Towing Concern

Get it weighed! If you don't, your ignorance is no defense should you be stopped and put on a weighbridge - and the police in many counties do have regular campaigns targetting trailers and caravans.

Rob.
 
VicS said:
A Shetland 535 weighs nothing like that much........ Id suggest you check the displacement on the Owners Assocaition website


You will then find it is only 363 kg although that probably does not include the weight of the engine ... another 80 Kg perhaps

Unless the trailer is exceptionally heavily built its is unlikely that boat, engine and trailer will weigh more than 640kg although it will probably be close.
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I deal in actualities. What my Bayliner weighed on the Weighbridge and what the manufactyrers said it would weigh were 2 different things.
And I was once fined £800 and my Driver £500 for one of my vehicles being overloaded by 300 kilos. Only because had been mislead about the weight of the the stuff I was buying. It dosent what excuse you come up with if your vehicle (or trailer) is over the weight limit. In the eyes of the law it is an "Absolute Offence"
 
Almost 3/4 of a ton is not such a poor towing rate for an unbraked trailer.
Then again there are plenty of 3 ton braked trailers with poorly maintained brakes!
 
Jim@sea said:
I deal in actualities. What my Bayliner weighed on the Weighbridge and what the manufactyrers said it would weigh were 2 different things.
And I was once fined £800 and my Driver £500 for one of my vehicles being overloaded by 300 kilos. Only because had been mislead about the weight of the the stuff I was buying. It dosent what excuse you come up with if your vehicle (or trailer) is over the weight limit. In the eyes of the law it is an "Absolute Offence"
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I had the same with my boat trailer although the weight of the boat was not too far out, the trailer was plated as weighing 175Kgs when it weighed 450Kgs so what should have been a 2000Kgs set up towable by many cars, vans and people carriers needed a large 4x4. As others have said get it weighed, without that you don't have the information to make an informed decision. I have weighed mine several times over the years on the same weighbridge and the weight has varied, usually upwards.
 
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Jim@sea said:
I deal in actualities. What my Bayliner weighed on the Weighbridge and what the manufactyrers said it would weigh were 2 different things.
And I was once fined £800 and my Driver £500 for one of my vehicles being overloaded by 300 kilos. Only because had been mislead about the weight of the the stuff I was buying. It dosent what excuse you come up with if your vehicle (or trailer) is over the weight limit. In the eyes of the law it is an "Absolute Offence"
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So you are saying that despite both LS and I finding a figure of 363kg it will actually weigh about 800kg !
 
Not knowing how old you are or when you got your licence it's worth looking at that too.

Being an old git I can tow quite a lot but if you passed after '96 I think, you can only tow a 750Kg unbraked trailer without passing another test.
 
Taken from TSB240's link

I have just bought a Shetland 535 with a 60hp Mercury 2-stroke.
I also just happen to be director of a company specialising in industrial weighing!!
I had the same question regarding towing weights etc. so we rigged up a system to weigh it.
The boat and outboard (with no fuel or other 'baggage') weighed in at 650kgs. Interestingly the trailer, which is single axle braked, weighed in at 250kgs - making a gross of 900kgs.
 
Lakesailor said:
"Looking at the boat specs info. the weight of the 535 is 363Kg"
The motor is less than 100Kgs, so that gives you about 180Kgs for the trailer. Which could be in the region. Any extra gear on the boat could be a handicap.

Take it to a weighbridge. You may be close.
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Haven't heard back have we?

Take it to a weighbridge. It's fun. Don't forget to unhook the trailer and drive the tow vehicle off the weighbridge. :)

List of Public Weighbridges in Hampshire http://www3.hants.gov.uk/tradingstandards/weightsandmeasures/weighbridges.htm
 
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Jeez, I said in the first replay it ain't going to work, and it simply isn't!

Old boats weight more than new fresh ones, and you can't always stash all the boat gear in the car, especially with such a low unbraked ability.

who would want to tow at the limit anyway!?

Thats not fun.

Get a braked trailer, it'll sort out any issues...
 
The idea of spending £500 to add brakes wasn't a goer so getting another trailer or another vehicle doesn't sound like it will get a hearing either.
 
Will get it weighed

Thanks for the advice, I'll get it weighed and take it from there. I'm pulling it with a 7 seat people carrier which has an unladen weight over 1700kg and enough grunt to pull uphill. No problem there, its the stopping in a hurry that could be an issue.
 
Not that it makes any difference to the legalities, but car manufacturers limit permissible towing weight for lots of reasons besides braking capability. Often it's more to do with what they're prepared to cover under warranty by way of transmission and driveline. Remember they have to honour the warranty if the vehicle (and trailer combination) are at the maximum, in a mountainous area, every day for the whole warranty period!
 
Samurai_Dave said:
Thanks for the advice, I'll get it weighed and take it from there. I'm pulling it with a 7 seat people carrier which has an unladen weight over 1700kg and enough grunt to pull uphill. No problem there, its the stopping in a hurry that could be an issue.
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You've missed the point. The Plod in many areas target boats and caravans on the road, and weigh them. If you are outside the limits laid down in the makers handbook, then you WILL be persecuted. No excuses, no arguments, no extenuating circumstances. Not only that, if they think the rig is unsafe,which includes overloading, they can issue a 'stop' notice', leaving your boat roadside, waiting to be removed either by a vehicle that CAN tow it legally. If the rig itself is illegal, (i.e. over the 750kg limit for unbraked trailers) it can only be removed on a Recovery vehicle.

Many vehicles have more than enough grunt to tow a fair load, but the regulations and manufacturers specs take into account the performance of the braking and suspension system under heavy towing loads as well.
 
oldharry said:
Many vehicles have more than enough grunt to tow a fair load, but the regulations and manufacturers specs take into account the performance of the braking and suspension system under heavy towing loads as well.
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Plus the opportunity to coerce punters into buying dearer cars, as in LS's case with Suzuki and my own experience with VW. That's why the current max towing weight scheme is absurd: car manufacturers should be required to follow a towing formula based only on the laws of physics without accounting for warranty and marketing considerations.
 
Obviously first thing to do is to have the whole thing weighed first & it has to come within the manufacturers stated
limits
However, does the law not state that the gross weight has to be written/stamped on the trailer
I rarely see this but having been fined 3 times for overweight vehicles in my company i have always had this info etched onto the trailer frames or on a plate riveted to the chassis. I seem to recall in one of the fines i was also told to have the vehicle train weight written on the tow bar. May have been an overzealous copper so it may have changed now though

Oddly enough on one occasion one of my vans was stopped the policeman noted the number on the trailer was not the reg no on the vehicle. He did not see that as a problem & let the driver proceed after the driver told him that we owned both vehicles with those numbers
 
The plating of a trailer depends on it's age. There are two break points for information required on the plate. Unbraked trailers made before January 1, 1997 don't need any plate. How the plod can determine the age of a trailer without a dated plate, I don't understand. But that is an aside. As OldHarry says. If the weight stipulated in the handbook, on the VIN plate or in the V5 is surpassed they will do you.
 
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