Questions about towing with a tow dolly.

[team39763]

My trailer is already complete and they have the tires, they're just waiting for someone to swap them on.  So I'm stuck using a U-haul dolly to pick up a truck that I want from about 120 miles away.  The truck isn't registered or inspected, so I can't drive it home.  Even if it was, I wouldn't feel safe about it until I did a tune up and checked out all the vitals(brakes, tires, lights, trans, diff, etc.).
What I want to know is: Do I need to lock the steering wheel on the truck I'm pulling?  Some people told me yes, others told me no.  I'm pulling the truck forward with the driveshaft removed.  I think the dolly has a turntable if that matters at all.  Somebody told me to reverse the truck onto the dolly and lock the front wheels straight, but I don't trust the locking mechanism...I watched my friend break one with arm power .  I'm hoping to take off thursday or friday morning to try to get the truck.

[ccz145a]

Lock the wheels straight with the key in off position AND tie the steering wheel to vent support.

[fitz]

  The truck isn't registered or inspected, so I can't drive it home. 

I'm sure this is another subject where the laws are different from state to state but in Mass if your using a tow dolly to transport a vehicle that vehicle must be registered and insured.
Basically if the wheels on the vehicle are on the road the state wants the $$ owed to them.

[team39763]

I think I'll be ok as far as the law, I stopped and had a chat with a state trooper last time I pulled a truck on the dolly(that trip was a nightmare).  He never mentioned anything about the truck not being registered.  I'll talk to one of our local state troopers and find out for sure.  Thanks for mentioning that.

[Lt.Del]

in Va, the towed vehicle does not have to be registered.  I think it is dumb if there is this requirement.  I have used dollys hauling unregistered mustangs many times in my younger days--most were just parts cars.  Strap the front wheels up on the dolly really well and tight and you're set.

[Maintenanceman]

Ive never felt safe using a dolly in the first place but if you must then BE SURE TO STRAP THAT BABY DOWN REALLY GOOD AND TIGHT. We were towing a durango to bristol on a dolly and had to stop every so often and redo the straps. Dollys are a pain IMO.

[Irish_Alley]

I always though that if the wheels touch it had to be tagged but with a dolly the dolly is tagged so it covers the truck.

[smitty77]

BE SURE TO STRAP THAT BABY DOWN REALLY GOOD AND TIGHT

Sound advice for towing anything on a trailer or a tow dolly.  A close friend does all of my parts-truck fetching because he has a F250 with a powerstroke (yes, it's chipped ) and a car trailer.  As 'payment' for a tow I bought him a couple of ratcheting chain binders at Fastenal because I wasn't a fan of his "it'll hold" method of securing.  I'm not happy until I see the tires and suspension compress.

We were towing a parts truck once and started getting some awful trailer sway - it was dragging his tow rig all over the road with my buddy swerving to keep the truck in front of the load.  It got so bad we were using all of the highway, breakdown lane to median (thank God it was a Sunday morning) and it looked so hopeless that Mr. Confident himself uttered "I don't think I can save this one." and was preparing to find a soft spot in the median and let the trailer take us there.  In his words "I saw the back end of that trailer 2 or 3 times in the mirror and I wanted to vomit."

Just when all seemed lost he managed to scrub enough speed in the process for the trailer to straighten out, at which point he pulled over and we shifted the load forward a foot (stupid us forgot to account for the motor being removed).  While repositioning the load, my friend says:  "Your stupid chain binders!  I was praying that parts truck would break free of the trailer and we could just leave it in the ditch with no witnesses.  But Nooooooo, someone likes to make sure everything's secure."  He was saying it in jest, but it did illustrate a point:  We could have flipped the whole works over and that truck would still be on the trailer.