Towing a trailer- weight distribution.

Boater Sam said:
No, really do not want the trailer taking over the steering!
I used to tow cars on a heavy recovery trailer behind a long wheelbase Land Rover and it never got away from me because we had a good weight on the hitch.
But I also used to do suspended tow and with the car on the jib sticking out a couple of feet behind the tailgate that was a totally different situation. Going down hill was sometimes terrifying as the whole rig would start to snake uncontrollably, using all 3 lanes on a motorway sometimes. Never lost it but came close a few times.
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One real oddity about the real long wheelbase landrovers is the official max UK nose weight for a trailer is 150kg, but the identical vehicle in the USA has a limit of 250kg. Note, it is kg not a misquote of USA lbs. Tow ball weight

I try to keep nose weight near max, when towing a fin keel boat, to reduce the fore aft pendulum effect. Especially from my house to the SC as roads are poor and there are two hump backed bridges..

All extra weight goes in the landrover, as previously it went into my cars.

My current boat trailer is heavily rebuilt old one, with a complete new axle suspension unit. Tyres for the old one were getting difficult to get and expensive. So I put on a unit that has the same wheels as the general purpose trailer.
Currently planning a few more mods to improve ease of use.

Sadly swmbo's cars tow limit is zero.. yep towing not permitted..
 
The Q said:
Sadly swmbo's cars tow limit is zero.. yep towing not permitted..
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Plenty of small cars not allowed. You have to have a homologated hitch nowdays and they are not available for quite a few cars. I went to the scrappy to get one for our Twingo. 45 euro. Not sure if the newer Twingos are allowed.

Did laugh a while back. Two 2CVs passed in the local town, both towing the same small version of those Dutch caravans with the pop top.

Takes me back a bit.. Guy turned up to collect his new 12ft racing dinghy. He had a roughed up wooden trailer on the roof, made of two bits of 3X2 with barrow wheels. All held together by nails. No springs... Could he buy the flat bit of bar that was the simple pin hitch of the day?. He nailed that on the front of the 'spine' and loaded up and set off home. My father was horrified and asked him to call us to confirm safe arrival. He did make it.
 
The Q said:
One real oddity about the real long wheelbase landrovers is the official max UK nose weight for a trailer is 150kg, but the identical vehicle in the USA has a limit of 250kg. Note, it is kg not a misquote of USA lbs. Tow ball weight
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Our Landcruiser 80 has a much higher towing limit (7 tonnes vs 3.5 from memory) in other markets. It is lower here so it still falls under a normal driving licence - a heavier licence would lose almost the entire customer base of a (then) luxury 4wd. Perhaps there's something similar with the landie?
 
KevinV said:
Our Landcruiser 80 has a much higher towing limit (7 tonnes vs 3.5 from memory) in other markets. It is lower here so it still falls under a normal driving licence - a heavier licence would lose almost the entire customer base of a (then) luxury 4wd. Perhaps there's something similar with the landie?
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Yep you are right, just looked it up, it appears the towing capability abroad is higher..
 
Muddy32 said:
I have a legal (UK and EU ) 4 wheel trailer plated for 2,600 kgs.
My car can tow 2000kgs. Boat is 1250kgs and trailer 550kgs.
So far so good. 1800kgs.

Is it better to load car with the "insides" Outboard, Avon dinghy, food and UK fuel,etc Approx 120kgs,or........... OK in the boat. ???

Ferry Plymouth to Roscoff, then down to Arzal to launch and enjoy Brittany for 3 months
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You don't say the GTW of the car, this includes the weight of fuel in your car, plus all passengers, in fact everything in your car.There are other regs about weight on each axle, and on the trailer hitch. Boats are prime targets for the police and VOSA.
Trailer Weight Limits and Towing Capacities < Useful information
 
Took the whole set up to the local DVSA WEIGHBRIDGE, who kindly did the whole thing for me, checking individual axle weights. All for free!!
Trailer weight was 1988 kgs [plated max 2500] and car 1930 kgs [2000kgs].
He suggested spreading the extras between axles in the boat, securely and not having a full tank of fuel in the car[which was the case on weighing].
Job done.
Just need to get the trailer registration doc on line now.
Thanks to all who commented.
 
Muddy32 said:
Took the whole set up to the local DVSA WEIGHBRIDGE, who kindly did the whole thing for me, checking individual axle weights. All for free!!
Trailer weight was 1988 kgs [plated max 2500] and car 1930 kgs [2000kgs].
He suggested spreading the extras between axles in the boat, securely and not having a full tank of fuel in the car[which was the case on weighing].
Job done.
Just need to get the trailer registration doc on line now.
Thanks to all who commented.
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Great. But what are you doing about the issue of plated weight on the trailer if this is over your car’s towing limit.
It will be the plated weight that the police / gendarmes will check.
 
dunedin said:
Great. But what are you doing about the issue of plated weight on the trailer if this is over your car’s towing limit.
It will be the plated weight that the police / gendarmes will check.
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No, it will be the actual weight that counts. If the trailer is plated at 2500Kg but the car has a max towing limit of 2000kg you cannot load the trailer to it's plated weight, keep it under 2000kg and you're legal.
 
dunedin said:
So that suggests (though not an official UK.gov site) that the plated weight is not an issue “in the UK”. That sounds good.
Is that also true in France? It may be but need to be sure.
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I don't know. Maybe the caravan club or similar may have details. One thing I do remember reading is that UK trailers over a certain capacity have to be registered with DVLA, for travelling to EU.

Edit - Some info here - Register your trailer to take it abroad
 
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It seems the law was revised in 2021 and as long as the rated towing capacity of the vehicle is not exceeded, the plated weight of the trailer is no longer an issue. It is now the actual loaded weight of the trailer that counts, and this must not exceed the towing capacity of the vehicle. Also the whole outfit must not exceed the MAM (maximum allowable mass) which is quoted on line 1 of the VIN plate.
 
The whole played weight confusion comes from the (now removed) trailer tests. Prior to their removal the requirements for driving licence categories was done on plate weights not actual weights.

The laws for vehicle and trailer capacities never changed and has always been actual weight just the licensing for drivers that was plated weights
 
dunedin said:
So that suggests (though not an official UK.gov site) that the plated weight is not an issue “in the UK”. That sounds good.
Is that also true in France? It may be but need to be sure.
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The link is to a random site, not the DVSA or anything official. The advice might be wrong.

I think you were right at Post #4 @dunedin, it's the plated weight that matters. Think about an 18 tonne gross truck. It could (just) be less than 7.5 unladen. You can't drive it unladen on a car licence. I suspect the same legal logic applies to trailers. Enforcers will assume you might be loading it to plated weight.
 
penberth3 said:
The link is to a random site, not the DVSA or anything official. The advice might be wrong.

I think you were right at Post #4 @dunedin, it's the plated weight that matters. Think about an 18 tonne gross truck. It could (just) be less than 7.5 unladen. You can't drive it unladen on a car licence. I suspect the same legal logic applies to trailers. Enforcers will assume you might be loading it to plated weight
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Right about the truck, but that is driver licensing not vehicle loading regulations.

Now that there is no trailer test required we only have to comply with vehicle loading which is and always has been actual weights not plated weights.
 
penberth3 said:
The link is to a random site, not the DVSA or anything official. The advice might be wrong.

I think you were right at Post #4 @dunedin, it's the plated weight that matters. Think about an 18 tonne gross truck. It could (just) be less than 7.5 unladen. You can't drive it unladen on a car licence. I suspect the same legal logic applies to trailers. Enforcers will assume you might be loading it to plated weight.
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I don't know about Frech law, but as far as the UK is concerned the above is incorrect. It's the weight of the trailer plus its load which decides if you are overweight or not. It's got nothing to do with plated weights unless you exceed it. Driving licence regs are entirely different, and refer to vehicle categories. Driving licence categories define the weight you can tow for some categories.
 
nevis768 said:
I don't know about Frech law, but as far as the UK is concerned the above is incorrect. It's the weight of the trailer plus its load which decides if you are overweight or not. It's got nothing to do with plated weights unless you exceed it. Driving licence regs are entirely different, and refer to vehicle categories. Driving licence categories define the weight you can tow for some categories.
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In France a trailer with plated weight less than 500 kg needs only to carry the registration plate of the towing vehicle. Above 500 kg it needs its own registration. As far as I know this is the only EU country to set this requirement below 750 kg. I have no idea whether this might apply to visitors.
 
Trailer registration plate has been ordered and coming this week.
Also in attendance at the DVSA weighbridge site were two traffic policemen [overseeing a different lorry and trailer] , who also kindly looked a the data and my load and confirmed that they thought I was OK, if stopped in UK. They did say however the French may have a mind of their own!
 
I was once advised that if you are doing a Cross Channel ferry crossing where you may be over the weight limits with your trailer do a weekend crossing as if you are pulled over by the Police they cant ask you to go to a weighbridge as they are closed on a Sunday.

When I lived in France I had a similar car, trailer and boat, and I brought my boat back to the UK from Roscoff to Plymouth.

I had made a mistake with a trailer, I bought the New trailer from the St Malo yacht broker who I bought the boat from.
They had mislead me about what the boat weighed, they said it weighed 1800 kilos. The French trailer I bought would carry 2000 kilos.

After towing the boat home to my house in Brittany on looking at the trailer I thought that the tyres looked to be bulging excessively, (I had been an Mot Tester in 1963) I towed the boat to a weighbridge and the combined weight was 2200 kilos, being 200 kilos overloaded.
I later found out that when my inboard diesel boat was being ordered when new you could buy a an additional fuel tank, an anchor & chain and and on the transom an auxiluary 9hp outboard.

The problem was that the trailer was made to only carry 2000 kilos, and they had used ordinary 4 ply rating car tyres, I changed the tyres for 6ply commercial rated tyres.

Beware of the Roscoff return. I was booking my return and was told that I could load 2 hours early, so we got to Roscoff at say 12 noon expecting to load first, but we were the last to load 5 hours later, they loaded all the HGV's first and my boat was the last to be loaded before they set sail.

Before you leave for France take your car with boat on trailer to a HGV Weighbridge and get it weighed, get the print out of the weight, take a photo of the boat & car on the weighbridge, then if you are stopped and you show the Police the ticket they cant ask you to go to a weigbriidge, plus if there is an accident the Insurance Companies Loss Adjuster cant say the car and or trailer were overloaded.
 
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