How much do people tow?

[andrewa]

I have a boat with a 2.5m beam and 8.2m length with a 2.5 ton dry weight, does this mean with the right vehicle (Land Rover, Frontera etc) it can be towed legally in the UK and abroad say France and Spain? does anybody tow this size of boat or launch from a trailer. I saw a guy about a year ago down at Hayling Island launching a cruiser but didn't think much of it at the time. I would be interested to hear from forum members who do it on a regular occasion. Its merits I see is that you can dry sail and save a fortune on cranage charges and go to different cruising grounds afar. My old boat is an 18ft cuddy which was easy to launch and recover but 27ft is a different matter I would think.

 

[mtb]

Re:Tachograph

Maximum Length is 7m unless the trailer has 4 wheels towed by a commercial vehicle having a gvw exceeding 35ookg, then it's 12m with a maximum train length of 18.35m.
Width is 2.3 unless again you have a commercial vehicle then it's 2.5

The EU stuff really put the lid on our trailering in the UK but even the police have trouble understanding the regs !! well they did when it first came in.

Tachograph well this is the expensive bit ,but when I towed a box trailer with a transit in theory I should have had one fitted . There are little and few exemptions, if you a commercial business and not traveling more than 50 km from your place of business or a charitarity or club again you can get by .

A Ford cargo would be the right size of truck to tow with because they are quite small and up to 7.5 tonnes oh and as long as you had your license before 1996

Get your local Indespension trailer parts dealer to supply you with the Indespension book or ring 0800720720.
Cheers
Mick

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/boats
I want a big steel ex trawler or tug v, cheap or swap for tug

 

[Guest]

Check out ..........WWW.PPC.ORG.UK most of these boats are towed around the country, some of the club have recently returned from spain.

 

[Chris_d]

Re:Tachograph

Doesn't the 7m exclude the drawbar and any load overhangs, so an 8.5m boat can be towed on a 7m trialer with a 1m drawbar, as long as it doesn't exceed 3.5tonnnes.

 

[DavidJ]

Andrew
I towed a Sealine 240 for many years around europe behind a 3.1 Isizu Trouper and a Mitsubishi Shogun 2.8 which incidently was better.
Things I learned
Trailors are under specified for long journeys. I was plagued with punctures which I put down to the small wheel size although I was within the design limits.
You can't get Avon Europa tyres in Europe!!
Always get the boat craned in. I know it will cost you £100 but the agro I've had with siezed up brake cables and rusty shoes etc etc makes craning economic especially as it relieves a lots of stress as well.
have fun
David

 

[andrewa]

I think it would be great if you had a boat within design limits to be able to trail and enjoy, there is only so much of the solent you can endure and the med once a year is appealing especially at Easter when its not to hot. I have an ICC so why not use it. I used to take the brakes out of my old trailer when it was at the MArina, this saved me no end of grief on seized brakes.

 

[AJW]

Re:Tachograph

Yeah the 7m rule doesn't include drawbar and overhangs. My RIB is 7.75m but within regulations. You are correct that 3500kg is the magic number in terms of weight. Worth noting that not all towing vehicles actually rated for this load - Examples that are : Landrover Disco, Defender and Range Rover (but not Freelander), Toyota Landcruiser, Shogun (I think) and Trooper. (Wot I've got.).
HTH,
AJ

 

[duncan]

I am glad confusion still reigns on this topic because even the 'definitive' articles on the subject that have appeared over the last couple of years in MBM, MBY(?) & Sea Angler mag have not managed to explain the issue properly!
Practical and legal get confused, comercial is never mentioned, and the trade run around the country delivering boats on American trailers that break most of the rules (but seem a lot safer!).

 

[DavidJ]

But the last thing you want to do on holiday after driving for 2 days across Europe is to strip down brakes and regrease bearings. Cranage argument still holds.
As you probably know European motorways are great (but expensive) so trailoring is quite relaxing. Sleep overnight on the boat in the French "Aires" for free which makes the tolls worthwhile.
David

 

[tcm]

sleeping overnight in french \"aires\"

i have reasonable exp of trammelling through france.

1) agree, the autoroutes are much better and safer than N-roads

2) brit-reg cars are known targets for thieves - don't stop in aires which are near big towns (eg Reims) and best choose places that are within the toll areas - not the free bits where thieves hang about.

3) choose the snoozing area carefully! the car parks can be near the motorways itself and the lorry parks are full of frigo-lorruies with all night generator. A car park near the motels is best.

4) if you can, don't stop. Get loads of sleep, set off dead early and keep going. V tempting to say "well we are doing so well that we'll have a nice long long stop"... and etc then all the lorries than you overtook ages ago rumble past...

 

[DavidJ]

Re: sleeping overnight in french \"aires\"

Yes agree, we have had our moments.
Suggest one person sleep in the car.
The parking area around Calais port on your return is particularly bad (we all know why!) keep someone on car watch while you go the cafe etc
Don't think that using a hotel is any safer. we got done over while staying at the Campanile at Lafranch sur mar (spelling?)
We towed for more than 10 years all over europe but it was the security aspect which led us (as well as other things) to get a permanent berth abroad.
David

 

[MBJB]

Re: sleeping overnight in french "aires"

Totally agree. Some of them (the Aires) seem to have been designed for the baddies. Waiting all night in a state of semi-torpor for someone to commit some heinous crime to your property is not the best way to start another days long drive.

N-roads are good if
a)you get bored easily on autoroutes (and who doesn't at some time or other)
b)you choose ones that skirt round towns rather than through the middle
c)you drive through the night

When you're towing, they can sometimes be quicker than using the autoroutes depending on where you're going. I still end up using the autoroutes most of the time though - don't have to bother with the maps quite so much

 

[mtb]

Reverall lenth !!

From the way I read it it's the combined overall length, over hangs it gets silly re lights and side over hang inform police above width of 2.9
But if you get stopped I bet the officer will have his/her own interpretation of the regs.
When I built my trailer I read the stuff re draw bar and thought oh that's handy !!!
by the next day I decided to ignore it because the more you read the more contradiction there is .I stuck to the basic limit and even with this the trailer is very long so that a traffic officer will still get the tape out

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/boats
I want a big steel ex trawler or tug v, cheap or swap for tug

 

[mtb]

Re:Tachograph

Landrovers have the plate giving max towing of 2.5 tons

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/boats
I want a big steel ex trawler or tug v, cheap or swap for tug

 

[Chris_d]

Reverall lenth !!

Yes but if you interpret the rules that way, there is no way you can tow a boat over 7m at all, and there are loads rushing all over the place, they can't all be illegal!

 

[neale]

Max length is 7mtrs excluding the drawbar. A boat trailer is effectively one long drawbar which means that length is not an issue. Max width of trailer is 7ft 6in but you are allowed to overhang 12in either side in the UK giving max width of 9ft 6in. In France the max width is 2.5mtrs which is 8ft 2.5in.
The more important issue is weight. Once a boat is up around these maximum sizes then weight becomes a problem. The question asked here was about a boat which weighed 2500kgs dry weight. This is usually the weight declared by the manufacturer and in my experience is considerably less than the actual weight of the boat with even a basic level of equipment and add ons and then there is fuel and water. A trailer capable of taking a boat of this size will probably weigh nearly a ton on its own . I think it would be fairly unlikely that the boat in question here together with a trailer would weigh less than 3500kgs which is the maximum that can be towed by a private individual with a standard vehicle. If you convert your 4x4 to include air brakes and obtain a trailer with the same I understand that some (such as the range rover) can go up to 4000kgs but this is prohibitively expensive.

 

[mtb]

Reverall lenth !!

So how do you interoperate the law, me I'd err on the safe side rather than face prosecution and if really unlucky the insurance company not paying out.
When I tried to hire a twin wheel transit to tow a 8 wheel boat trailer only one would hire me a van.
All the others knew the bottom line re towing weight's and so on. Yes it's true for example a transit can have a 7.5 tonne train weight
but just because the gross train weight is 7.5 tonnes you'll come unstuck re weight per axle .
I cannot understand how some one with no training can tow a large trailer , bet most don't inform their insurance company !! if they did the extra cost's !!!!.
The only bloke I've met thus far who actually has the right kit for towing is from Wroxom boat sales Dave Harbour , he uses a Ford Cargo recovery truck to tow his trailers .
Most of the four wheel drives are fine for pulling the boat up a slip but in reality not built to tow , the weight of vehicle to what's being towed !!!.
My lanrover pulled a steam engine but that does not mean it can tow 15 tonnes.
My limit re weight is 2 tonnes plus trailer weight after that my Landrover is not legal to tow .

This is my opinion of course
When I decided to build a boat trailer I spent a while looking for the best idea's on the web, the yanks have the best trailers cos they have electric brakes ,I had a yank caravan which still had it's original electric brakes and it was a very I mean very good system but they are not legal here !!!!!!
Cheers
Mick

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/boats
I want a big steel ex trawler or tug v, cheap or swap for tug