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Why we should all be driving around with tow bars

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Sanguine

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For protecting your car cosmetically it's all well and good. But when you sustain a larger hit it works against the crumple zones, a towbar will compress a matter of angstroms as compared to the centimetres that the crumple zone would. The net result is that the G-loading on the occupants is greater (i.e. more damage) because the same force is acting over a shorter distance. So it's great for shrugging off fender benders, but up the stakes and you'll find yourself in a world of pain.
 
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KristianJ

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Trust him to try and deflect the blame...
 
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Dryotriorchis

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Then again - next time your out driving, try and judge the speed of a car infront of you thats say 500ms away, its kinda hard, you hope and assume its doing the same speed as you, but yeah - they guy sounds a bit angry :S

Oh im nto sure who it wa sthat was talking about the Tow Bar working against you if higher impact - well you should have seen my mums car, it was almost a write of on the back, tow bar contributed id say.

~Dry
 
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marduke

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isnt the towbar bolted to the chassis? and thats why in a heavy impact it can be a helping factor in a writeoff.. so when the towbar is poushed into the car it bends the chassis enough to make it an instant writeoff (insurance companies usually dont bother repairing a car if it has chassis damage.)
 
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prodromos

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Your car is certain to have sustained structural damage to the frame. Check the roof of your car for any signs of creasing, and if your car has four doors, check if you can open and close the back doors OK. I had exactly the same thing happen to my car. The towbar transferred all of the impact onto the frame of my car and bent it instead of the back end of my car getting smashed in. I could not open my back doors as the whole of the back end of my car had been pushed forward almost a centimetre, which also caused the roof to crease slightly, none of which I would have noticed if it wasn't pointed out to me by the towtruck driver who arrived within minutes of the crash.

A woman who lived across from the intersection apparently made quite a bit of money by calling in a particular towtruck company everytime she saw an accident (which apparently was quite often at this intersection). If her company arrived first, she got a commision. I imagine she carried the phone with her everywhere in the house and hit speed dial as soon as she heard a crash

John.
 
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lozzie

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okay... update on my car!

got a quote for a new towbar this morning... and then went to a muffler guy who looked under it for me (since one of the brackets or something that holds the exhaust pipe in place has been pushed by the towbar... although the guy reckons that most likely it will just move back when i replace the tow bar. but at the moment its a good 5cms from where it should be sitting...

the muffler guy also told me i was 'one a very lucky lady!' said he reckons if i hadnt have had my tow bar on that my car would have been totalled in the accident (said the gy should have been up to my back seats... and i have a station wagon..) and that in the 25years he's been working on cars he's never seen damage to a towbar as badly as mine.
 
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