So watching videos of these high speed repos where the dude activates the lift while he is backing up and lifts the vehicle in seconds and off he goes. So, if a vehicle is in Park or has E-brake on, how are the wheels moving? And what’s keeping the towed vehicle on?
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I mean for one, a vehicle in park isn’t really being held in park by much, it’s just a little piece of metal in the transmission called the “parking Pawl”
All it takes is a little bit of force to break/bend that pawl and get the wheels moving, which is why you should use your actual parking brake when you’re on a hill or if you’re worried about your car getting hit.
And even if the brake is engaged, that doesn’t totally lock up the tires, it’s just like the brake on the road, it’s just friction, so you pull hard enough and you can get it moving. Then you either get it far enough away to pull over and release the brakes, or just say fuck it and keep driving and replace the brakes.
Most cars are front wheel drive. They pick it from the front end and park doesn’t matter. If the hand brake is set, that will drag on the back wheels, but they can disconnect it once they made their escape.
The typical thing would be to snatch the car and then drag it far enough away that someone isn’t going to be able to run up on you while you stop to take the parking brake off and hook up safety chains and what not so that it’ll be safe to tow it a longer distance.
It’s certainly possible to damage a car doing this but the margins at the kind of car dealership where repos are a big part of the business are typically good enough that it’s profitable to repair it and then sell it to the next ~~poor sucker~~ valued customer.
When they can, the tow driver probable picks up the end with the drive wheels. Since “Park” only acts on the drive wheels, picking up the drive wheels solves this issue. At least in the USA (where almost all new cars are automatic), my experience is that very few drivers use the E-brake. Thus, if they pick up the drive wheels, most of the time the care probably rolls easily.
Here is a video where they couldn’t get to the drive wheel end at first (see 3:00):
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZmHRElAArc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZmHRElAArc)
You can see the right-side front wheel rotating backwards. This shows the parking pawl is holding. The action of the differential is the reason that one wheel turns one way as the other side turns the other.
Even is the E-brake is on, most people (including myself) don’t normally apply them hard enough to keep the wheels from rolling. A good E-brake can lock up the 2 wheels it acts on, but generally it must be applied **really** hard to do so.
As for why the car stays on the tow truck, the arms that go around the tires leave the tires sitting in big holes. The tires won’t roll up and out of those holes unless the drag from the tires still on the ground is high enough.
What they usually dont show is the second guy behind the scenes, who illegally enters the car and releases the said brakes, all before that repo truck comes over. Afaik. I have seen with my own eyes where the repo truck driver personality got off his truck, “pry” opened the door like a thief, entered in and released the parking hand brake.
Former tow truck driver here:
Most vehicles are front wheel drive. Most drivers (especially careless ones who fall behind on their car payments) don’t bother with the parking brake, meaning that the rear wheels freely turn. Repo drivers will do their best to scoop a car up by its drive wheels.
If the parking brake is on or the drive wheels cannot be lifted (either because of the way the car is parked, or because it’s AWD/4WD) then the driver can put [plastic skates](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dl8_Z15GEDU) in front of each wheel. When the tow truck tries to drag the car, the wheels ride up onto the skates which slide freely over the ground.
The tow truck driver will drag the vehicle to a safe location nearby, then replace the skates with [dollies](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXEPTcmrLd4).
Cars are heavy. So long as the unsupported end of the car can roll, weight holds the wheels in the stinger lift securely enough so the driver can again get to a safe place. Then the driver straps the wheels to the stinger lift.
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