Towing parked cars - how?

Factual Questions
21

My Jeep Cherokee’s manual says:

If the gear selector cannot be moved out of the PARK position, you can use the following procedure to temporarily move the gear selector:

  1. Turn the engine OFF.
  2. Apply the parking brake.
  3. Using a screwdriver or similar tool, carefully separate the shifter bezel and boot assembly from the center console, and raise it up to access the gear selector mechanism.
  4. Press and maintain firm pressure on the brake pedal.
  5. Insert a small screwdriver or similar tool down into the gear selector override access hole (at the right front corner of the gear selector assembly), and push and hold the override release lever down.
  6. Move the gear selector to the NEUTRAL position.
  7. The vehicle may then be started in NEUTRAL.
  8. Reinstall the gear selector boot.

They are still going to have a problem with the alarm sounding, as well as disabling the electronic emergency brake.

22

^^Too late to edit:

#1 and 2 actually won’t apply because the car isn’t started to begin with.

23

They’e used here all the time, and I’ve never heard of something like that happening. If the city was damaging people’s cars, believe me, people would complain about it.

(They’re called side-loading flatbeds, BTW.)

24

I’m not 100% sure about this, but just remembered, I swear a tow driver told me a long time ago they he carried a bottle of soapy water to put under the tires if he had to move a car. Allowing the car tires to hydroplane.

One of the posters on this Quora confirms this. You’ll also see an extra four wheel dolly for the extra wheels and a car in Moscow being hoisted onto a flatbed: https://www.quora.com/How-is-a-car-towed-if-the-car-is-in-park-which-applies-a-brake-on-the-wheels-to-prevent-them-from-moving-and-with-the-emergency-brake-on-which-gives-even-more-security-to-prevent-the-car-from-moving

"I had a Maxima on which the ignition key broke, and you could not unlock it, hence the transmission stayed locked in park.

The flatbed driver had a bottle of cheap dishwashing soap. My job was to squirt soap under the wheels while he dragged the car onto the flatbed with the winch cable. Worked like a charm.

He also removed the car from the flatbed by lubricating the wheels with the soap, but then rocking the flat bed back and forth to get the car to slide down it."

When a tow truck is called for a car that is in park with the parking brake set, the tow operator will do one of two things:

"If a flatbed truck is used, the car will be forcibly dragged onto the bed, skidding the tires. Because of the differential, one front tire will roll and the other will skid while spinning backwards. They may alternate as traction changes. Since most parking brakes are kind of weak, the rear tires will probably just roll anyway, against the friction of the brake.
If a “hook” type truck is used, one end of the car is hosted onto the truck’s axle lift, and the other end is placed on a special cradle dolly that has four wheels, so all four of the towed vehicle’s tires are off the ground.

Setting the parking brake won’t keep you from being towed."

If a car is being repossessed or parked causing a traffic hazard or backup, where the potential damage to the car outweighs the necessity of move, there’s always a way to tow it away! Again, just because you haven’t seen it in person or it’s not on YouTube, doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.

25

I don’t much at all about cars, but doesn’t the steering wheel, even on power steering cars have be in the tires straight position to lock? I was taught to drive on a car without power steering and it was possible, through really hard to turn the tires even at a parked.

26

My step kid got her car towed ('93 Mercury Tracer). They opened the door with a slim Jim and popped the hood. They then removed a single cotter pin from the transmission cable and put it in neutral to roll it out of the space. I guess they didn’t know about the little switch on the console that unlocked the shifter. I don’t know how many other cars had these, but a Ford Escort I had for a while also had one.