RESCUING CARS THAT CAN’T BE TOWED

IN THE EVENT of them not being able to be repaired at the roadside, many cars can be recovered without any difficulty. However, some cars with automatic gearboxes, many four-wheel-drive vehicles, and certain hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles (EVS), are unsuitable for being towed in the usual way, with two wheels lifted from the road. Attempting to do so could damage their gearboxes and other drive components.

If you should break down in such a car, it’s important to tell the breakdown company up front so they can send out a vehicle equipped to tow them correctly.

Nine out of 10 RAC patrol vans are now equipped with an All-wheels-up flatbedstyle trailer. That allows a wide variety of vehicles – including cars with automatic gearboxes, EVS and those with multiple punctures – to be safely recovered with all four wheels off the ground if they can’t be fixed at the roadside.

The compact, foldable trailers can be deployed quickly when needed and are useful in locations where traditional flatbed transporters are unable to gain access, such as on red routes in city centres, narrow country lanes and car parks.

The AA’S solution is the freewheeling hub. One of these can be attached to each of a stricken vehicle’s rear wheel hubs, enabling the fitting of a pair of universal spare wheels (in place of the original wheels). These are independent of the car’s mechanical components and cause no damage in use.

Another issue that’s becoming more common is EVS running out of charge. To address this, in 2019 the RAC developed a lightweight EV charger for its patrol vans, to give stranded out-of-charge vehicles enough range to get to a nearby public charge point. The majority of them now carry 5kw chargers that can add around 10 miles of range in half an hour; a 7.5kw charger and other mobile charging solutions are in development.

LV Britannia has set up two partnerships to assist EV owners. The first, with vehicle assistance company AFF, provides its members with roadside charging in emergencies. AFF’S vans are equipped to provide a range boost of up to 15 miles in around 30 minutes, at a rate of 7.2kw. LV Britannia is also working with LAR Traffic Services to help EV owners in London, offering help from fully qualified technicians with the tools and diagnostic equipment necessary for repairing electric car breakdowns at the roadside. Fittingly, the patrols operated by the partnership use fully electric Renault Kangoo ZE vans.

Meanwhile, AA research suggests that EV owners who run out of charge prefer their cars to be recovered to a charging point where they could fully replenish the battery, rather than getting a short boost from a patrol van. For this reason, AA technicians use the freewheeling hubs to tow cars to chargers. However, AA is also trialling 7kw vehicle-to-vehicle chargers.