Towing companies now use towing dollies?

[y_p_w]

Was wondering how this worked. I knew with a lot of involutary tows, there's the chance of damaging the transmission or parking brakes. I've been watching police body cam videos where the was a mandatory tow, and they ask if they'll voluntary turn over the key to prevent damage, and some say no where it clearly will damage the transmission.

However, I guess the state of the art is to hook up a dolly or wheels to the existing wheel, which seems to prevent damage even without the vehicle in neutral and/or the parking brakes released.

 

[mrsilv04]

This is mainly for all wheel drive vehicles.

 

[y_p_w]

This is mainly for all wheel drive vehicles.

I’ve had an AWD car towed. Always by a flatbed but winched up in neutral. Was supposed to be OK but I think in neutral on two wheels would have damaged it.

I saw towing vids where they were routinely used, even with flatbeds. Seemed more like a damage prevention thing.

 

[DemoFly]

Any tow company that is good will use dollies on passenger vehicles, AWD or not. Not a new thing, been around forever.

Liability.

 

[bdcardinal]

Yup, see it a lot with the cars getting towed in. Dollies when using a stinger truck to tow an AWD instead of a flatbed.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Any tow company that is good will use dollies on passenger vehicles, AWD or not. Not a new thing, been around forever.

Liability.

Yep. Seems like it's something very useful for when all cars were RWD. rather than pulling the driveshaft. Sling the front, dolly the back.

 

[Exhaustgases]

What about electric parking brake cars now?
If one caught fire in your attached garage, no longer could you push it out, you'd need a heavy vehicle and a chain to do it.

 

[Owen Lucas]

Those better be some tough little tires to carry a vehicle at highway speeds!

 

[zzyzzx]

Obligatory Auto Auction Rebuilds YouTube channel reference where in a recent video:

My 2025 Ram Rebel SST Destroyed by a Tow Truck and New Damage at the Dealership!​

he has them on camera towing a 4WD vehicle by 2 wheels and dragging the other two wheels.

 

[y_p_w]

Those better be some tough little tires to carry a vehicle at highway speeds!

I’ve seen maybe 8 inch tires on a trailer just disintegrate at freeway speeds.

What I’ve been watching are the tow vids from Everything Auto in the Gatlinburg, TN area. They don’t just show removal for parking violations on private property (mostly failure to display a permit). They typically use dollies. They show a lot of rescues from ditches and even some from remote areas like rental cabins with narrow dirt driveways. Even contracted by the National Park Service and Dollywood.

This one starts with a tow using dollies. The one in the lower right corner of the thumbnail.



Looked more into what they do at Dollywood. Apparently the park doesn’t want towed vehicles impounded in the tow company impound. Park staff just have the towing company move improperly parked vehicles to marked parking spaces and don’t even try to charge anything for it. Not sure what they pay to the towing company. But they deal with a lot of vehicles being blocked by improperly parked cars. And I guess by moving them, they can deal with a lot of cars with just one tow truck.

 

[dogememe]

I think it's a wise choice to use dollies. AWD is very common. Electric parking brakes are very common. I think if you look in the owners manual for most vehicles made in the past decade, they will all say they need to be towed with all wheels off the ground. I know my 2015 Volt, 2017 Bolt, and 2024 Prologue all specified that.

It makes more sense for a towing company to just use dollies when in doubt vs risking damaging the vehicle and having to pay out to fix it. The problem with a flatbed IMO is they're big, you need more space to get the vehicle on there, and if you don't have the keys or the vehicle is disabled, you have to drag it onto the bed (hopefully with the OEM provided tow hook, vs yanking it by a control arm, but again, if you don't have the keys you probably don't have access to the tow hook). So wheel lift and dollies makes more sense than a flatbed for most tows for illegal parks or dead cars. It's quicker, cheaper, and perhaps even safer.

 

[Owen Lucas]

Apparently the park doesn’t want towed vehicles impounded in the tow company impound. Park staff just have the towing company move improperly parked vehicles to marked parking spaces and don’t even try to charge anything for it. Not sure what they pay to the towing company. But they deal with a lot of vehicles being blocked by improperly parked cars. And I guess by moving them, they can deal with a lot of cars with just one tow truck.

Wow, that is very nice of the park to do that, won't leave such a bad impressing as you do when going to a tow yard.

 

[y_p_w]

2

Wow, that is very nice of the park to do that, won't leave such a bad impressing as you do when going to a tow yard.

Wouldn't surprise me if the instruction came from Dolly Parton herself. In that video they bypassed cars that clearly weren't in marked parking spots but weren't blocking anything. I think their primary concern is moving improperly parked vehicles that are blocking other vehicles. And there are a lot of them so just moving them one after the other can take care of a lot of blocked vehicles.

 

[zzyzzx]

It makes more sense for a towing company to just use dollies when in doubt vs risking damaging the vehicle and having to pay out to fix it.

True, but it's cheaper and easier for them to deny that they did any of the damage, and then continue speaking in Spanish while you dial 1-866-DHS-2ICE

 

[IndyIan]

It seems to be almost all flatbed here, that's just what a tow truck is now. In my area, I don't think repo's are a common thing either. My parents old F150 died while towing their RV trailer and the guy put the truck on the flatbed and towed the RV behind. I think that was a well paying call for that driver.

 

[snarl]