Been nabbed by the police for illegal towing

[hillman]

Hi all
Been reading this post with interest,
if your an AA member might it be worth contacting their legal dept, or for that matter same thing with RAC also what about asking Honest John in the motoring section of the Telegraph, he's very helpful with motoring things!!!

cheers and good luck, hope you can get a definative answer
hillman

[vannut]

Hi all
Been reading this post with interest,
if your an AA member might it be worth contacting their legal dept, or for that matter same thing with RAC also what about asking Honest John in the motoring section of the Telegraph, he's very helpful with motoring things!!!

cheers and good luck, hope you can get a definative answer
hillman

Hmmm.

I did once have 'dealings' with an AA technical training vehicle. It was an Astra towing a trailer with a Peugeot 205 on it. The Peugeot had been cut in half then joined back together in such a way that it could be pulled apart easily to show the dangers of poor repairs.

The trailer was about half a ton over the MAM of the towing vehicle, and there were several other issues, such as the brake safety cable wasn't attached to the drawing vehicle. The driver admitted that he'd 'wondered what that cable was for' and 'didn't know about towing weights as that was all handled by the technical section'

I don't think I'd ring them..

[john leeman]

I use a solid tow bar, "U" shackle on one end cup/ball on the other, what are the law's on this arrangement, ?. J.L.

[vannut]

Depende on whether the towed vehicle is manned, and has brakes and whether or not it is machanically disabled.....

[LSi]

I'm fairly convinced plod is wrong in this case. You haven't exceeded the MAM for the Transit at the weight you were showing of 4941kg if your MAM is 5200kg.

If you had loaded the van up to it's 3200kg limit and then put your trailer on fully loaded then you would have exceeded the MAM.

Unfortunately about 90% of plods have absolutely no idea when it comes to towing trailers.

Let me have a bit of a dig around in the regs later today (when my headache's gone) and I'll come back to you, but don't sell the van yet!

I cannot explain how happy it'd make me if I found out they were wrong! lol

However, the way they explained it to me was that the GTW is worked out by combining the MAM of the towing vehicle, and the MAM of the trailer. In this case, with this trailer, the GTW would still come in at 6200kg even if both van and trailer were empty (their words)

Like I say, I'd love for you to prove them/me wrong, it'd make me one happy man....

Watching this post with interest. End of day Transits are just big cars and in reality the 2.5Di's don't want to tow loads of weight. I'm always surprised (Pissed off and slightly jealous) that Discos and 4x4's can legally tow a lot more than a Transit. I think a 2000kg Gross Trailer Weight is the limit as it probably associated with the rear axle loading?? BUt you'd think if unloaded it should be more and I would like to be able to tow 2500kg at least.

I've had a GTW of 7.6 tonnes with a (Tractor Hay Trailer) before in a Transit pickup but it ain't fun! Had to get some farm machinery to push me up the farm track onto the road as the clutch couldn't cope. Didn't exactly know which direction back home was and lost the two others in the convey (Another transit Trailer and a Disco with Trailer), never been so scared in my life!! I'm talking tight bendy country roads that included some very steep windy hills with a long trailer and no BHP/Torque. Swear the cylinders were glazed after that! Days of cold sweats and praying in 1st gear are over!! Now I know why they have to helicopter some jammed HGV's around. Nuts to that! I couldn't be an HGV driver. That really is skilled work Still it would be nice to tow 2500kg-3000kg legally.

No way on earth would I tow much more than a sanky trailer with my old 100 SWB Di, it just wouldn't fancy it. However, with my current 86ps Turbo, with it's towing diff as it is, it pulls every bit as well as a 300TDI Discovery. I must admit at feeling a little short changed that I can use a Discovery or Defender to tow 3500kg, but my Transit with a simmilar weight and simmilar towing capability can manage 1500kg LESS

[neilc5023]

i think they are wrong im sure that united utilities would just buy landrovers and not use any crew cab tippers as i know they are towing two tonne mini diggers and a trailer with two or three buckets on with must be close to three tonneloaded then if they have a tonne on the back they would be well over if someone wants to correct me id welcome it?

[Wildy]

This would suggest they are right:

Direct gov

[bj928]

if plod is right, and i don't think he is, that wold mean a smaller transit i.e. 260,280,300, would only be able to tow about 500kgs, as their GTW is 3500kg or less depending on model, if a transit 330/350 can only tow 2000kg you may as well buy a disco as i think they all can tow 3500kg, my e430 merc can tow 2100kg and a mondeo can tow 1800kg, i've always towed with my transit upto the GTW as long as my axle weights and GTW didn't go over weight. i have a friend in vosa so will ask her what vosa have to say about it.

[ginsambo]

Minidigger say a Kubota KX41 weighs from 1.4 - 1.6 tonne (1.5 nominal). Tiny plant trailer probably weighs 500kg and is plated for 2 tonne max say. Its all legal, just!

Minidiggers are so popular and there is so much frustration because when sometimes you need a slightly better reach - and you need a 3 tonne digger, but it will have to be collected on a 7.5 tonne vehicle as, even if its actually only 1.8 - 2.5 tonne its overweight for the tranny.

Now you can load the crewcab and tray up with mixers, cabling whatever up to 3500kg and its still legal with the 1.5 tonner.

But are we saying that if the trailer is plated for 2100kg or 2200kg (Which 99% of them are, other than the very tinyist) then even empty or grossing out at 2000kg it is illegal to tow it with a transit because of the plate??????

I just wonder if the transit is plated for 2000kg trailer only because of its tiny engine and clutch?? Surely the chassis and suspension, gearbox and diff can take more?...Although that said components are a lot stronger in a decent 4x4 and they have a solid c-section steel chassis to boot.

At least its still legal to breathe here, heard that been outlawed in the US now because of the CO2 emissions.
Latest policy I heard is to walk around with a wallmart carrier bag on yer head, held on with an elastic band to stop the polar bears from drowning...hmmm...sneaky bit of population engineering that. WHo's ever even seen a polar bear, if you did get close enough it would only bloody eat you anyway, or worse maime you and come back and enjoy you as a late supper! Just hope they don't try introduce those policies here. I have a sneaking suspicion that this electro car hype and law is just about a pre-ordained capitalist economy drive agenda anyway and what with the states too dependant on foreign oil nowadays.

In the mean time having to call out a 7.5 diesel tonner 30 miles return trip to move a 1.6 tonne minidigger 3 miles is hardly sustainable is it? And I can't see a battery driven electric motor carting a 2 tonne digger about somehow.

[Wildy]

What happens if your trailer isn't plated?

[jolly olly]

Been on the direct gov site about this. http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/Dr ... DG_4022564
If you trailer is not plated the can apparently take it of you but that was of some one selling the plates on flea bay and quoting a cop program, and theres something about it on the direct gov site as well.

[ake]

then you probably shouldn't be using it unless you can prove the design weight

[Wildy]

My old car transporter trailer is 'home made' and hence not plated.

[jolly olly]

then you probably shouldn't be using it unless you can prove the design weight

There is a way of proving the weight and that's a combination of the rating of the hitch set up, braked, tyres 6 / 8 ply and the axels have suspension and a trip to the weigh bridge, so if you have the relavent info you can make your own plate up.

[neilc5023]

if the plate thing is true which incidently i think it is would the plod not just spank everyone as we are easy pickings?