Wrecked car "Road Train"

I was driving on the interstate this weekend and passed at least 3 "road trains" made up entirely of collision damaged vehicles. Three or more late model cars and trucks hitched together in a rather sketchy fashion, every one of them including the tow vehicle had pretty serious collision damage. Didn't get pictures. Did someone get carried away shopping Copart?

I see this in Florida quite a bit. I’ve always assumed it was an auction thing. 

TopNoodles said:

I was driving on the interstate this weekend and passed at least 3 "road trains" made up entirely of collision damaged vehicles. Three or more late model cars and trucks hitched together in a rather sketchy fashion, every one of them including the tow vehicle had pretty serious collision damage. Didn't get pictures. Did someone get carried away shopping Copart?

I see it all the time on i40 between Nashville and Memphis.  I have no idea how it’s legal seeing how half assed some of the tow setups are thrown together,  but they never seem to get bothered.

Truckers call that a Mexican Parking Lot. Parking lot is trucking lingo for car hauler. It was always one car pulling another in sets of two and three when I drove.

I’ve been told they’re sent down to Mexico or further south, “repaired”, and put back on the road - as they didn’t have any sort of post-collision repair inspections, apparently. I too wonder how they’re legal on the interstate. I’ve seen them as far north as central-IL, presumably heading south from Chicago auctions. 

I commute up and down I-81 and I see this in my part of the country from time to time as well.  One of the largest auto auction places is nearby, Manheim along with a small CoPart location and a local auto aution place on the state line.  Usually just one vehicle being flat towed, but I've seen multiples and sometimes groups of used school buses headed south too.

I see a few rolling South on I-83 heading into Maryland. As mentioned the whole operation looks sketchy as hell and the drivers are always Latinos. 

We get these with trucks going from NYC to the Baltimore ports for shipment to South America.  One night we responded to a call where the towed truck was hooked up with 5/16th all thread... until it broke, fell off, and sat in the middle of the interstate with no lights at 3 am until it got center punched by a semi.

Thanks for all the replies. I road trip once or twice every year but never seen one of these before. Perhaps I just don't go south far enough.

I see them running on I71 in Cincinnati also.  Always headed Southbound, though.

any photos ?

do the towed cars have drivers in them ?

Pete Gossett said:

I’ve been told they’re sent down to Mexico or further south, “repaired”, and put back on the road - as they didn’t have any sort of post-collision repair inspections, apparently. I too wonder how they’re legal on the interstate. I’ve seen them as far north as central-IL, presumably heading south from Chicago auctions. 

I've been told the same thing - I saw a lot between Memphis and Little Rock in the past.  

I saw them fairly regularly in Houston when I worked late hours at the dealership. They're usually headed to mexico because they don't care if they're safe or roadworthy.. If they run they're worth solid money south of the border. 

I had a buddy at the dealership who is from Mexico and talked about how valuable running junk cars were down there. 

I saw a line of like 6 sets of 3 on I65 south coming home from Louisville Saturday night. I made sure to get around them in a hurry.

californiamilleghia said:

any photos ?

do the towed cars have drivers in them ?

+1. I want to see what these trains looks like...

I've seen them a couple different ways. Usually or more cars chained together in a flat tow situation. But I've also seen daisy chained dollies. 

I've seen them too on I-65 between Louisville and Nashville. Imagine 3 cars in flat-tow configuration held together with hastily-welded tow bars. Usually a minivan or SUV up front. It's pretty sketchy and I can't believe it's legal. Wish I had taken a picture.

All aboard the Mexico Express...

In reply to pointofdeparture :

^^^ those vehicle in the pics actually look quite a bit nicer than most of the ones I’ve seen.