What weight can I tow?

[Avocet]

If you want some real fun - call in at your local old bill shop and tell 'em that you're thinking of buying an 'A-frame' for towing, and you wondered if they could advise whether they are legal or not.

The law on those is even more obscure than for trailers.

I did some work on those a few years ago and the C&U regs are (initially!) much clearer in that they are ONLY to be used for recovering a "broken down vehicle". Further investigations showed that if the combination of A-frame and vehicle being towed exceeded 750 kg, then "it" (the A frame and vehicle being towed), being an "unbraked trailer" would then exceed the maximum that you can tow without brakes and would therefore need to be equipped with a braking system that complied with Directive 71/320/EC (as ameded) for trailers. I've not come across one that can do that as yet!

(That aside, I had a bad experience with one once and have hated them ever since)!

 

[maxi77]

Another little twist to this is your driving licence, old farts like me can drive with a MAM up to 8.25 tonnes, but those young things who got their licence after 97 are limited to 750kgs unless they take an additional test.

 

[PCUK]

So, to sum up, tow anything within reason and hope for the best, I think that's what I will do.

 

[electrosys]

I did some work on those a few years ago and the C&U regs are (initially!) much clearer in that they are ONLY to be used for recovering a "broken down vehicle". Further investigations showed that if the combination of A-frame and vehicle being towed exceeded 750 kg, then "it" (the A frame and vehicle being towed), being an "unbraked trailer" would then exceed the maximum that you can tow without brakes and would therefore need to be equipped with a braking system that complied with Directive 71/320/EC (as ameded) for trailers. I've not come across one that can do that as yet!

That's exactly the problem. Same applies to a tow-rope or towing bar - you're creating an unbraked trailer >750Kg in the process.
So their use would appear to be illegal (nothing in law about it being permissible to use them to tow broken-down vehicles, afaik), and yet some police vehicles carry them, as do many breakdown/recovery vehicles.
Great fun ....

As a bobby once told me (about towing a boat) - "as long as it looks right ... ".

 

[neale]

That's exactly the problem. Same applies to a tow-rope or towing bar - you're creating an unbraked trailer >750Kg in the process.
So their use would appear to be illegal (nothing in law about it being permissible to use them to tow broken-down vehicles, afaik), and yet some police vehicles carry them, as do many breakdown/recovery vehicles.
Great fun ....

As a bobby once told me (about towing a boat) - "as long as it looks right ... ".

Surely with a tow rope or bar you have someone in the towed vehicle operating the steering and brakes, therefore it becomes a braked trailer. In actual fact, I doubt a car on the end of a rope is a trailer at all

 

[electrosys]

Surely with a tow rope or bar you have someone in the towed vehicle operating the steering and brakes, therefore it becomes a braked trailer. In actual fact, I doubt a car on the end of a rope is a trailer at all

The brakes on a trailer need to have an efficiency of 45% of that of the towing vehicle. (Except agricultural vehicles, for which it's 25%)
As most vehicles these days have vacuum-assisted brakes, it's unlikely that this figure could be achieved without the engine running.

In law, anything attached to the rear of a vehicle and having wheels in contact with the ground is considered to be a trailer.

Don't blame me - I didn't formulate any of these regs - I just built my own 4 wheeled boat trailer from scratch using ex-vehicle axles, and in the process had to research all this stuff. I then tried to get someone to test the trailer, to establish it's legality - which can't be done. Over 3.5 tonnes, yes, VOSA will test, but there is no official mechanism in place for testing the roadworthiness of light trailers. Yet you can be prosecuted (allegedly) for towing an unroadworthy trailer. As our american cousins say, go figure ...

The best example of vagueness in trailer construction is 'suspension' - which is required to be "road friendly" - for which there is no legal definition, afaik.

 

[misterg]

well all I did was tell plod exactly what I was going to do.. all the details of the boat, trailer and landy, including all weights, and the reply was that as long as I didn't exceed 8.25 t all up I was legal.
so who is one to believe plod or people on here ? anyone out there know the real answer cos I'm getting confused

regards rachel.

I'm not sure if there's still confusion stemming from the fact that there are restrictions on both the vehicle(s) and the individual:

The 8.25t is what someone who passed a car test before 1997(?exact date) is allowed to be 'in charge of' on the road as a driver (my phrasing).

In addition to the restrictions on a driver's licence there are manufacturer's restrictions on the tow vehicle, trailer and tow-bar (attachment). Confusion in this area is rife, not least because the DfT guidance published on the internet was plain wrong, and it sounds like Mr.Plod had been given the same guidance. The DfT guidance has been updated as a direct result (I believe) of the correspondence in the transit van forum thread I linked to before. The link to the DfT site that Electrosys gave is now correct (IMHO).

So when you asked if *you* were OK to tow x,y,z,etc. you actually got a correct answer that "as long as you stay under 8.25t...etc." that *you* will be legal. I don't believe they gave any consideration to the rig.

My reasons being:

There was no way of giving an answer without reference to MAMs, GTWs, Axle loadings & Nose Weights which I'm assuming they didn't do;

There have been dozens of reports of people being stopped and warned (at least) about towing trailers with a MAM above the towing vehicle's capacity, even if the laden weight of the trailer is within the MAM of the trailer and also within the tow vehicle's capacity at the time (even empty trailers) - the DfT guidance specifically says this is OK now.

(and a bit of an odd-ball) I have a good friend who works for Plod (Traffic related) who was trying to find out if he could tow a caravan behind xyz... car. Naturally he asked practising traffic officers for advice, and got really bizzare and inconsistent answers. He realised that he knew more than them.

The law in this area should be simple but it's not, so informed advice is hard to come by (not that I'm claiming that this is ).

Those are also mostly the reasons why I've got the impression that Traffic Police aren't the experts.

My interest in the topic stems from when I used to tow a 1900kg boat/trailer behind a Volvo estate which was right on the rating, and I wanted to be absolutely sure of my position.

I *think* that Land Rovers are rated to tow 3500kg (except the girlie ones - Freelander??) so you may be in trouble if your boat+trailer was more than 3500kg. Incidentally, I've see that the GTW of Land Rovers quoted was quoted at 6220kg in the 'transit van thread', so the advice that you were "OK to 8.25t" was definitely wrong for a Land Rover.

You'd need to check the plate on your L R to be sure.

I hope this clarifies more than it confuses...

Andy

{GTW=Gross train weight = maximum total weight of vehicle + contents + trailer + load.
MAM= Maximum allowable mass:
Of trailer = maximum total weight of trailer + load
Of vehicle = maximum total weight of vehicle + contents}