Trailer Tips For The Virgin Tow-Er (Tow-Ist?)

[Anthony 1,003]

Tom didn't continue bickering after I had told the pair of you to stop.

 

You did, thus you got warned.

[kyepan 291]

There's one point that you forgot Cam, and that's that the MAM of the trailer cannot exceed the unladen weight of the tow car.

 

Your example with a 1700kg MAM trailer would risk falling foul of that on a typical medium saloon/estate

 

It's also not quite true saying that it's nothing to do with the weight of what you're towing, because naturally what you're towing must be within the rating the trailer.

 

Basically, the towing laws on a new licence are a minefield and like I said, a pain to do so legally if you're towing cars. Most people that you see towing who aren't old enough to have a licence with the earlier rules are likely doing so illegally, whether they are aware of that or not. You know it's bad when as Allan says, even those supposed to enforce the rules don't fully understand them.

 

Me? I use an A-frame which is a whole different subject of (il)legality and misunderstanding of the rules...

 

yes it's an issue in an issue in an issue, went through this with my ex as she had a fairly hefty 600kg horse habit and wanted to understand options for towing with different vehicles, we actually had a spreadsheet of different cars, makes of trailer.. horse was not variable... shame. a sheep would have been easier, less dangerous, produces wool, and generally cost about 400 less a month to keep.

 

1 ) Nose weight of the trailer must not exceed the tow hitch weight - which varies for braked and un-braked trailers

2 ) weight of the trailer and load should not exceed 70 or 80% i forget the exact value of the vehicle towing it

3 ) Mam for the whole lot car, trailer & load, should not exceed 3500kgs. (on our licences)

 

what we concluded by the end of it was, if you have a fairly hefty horse, decent trailer and tow vehicle you're either on the limit, or beyond it for most decent tow vehicles. Ie most young horsey people are towing illegally when you factor in all three variables.

 

J

Edited April 17, 2012 by kyepan

[welshpug 1,657]

2 ) weight of the trailer and load should not exceed 70 or 80% i forget the exact value of the vehicle towing it

 

I'm afraid the weights quoted a few posts earlier blows that right out of the water, many larger vehicles can tow easily over their kerb weights.

 

case in point, a defender 90 has a kerb weight of just under 1700 and is plated to tow 3500!

[kyepan 291]

I'm afraid the weights quoted a few posts earlier blows that right out of the water, many larger vehicles can tow easily over their kerb weights.

 

case in point, a defender 90 has a kerb weight of just under 1700 and is plated to tow 3500!

I'm sure you're right about the numbers..

 

Perhaps thats where the braked un braked thing comes in... the reason it's there is the car begins to be controlled by the load, like an articulated lorry jack knifing.

[Cameron 16]

Tom didn't continue bickering after I had told the pair of you to stop.

 

You did, thus you got warned.

 

I started making that post before you added yours, how the hell am I supposed to see your warning?

 

Anyhow, warn me some more the next time someone decides to wind me up.. seems a fair thing to do.

[dcc 855]

eugh...

 

even if the DVLA permits your license is ok to tow with, you need to check the LAW. the DVLA and the LAW are 2 different things. For example, The LAW states that lorrys may travel upto 56mph along a road, but the DVLA states they may do 60mph.

 

My understanding is, after doing alot of reading into this

 

If my car kerb weight is 1500, and my max train weight of the car is no greater than 3000kg, I may tow a trailor upto 1500kgs, but any trailor over 750kgs needs to also be braked. when you tow a car on a solid bar, the car becomes a 'trailor', but it is not legally an option due to the fact 99.9% of cars are over 750kgs, so need to be braked. (Some a frames do try and brake a car, but technically, none of them are road legal...).

 

I cannot remember exactly, but I think the maximum permissible towing train weight on my license is 4250 kgs, so thats car and trailor, or in other terms, a car which weights 2175kgs and a trailor of the same weight. If you havent already guessed, I have a license post 1999.

 

what is funny, is that on my license I can tow a heavier weight in a 1.6 ford focus than I could in my dads american 5.7ltr v8 truck, because I would go over the 4250kgs before I would exceed the weight on the focus! lol...

 

In short, ALL the information is availible on the DVLA website about license restrictions, however, the LAW restrictions is a massive grey area, pointless asking the police as when I did, they gave me several conflicting answers.

[m_attt 31 1 Cars]

the legal speed limit for a hgv on a motorway is 60mph, the eu says all hgv's a limited to 90kph (56mph) you cant get done for speeding doing 60 down a hill

[Tom Fenton 1,541]

Poo, if you are not moving far I would suggest ringing round some local recovery men. Matt had a car moved about 15 miles for £25 not that long ago, cheap to the point that I wondered how the guy could be making much more than a tenner out of it once he had covered his diesel there and back for 30 miles, insurance, road tax, all the rest of it.

[BenC 6]

Poo, if you are not moving far I would suggest ringing round some local recovery men. Matt had a car moved about 15 miles for £25 not that long ago, cheap to the point that I wondered how the guy could be making much more than a tenner out of it once he had covered his diesel there and back for 30 miles, insurance, road tax, all the rest of it.

 

If you wanted to go down this route you could always try http://www.shiply.com/ You can usually get some very reasonable quotes on there.

[Simes 248 2 Cars]

1/ Have AA cover.

2/ Drive car to convenient point

3/ Disable the car

4/ Call AA

5/ Ask for tow back to London

[GLPoomobile 958]

I can't believe how complicated this is!

 

I only need to move it a short distance - about 3 miles through a quiet part of Edinburgh on the outskirts - so if I do decide to tow it then I could just chance it. By the sounds of it there's loads of people towing "illegally" anyway.

 

I'll look in to getting a local recovery company to tow it, as it could work out the same/barely more than just hiring a trailer.

Edited April 17, 2012 by GLPoomobile

[allye 530 3 Cars]

use a tow rope (or bar if you have access) if it 3 miles. I would risk it for a biscuit, not going to lie.

[GLPoomobile 958]

As the car is declared SORN, uninsured and has no MOT, I'm not going to risk towing it on a rope.

[Anthony 1,003]

To be honest, for that kind of distance, I'd just offer a local recovery driver cash in hand to move it.

 

Probably be cheaper than renting a trailer for the day, and no question of legality then either (well, at least not on your part!)

 

Of course, this headache is life's way of telling you to pull your finger out and get the car finished

[GLPoomobile 958]

You can't rush perfection Starting something might help though

 

Realistically I can't see much happening this year as the place we're (hopefully) moving in to needs a lot of work, and money is always an issue. I would like to at least get the engine out and stripped down though.

[Anulfo 22]

Back to what the original question (or part of it) was about.If you have never towed before the take it nice and steady and sharp corners should be given a little extra room than normal.Try to get a tandem axle trailer as these 'behave' better both when driving forward and reversing.When reversing the golden rule is whichever way you turner the steering wheel the trailer goes the opposite way.Go gently with the steering movement when reversing.If you steer into the reverse to sharply into the reverse too quickly then you risk jacknife.Don't be afraid to tack a few shunts to get the right line when you need to.As my old HGV instructor used to say years ago,"Don't be a c**t,take a shunt!!".....Good luck.

[petert 586]

An interesting topic! The other issue not mentioned is ball weight. If the maximum weight on the ball is 80Kg and you put say 120Kg on it (FWD car, all the way forward on the trailer), you'll bend the arse of your Volvo. Just look for the gap increasing around the rear doors as you take the weight off the jockey wheel.

 

It sounds like your laws are identical to ours. ie

750Kg unbraked

or

mass of towing vehicle if trailer has brakes (regardless of towing capacity of the vehicle)

[johnnyboy666 195 1 Cars]

lol ball weight!

sorry, back on topic...

[Cameron 16]

It sounds like your laws are identical to ours. ie

750Kg unbraked

or

mass of towing vehicle if trailer has brakes (regardless of towing capacity of the vehicle)

 

If those are your rules then no, ours are quite different.

 

I can only hope that this doesn't get lost amongst all the misinformation and bickering, as someone could get themselves in trouble!

 

If you don't have a B+E license, our rules are:

 

Combined Maximum Authorised Mass of tow vehicle AND trailer must not exceed 3500kg.

- The MAM is a number written on the VIN plates of both the tow vehicle and trailer.

 

For example:

 

MAM of tow car is 2000kg.

- If the MAM of your trailer is 1500kg or less, you're ok.*

- If the MAM of your trailer is greater than 1500kg you can't use it even when empty!

 

*Obvs there are more factors like nose weight and overloading, but these are the prerequisites to all that.

 

If you have a B+E license then you gain a little more freedom, but most (younger) people nowadays won't have that without sitting a separate test.

Edited April 18, 2012 by Cameron

[dcc 855]

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/DriverLicensing/DG_201202

[dcc 855]

and http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/DriverLicensing/CaravansTrailersCommercialVehicles/DG_10013073

[chipstick 382 1 Cars]

Don't do what I did once when collecting a non running car which was parked nose in on a driveway.

 

We rolled the car back and up the trailer and set off. When we pulled on to the Motorway the thing was fish tailing like mad due to the front end weight hanging over the back of the trailer past the twin axle. Managed to remove the winch and roll the car back as far as it would go to prevent it, but still had to stop at a services and manouver the bloody thing around.

 

School boy error worth mentioning.

[Cameron 16]

Good links above.