Recovery or Towing: Which Do You Actually Need?

The difference in one paragraph

A tow truck connects to your car and pulls it, with two or four of its wheels still turning on the road. A recovery vehicle lifts the whole car onto a flat bed, or lifts one end clear with a spectacle lift, so the driven wheels are not turning.

People use the words interchangeably in conversation. The vehicles, the risks and the prices are not interchangeable at all.

Why towing damages modern cars

When a car is towed on its driven wheels, the gearbox is being turned by the road rather than by the engine. On an older manual car with the engine off, that is usually survivable for a short distance at low speed.

On an automatic it often is not. Many automatic gearboxes rely on an engine-driven pump to circulate fluid. Engine off, no pump, no lubrication, and the box is being spun anyway. Damage can be expensive and does not always show up immediately.

Four-wheel drive and all-wheel drive cars are worse again, because there is no combination of wheels you can safely leave on the road. Electric and hybrid cars add their own complication, since the motors can generate current when the wheels turn.

If you remember one thing: check the handbook, and when in doubt do not tow it.

When towing is still fine

Short, slow, straight moves of a manual, rear-wheel-drive car with a working steering lock and brakes. Shunting something off a forecourt or across a yard, for instance.

Even then, the steering lock has to be off, which means the key in the ignition, which means someone competent sitting in the car being towed. For most situations the faff outweighs the saving.

When you definitely want recovery

Any automatic, 4x4, hybrid or electric car.

After an accident. Suspension and steering damage is not always visible, and a car that will not track straight is dangerous on a rope.

Flat battery that will not jump. Modern cars with electric steering and electric parking brakes can be close to immovable with no power.

No keys, locked wheels, or a seized engine.

Anywhere on a motorway. Rope towing on a motorway is not something to attempt.

The rope-and-a-mate option

Most of the expensive damage I get called to started with a tow rope and someone helpful.

The two usual outcomes are a bumper pulled off, because the rope went round something that was never meant to take the load, or a shunt, because the towed car has no servo assistance and the brakes feel like concrete.

A recovery eye is normally in the toolkit and screws into a threaded point behind a small panel in the bumper. If you cannot find it, that is a sign to stop rather than improvise.

What to ask when you ring

Ask what is actually turning up. 'Recovery' gets used loosely, and you want to know whether you are getting a flat bed, a spectacle lift, or a rope.

For an automatic, say so on the phone. For a 4x4, say so. For an electric car, definitely say so. It changes which vehicle comes out, and finding that out on arrival wastes everybody's time.

The three kinds of recovery vehicle

Flat bed, also called a tilt and slide. The whole bed tilts back to the road and the car is winched on. All four wheels leave the ground. This is the safest option for almost anything, and the only sensible one for automatics, four-wheel drives and electric cars.

Spectacle lift. A frame cradles two wheels and lifts that end clear, leaving the other two rolling. Fine for a manual car being lifted by its driven wheels, and common for short urban moves and vehicle removals.

Rope or bar tow. All four wheels on the road, the towed car steering and braking itself. Appropriate for very little these days, and never on a motorway.

What your warranty and insurer think

Gearbox damage caused by towing a car that should not have been towed is usually not a warranty claim. Manufacturers are specific in the handbook about what is allowed, precisely so they can decline it afterwards.

Insurers take a similar view of damage caused during an improvised recovery. If a friend pulls your car out of a ditch and tears the bumper off, that is generally not a claim on either policy, and the conversation about who pays can be awkward.

This is the real argument for doing it properly. The cost difference between a rope and a flat bed is small. The cost difference between a working gearbox and a replacement one is not.

A quick way to decide

If the car is an automatic, a 4x4, a hybrid or electric, it wants recovery.

If the car has been in an accident, it wants recovery, because steering and suspension damage is not always visible.

If the car has no power at all, it probably wants recovery, because electric steering and electric parking brakes need power to release.

If you are on a motorway, it wants recovery, and the decision is not yours anyway.

If it is a manual, rear-wheel drive, rolls, steers and brakes, and you are moving it a few hundred yards on private land, a tow is defensible. Everything else is not.

Common questions