Dinghy trailer kits

[Cloven]

Is it still possible to buy kits to make up your own trailer for a dinghy? I'm sure they used to be available but Google has not turned up anything useful.

Thanks for any replies.

 

[VicS]

I dont remember kits as such but Indespension used to publish a book of plans and sell everything you needed to build your own. They sold both ready made frames and steel to make your own. They sold suspension units onto which hubs and wheels of popular small cars and vans could be fitted

You can still buy parts from them although may be not the frames/chassis

Trailertek and Autow are other sources of parts.

Not sure of the legal aspects of building your own from scratch these days.

 

[DownWest]

Back in the days, we used to build a lot of kits. Started as we were unhappy with the other trailer suppliers. Nowadays, you need to get approval for a home built (this is recent) and might set you back £80 or so. Bit like an MOT. Single vehicle approval or somesuch. Best is to get an older one and 'restore' it, or at least use the plate.....

Over here, up to 500kg GW is not of interest. Over that must be homologated, so out of reach for a home built. But I must say, outside B & Q there are lot of DIY trailers that are clearly outside the regs. Of course, my DIY is plated for 500kg, but might carry 700 kg of fire wood....err.

 

[Avocet]

Trident marine still do them "almost" as kits:

http://www.tridentuk.com/sailing/Road_Trailers1.html

 

[Lakesailor]

Since the end of October last year it has become a nightmare to legally build a trailer. http://www.dft.gov.uk/vca/vehicletype/trailers.asp

 

[Avocet]

I think IVA on a small, unbraked boat trailer wouldn't be so bad...?

 

[Lakesailor]

How much does it cost?

It says on the application form

VCA fees for approval work are charged on the basis of the time taken to carry out the work, but we will endeavour to provide an estimate of the likely fee once the work content has been agreed.

 

[PabloPicasso]

This all solving a problem the doesn't exist. I'm not hearing 'a home built trailer caused mass deaths when it came apart and hit a bus queue in the high street this morning' on the news very often. Utter waste of time money n all that. The civil service have to do something to justify there existence.

 

[Lakesailor]

It's the price we pay for living in a 1st World, civilised country.

 

[Croak]

I believe you are exempt for now if your trailer is used for launching.

 

[Lakesailor]

Do you mean "only for launching" in that it doesn't travel on the road?

 

[Croak]

No both, I will have a go at finding the evidence.

 

[Croak]

I can't find it anymore.

 

[Croak]

http://www.ybw.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-340054.html

 

[Avocet]

This all solving a problem the doesn't exist. I'm not hearing 'a home built trailer caused mass deaths when it came apart and hit a bus queue in the high street this morning' on the news very often. Utter waste of time money n all that. The civil service have to do something to justify there existence.

Can't blame our Civil Service. In fact, if anything, we need to be grateful to them for introducing an Individual Vehicle Approval Scheme. They could have just left it - meaning the only way an amateur builder could build his own trailer and get it on the road would be to obtain full European Type Approval.

The scheme has been introduced because of a revision to the EC "Framework Directive", which brought all categories of trailer (from the big artic trailers right down to the smallest dinghy trailers) within its scope for the first time. There was never really a chance of this not happening - as European legislation tends to go with the "highest common denominator" - so if any country (like Germany, for example) already had a national approval system in place for trailers, they'd never go "backwards" and ditch it.

As far as I know, we don't have a big problem with design defects on trailers causing carnage on our roads, but how would we know? The same arguments were used when Individual vehicle Approval (then called Single Vehicle approval) was introduced for kit cars. There was uproar (and similar claims about no record of accidents), but again, that just relied on the numbers being small and the mileages being low. If anything, the worse ones didn't cause accidents simply because they were just so awful that they were generally not reliable enough to drive far enough to cause one! I certainly noticed how it cleared the worst (say) 25% of kits off the road at the time. To be honest, if anything, the legitimate industry actually benefited because they were no longer competing with "scrapyard specials".

 

[owen-cox]

I would like to know how anyone could tell if I had built a trailer yesterday or a year ago if I had built it at home and not done any kind of inspection/registration. I Imagine if I made up a vin number and stamped a date of manufacture before the cut off point how would anybody know?

 

[Cloven]

I think you are probably right. Make up, or get made up, a frame and then fit the suspension units/ hitch etc. As you say, who's to know.

 

[Avocet]

That's correct. Without a compulsory registration scheme for trailers, the whole thing falls flat on its face. I have an old trailer (not a boat trailer) and I genuinely don't know how old it is. I've had it nearly 15 years and it was second-hand when I bought it. I recently rebuilt it and it now has brakes and a tow hitch conforming to current standards but only because I happened to want auto-reverse brakes and a damped coupling. I could have just replaced the old spring-over-run brakes that were on it.

 

[saltylegs]

My current garden trailer was purchased early eighties, has crossply tyres and Wolsey hub caps, last week a corner of the floor fell out and a wheel arch dropped off so I guess its time for a refurb.
I also built a trailer for a J24 late nineties using 2 axles and hubs from a Renault master van I was questioned once by the Gardai in south of Ireland whilst parked up and just said that I bought it with the boat and the boat was built in 1979 they were fine with it.

 

[prv]

How much does it cost?

According to this poster, it looks like either £70 or £73+VAT: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploa...ta/file/197074/Approvals_fees_poster_2012.pdf

I don't know what determines whether an inspection is "statutory" or "voluntary".

Pete