Tow Truck Question

[Mitsu3000gt]

I was walking back from lunch, and notice a Jeep (Wrangler?) getting towed from a nearby parking lot. I was just curious if maybe anything was damaged because:

First, the tow truck driver hooked up his winch, and dragged the Jeep straight across the pavement half way out of the spot (which I assume was in gear or in park & with the e-brake on with locked wheels). I don't know the ins & outs of towing, but I would guess that isn't great for any vehicle. Next, he lifted up only the rear wheels, and pulled it a ways out of the spot, which again, I don't know if that is damaging to a 4WD vehicle, or a vehicle in gear/park. Only after it was completely out of the spot did he lift the front wheels off the ground too, and continue towing the vehicle away.

Is it possible something was damaged there? Or is that how it always works?

[firebane]

4wd should be treated like awd and dollies need to be used to prevent any damage. If none were used.. I feel sorry for that jeep.

[Mitsu3000gt]

If that's the case, if anyone owns a dark grey older 2-door Jeep hardtop and got towed from the lot next to the International hotel on 2nd ave and 1st street SW downtown, shoot me a PM. Happened at exactly 1pm.

There were 3 or 4 Citywide trucks in that lot at the end of the lunch hour today towing a bunch of people out.

[Thaco]

citywide, not surprised, but at the same time, obviously he should not have been there..

also, realistically, there's not a very good chance the driver would have been able to get the dolly's on the front with it in the spot, and even if he could, he likely would not have made the turn to get it out of the spot between the other 2 vehicles... it's not great for the truck, but really not that bad.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by Thaco
citywide, not surprised, but at the same time, obviously he should not have been there..

Agree 100%, but IMO that doesn't give them the right to damage people's vehicles.

[Thaco]

Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt


Agree 100%, but IMO that doesn't give them the right to damage people's vehicles. it really wont damage it, the only way it's damage it is if he broke the parking pin, which is obvious did not happen, no worse than locking up your brakes and skidding really.

[120Comm]

I've never owned a Jeep, but all the other 4WD (not AWD) vehicles I've owned generally are driven on pavement in RWD mode, so picking up a Jeep by the rear and letting the front (normally undriven) wheels roll is probably not a big deal.

[snowcat]

There is a channel on YouTube where this guy is a repo man and records it.

From my experience watching him, when he picks up repos, they park backwards, 4wd, turned front wheels and parking brake to try and stop being towed.

It doesn't do anything as they drag it out to put the back on dollies and off they go.

[AndyL]

Dragging out of a parking spot - common, as long as its hooked to a good spot (not a tie rod), no issue. Wear on tires - not enough to flat spot... Parking pins - some makes maybe - Audi's come to mind - and even then, maybe with race tires on a freshly washed lot without a pebble or spec of sand to help it slide... Its almost impossible to blow a park pin.

Grab from the rear to ease working - could probably tow that Jeep that way (if you could lock steering ) but since city wide says drive wheels off the ground - and most won't secure steering from beneath - it got dollied.

[Black Gts]

I missed a street cleaning sign back in the day, had my fwd with e brake pulled dragged I'm certain a random 3 blocks.

[AndyL]

Highly doubt it was dragged 3 blocks on the ebrake - you would have seen the tire tracks for the full 3 blocks.