ehall1234
Member
Do you need to have the towed vehicle wheels locked or unlocked?
Tow dolly
- Thread starter ehall1234
- Start date
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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Well, on a dolly-towed card, you obviously want the rear wheels to rotate freely. Since I tow a front-wheel-drive car, I put it in "Park" once on the dolly and leave the parking brake "off". This locks the front wheels and lets the rears turn freely. One of my checks when starting to tow is looking in the side mirror and making sure the wheels are turning, not sliding.
Front wheels locked, and if the do not lock, according to uHaul, secure the steering wheel.
OP
OP
ehall1234
Member
Thanks
Ex-Calif
Well-known member
If the dolly has a turntable they are locked. Dolly without turntable are unlocked.
Gary RV_Wizard
Site Team
What Ex-Calif says. The towed car front wheels sit on the dolly wheel rests. If those rests are the turntable-type that swivels, then the car steering wheel should be locked or tied down in some way that prevents the car wheels from pivoting). If the dolly wheel rests are fixed (do not swivel), then the car steering wheel must be unlocked and the front car wheels allowed to pivot when the dolly turns.
Most newer dollys have swivel turntables but that wasn't so common 20 years ago. And many late model cars no longer have locking steering wheels because they have electronic theft prevention systems instead. If your towed vehicle to tow is like that, you must create some sort of tie-down to disable the steering. It's often possible to wrap the seat/lap belt around the steering wheel to achieve that, but each car is a little different.
Most newer dollys have swivel turntables but that wasn't so common 20 years ago. And many late model cars no longer have locking steering wheels because they have electronic theft prevention systems instead. If your towed vehicle to tow is like that, you must create some sort of tie-down to disable the steering. It's often possible to wrap the seat/lap belt around the steering wheel to achieve that, but each car is a little different.
