AVRO calls for emergency brake point
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• The Association of Vehicle Recovery Operators lAVRO) wants vehicle manufacturers to fit air connections to allow a stricken vehicle's brakes to be operated from the recovery vehicle, George Graham, chairman of AVRO's standing committee on safety, told Workshop that problems have arisen when members are giving suspended tows to laden vehicles.
"When a stricken vehicle (whose brakes need not work to comply with the law is being given a suspended tow by a light recovery vehicle, the towing vehicle's brakes are being asked to stop a vehicle in excess of their limits", he says.
AVRO members have hit problems after making long descents only to be faced with traffic lights. "1 hiving applied the brakes all the way down the hill they are fading by the time the vehicle reaches the lights and has to stop," says Graham.
The situation is also made worse by the weight overhanging the rear axle taking the weight off the steering axle.
AVRO is advising its members to connect an air line from the towing vehicle's brake circuit into the stricken vehicle's. Graham however has been told that this is a notifiable alteration and to take such a vehicle on the road would be illegal.
"What we need is for the manufacturers to fit these connections as standard so we wouldn't have to modify the vehicle ourselves," insists Graham.