/10/2011 16:35, Ret. wrote:
In whill.co.uk,
says...

On Fri, 07 Oct 2011 13:58:19 +0100, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

The big snag is most vehicles have both power steering and brakes. One
being towed with the engine stopped will have neither.

Well it will, I don't think a vechicle that had absolutely no
steering or brakes without the engine running would be allowed on the
road. How ever the effort required to turn the steering wheel and get
effective braking is huge. I wouldn't want to be towed in a modern
car via rope unless the route was straight and flat or just a very
short distance.

I guess many people get caught by the fact the first application of
the brakes after the engine is stopped is normally fairly normal from
stored vacuum. It's the second and subsequent ones when you have
literally stand on the pedal...

So towing with a rope should be done with great caution - and only if
both drivers have experience of doing so.

I have towed and have been towed by rope, I prefer to be the tug.
When being towed you are *very* close to the tug and really have to
concentrate looking past the tug so you can anticipate the tug
slowing and keep the rope taught. The tug just (ha!) has to remember
that the rope might be slack and pull off very gently until they feel
the weight come on or can see that the towed vehicle is moving.

Yes - and no matter how careful you are, it is very very difficult to
keep the rope taught - and consequently there are frequently fearful
'snatches' as the slack in the rope is taken up.

The way I was taught to do this was to aim for the vehicle being towed
to do the braking. Which obviously doesn't work for emergency stops or
if the towing vehicle is too big, but so long as you keep slow works
quite well most of the time.

I've been towed on a rope and on a rigid bar. The former experience was
much better - partly because it all took place a lot slower, partly
because there was a bigger gap and I could actually see what was going
on. The longer the rope, the better.