Towing legally?

allegria · 27 May 2006, 22:14

I'm hoping to find some clarity in what seems a highly debated subject. - I have a new style licence i.e. after 1997 and want to tow a boat with all up weight of 1300kg. The tow car has an unladen weight of 1343kg. ( braked trailer btw). These regs below suggest that that is legal?, am i right?.

Thanks for any help.

From the NTTA:

The net result is that new drivers will only be allowed to drive and tow the following combinations:

Vehicles up to 3.5 tonnes (category B) with a 750kg trailer (4.25 tonnes total MAM).
Category B vehicles with larger trailers i.e. > 750kg, provided that the combined MAM does not exceed 3.5 tonnes and the gross MAM of the trailer does not exceed the unladen weight of the towing vehicle. To be able to tow combinations outside this ruling requires the passing of an additional test.
New HGV drivers and those who have passed their HGV tests since 1 January 1992 will be restricted to towing trailers up to 750kg until they pass an additional test.

Tim M · 27 May 2006, 22:18

The MAM and the "all up weight" are not the same things. I believe the MAM to be the maximum weight the trailer can take. So, your rig might weigh 1300 but your trailer might be rated to 1500. There seems to be a lot of speculation about what "new" drivers (of which I am one) can tow. Perhaps someone else who knows for sure can comfirm the above if I am right....

Jimbo · 28 May 2006, 07:20

Yes, you are correct.

The mam of the trailer cannot exceed the unladen kerb weight of the vehicle, and the all up mam of vehicle mam of the trailer can't exceed 3.5 tonnes. So it all depends what your trailer is rated for.

LURCHER · 28 May 2006, 07:27

Jimbo
I think you will find that any trailer 750kg and above requires either the trailer test being taken or have a pre 1997 licence . We put one of our boys throgh the course to enable him to tow above that weight .

Tim M · 28 May 2006, 09:36

How long did the test take, how much did it cost and was it reasonably straight-forward?

Jimmy C · 28 May 2006, 09:58

ahhh, the age old towing question
Thes test needs to be done at an HGV centre such as Botley.
It costs 85 quid for a weekday test, 105 for a weekend.
The test involves several manouvers on their testing ground, including an s-shaped reverse, and emergency stop. Then you go out on the road for about an hour, and do several pulling over manouevers and some motorway stuff. Then you return to the centre to do some hitching and unhitching. I failed my test the first time, then called the tester a twat, as he was being seroiusly gay(and i needed my test done for that weekend, so the pressure was on) but the second time round it was fine. Its worth having some instruction, and certainly some practice, but you need someone who has driven for 3 years with the endorsment or passed prior to 1997 to be in the car for insurance purposes. Otherwise i'd offer you some advice at the 'Jimmy C school of driving'

Any more Q's?

Jimmy

Jono · 28 May 2006, 13:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tim M

..can comfirm the above if I am right....

No. you're not...Maximum Authorised Mass is the total weight of vehicle (car/Lorry/trailer) and its load permissible. A trailer with a MAM of 3,500 Kg can carry a load of 3,500 less the weight of the empty trailer...

Try this website and its links... some good stuff here..

http://www.direct.gov.uk/Motoring/Dr...708&chk=qhFBqs

http://www.direct.gov.uk/Motoring/Dr...564&chk=Zv5gNw

LURCHER · 28 May 2006, 19:40

Our guy Oli did a whole 5 day course with BIG WHEELERS in Reading and it was about £550 , The course was crap with too much time spent on teaching the other student how to reverse having never even driven a trailer before .Oli was a farmers son and could reverse a trailer when he was 10! The instructor told them a load of stuff that was wrong and on the test he nearly failed oli for incorrect procedure whjen hitching up . Only his insistance that he too agreed it was wrong but had been taught that way saved him from failing . The testers are a load of clipboard weilding twats who have never done a days proper work have no real life experience and just love all the mindless regulations being thrown on us all the time .

Last Thursday I was on the M25 at the M1 junction at about 0800 when a boat trailer jackknifed and blocked 2 of the 3 lanes . VOSA (rymes with tosser) busybodies turned up in their brand new Discovery 3 and proceeded to impede the trafific flow further by shutting all 3 lanes . The tow vehicle which I think was a Mitsubishi l200 was on it side on the hard shoulder and the boat was across lanes 2 and 3 . no one had been hurt and the quick simple answer to the problem was to get the tow vehicle on its feet again by using all of us marquee guys to push it back upright and to tow the boat off the main carriageway with the shiny new Disco3 max time 20 mins ! What really happened was that ' health and safety issues ' prevented us righting the l200 and they were not authorised to tow the boat off the carriegeway but had to await specialist recovery . End result was a trafiic tailback as far a Maple Cross and two VOSA Tosserrs spending most of the morning being twats ,rant over !