Trailers and weights- VOSA penalities and points Q

[Lankytim]

Ive got a large car transporer and ive been towing car transporters for years with no trouble. Recently the ministry (i.e VOSA) have increased their patrols on the roads to make sure everyone is operating within the law and is safe- not a bad thing in my book.

Ive had a bit of a reality check and have been thinking. My trailer is 2 tonne gross and is just under a tonne empty so with an average car is just over weight by about 150KG, with a car like a volvo or jag its about 500-600kg over weight. Its running on normal car tyres, not special 5 ply( Ithink) trailer tyres its suppost to have. The maximum towing weight of my 940 is 1800kg so my 2 tonne trailer is 200kg over that when I tow and depending on what I have loaded the trailer itself is overweight too. When I picked up the 240 this week the trailer must have weighed 2400kg....

I'm guessing sooner or later I'm going to get megabusted by VOSA and incurr 3 points per offence which if you take into account each tyre and the weight means I could get 18 points or so!

Anyone here know what the law is and the penalties for being overweight and having incorrect tyres e.t.c?

[Ratdat]

Recommended towing limit with a car and a braked trailer is 85% of the kerb weight of the tow vehicle. The problem is that whilst you may be within the plated towing weight of the vehicle, if you are outside of the recommended safe limit then they can hit you with "unsafe load" or such like and there's not a lot you can do about it. That's the prime reason I went to towing with a 4x4, simply because you can get away with hauling a lot more before the plod even take an interest.

As for tyres, if the marked maximum load shown on the tyre sidewall is more than the gross weight then no worries, regardless of construction. If they're not then you must be mad anyway ;D

General rule of thumb with towing...if it looks right you'll have less bother. I used to tow with my turbo Prairie when i had it and the kerb weight was only about 100kg yet my trailer with a car on it could easily hit 2000kg plus but because the prairie looked van-like and larger than a car it was less likely to get me a tug that towing with a car would.

Besides which, towing with a car sucks. Wish I'd bought a 4x4 years ago to tow with. I'd never go back to towing with a car again!

[PhoenixC]

Its probably worth looking on here

www.ntta.co.uk/law/index.htm

But I think you are right if you get stopped they could get you for three points per offence. Not 100% sure about the legalities of the tyres, I think as long as you are not overloading then it should be fine.

You will stand more chance of getting pulled if you were using a van as opposed to a car though as they do tend to concentrate a bit more on the commercial vehicles.

Its one of the reasons why I got my discovery, one of the few vehicles that you can legally tow 3500kg. My pajero was a better tow vehicle but legally it couldnt carry as much.

[PhoenixC]

ratdat said:

General rule of thumb with towing...if it looks right you'll have less bother.

Yes, thats generally the case.
Make sure the obvious stuff is right, secured load, working lights, legal tread, number plate, a breakaway cable and it doesnt look like the trailer is about to drop to pieces and you lessen the chance of getting pulled

[gearoil]

lankytim,

You have PM.

[Lankytim]

gearoil said:

lankytim,

You have PM.

Ta

I think its ture whats been said about vans beng stopped more than cars. Ive never been pulled with my trailer, dispite any half clued up plod knowing I must be towing too much weight. Ive always had my cars well secure... just got to fix the lights and fit a numberplate.

On a similar note, has anybody noticed the increase in car transporters being pulled by joe bloggs recently? I think it must be ebay thats doing it. An alarming amount have poorly restrained cars and a few have had no kind of restraint at all, no straps, rope nothing! One such combination had the pug 405 it was carring hanging over the front of the trailer with the wheels nearly off. The tow car had the headlights pointing to the sky. Another had an XR2 nearly off the rear of the trailer with the drivers totally oblivious to the disaster waiting to happen! Both seen on the M6- watch out!

[Oldbus]

ratdat said:

Hi Ratdat, bit off topic I know but was this photo taken up at Jon´s workshop near Shrewsbury?

Dave

[hairnet]

i recognise that i think it is

[Ratdat]

Yep, it was indeed.

[gearoil]

BTW do trailer tyres have some kind of extra rigid sidewalls or something?

[tigran]

Yeah the 'look right' philosophy is about right. When i was moving my rovers about i rented a landie defender van that was a real big, chunky mutha, the trailer was huge - the car and trailer were a metre or so off being as long as an articulated lorry. The driver and co-driver were both 21, and wearing hoodies, yet we passed two VOSA patrols on the A1 and endless police cars and didn't get so much as a glance, specially as we had a lightbar on the landie going.

Admittedly the driver was fully legal to drive the landie with the rover on the back, but still i was expecting to at least get a pull or two.

[Ratdat]

gearoil said:

BTW do trailer tyres have some kind of extra rigid sidewalls or something?

legally, you don't have to use special trailer tyres so long as the load doesn't exceed the tyres rating but it is a good idea to have 8plys as you are likely at some point to bosh it over a kerb somewhere. That will kill a standard tyre but multi ply can usually take it unless they're those low profile 12" ones.

[bigrod]

Funnily enough, I bought a black Frontera to tow my transporter with and wouldn't go back either and I used to have a 3.2 Omega estate!! (Or is that a Trooper?)

I've towed with some shonky setup in my time!! Brought a Trans-Am back from Darlington on an unbraked trailer n a borrowed Sierra deisel, a Rover P6 with my Mum's Renault 19 and another one with a Cavalier and then there was the time I towed a Senator with a Carlton estate and nearly went over a bridge because I couldn't stop it fishtailing!!

Actually, other than that I've never had a problem with towing, but the rule of thumb is the bigger the tow vehicle the better.

This just reminded me of a sight I saw driving on the M6 not so long ago!!! An MGA towing a twin axle caravan, (and it was frappin' hoooj too!!), how he managed to keep that between the white lines I'll never know!!

[Ratdat]

Just for your amusement, here's some of my previous inapropriate towing combinations...

Fortunately this datsun 1000 was mostly stripped so it was pretty light but the datsun 1200 coupe I was towing it with is not what I'd recommend as a tow car. For anything.



This one actually was heavy..a 1200 coupe loaded up with scrap! The datsun 510 pulled it admirably for a 1600 but faaaar too light for towing...danger!



My poor old 1.6 Bluebird 910 hauled this Cedric all the way from London to Bournemouth. Cedric and trailer had to be a good 2 tonnes but the bluey did a fine job. It didn't do so well on a latter towing job when I used the back of the car in front for braking assistance





Other bad ideas include towing a Marina on a trailer behind an Austin A40 Farina and towing my Datsun 280C on a trailer behind a 1.3 Mk2 Golf ...in the wet. Never again

I once towed three stripped out cars one on top of another on the same trailer down to the scrappy behind my Prairie too

[arthurbrown]

^madness!^ ;D

All this VoSA stuff has me crapping a brick.
T'other day I dragged the superminx down to Keef's behind the Volvo, they'd have had a field day.

[Hirst]

Some months back I witnessed a Clio towing a trackday MX5 on a full-size trailer. Still somehow managed to move!

[arthurbrown]

I think it's true about the eBay thing.

Last year I sold a very ropey Mini to a couple of US squaddies of Lakenheath. They pitched up with a rover 600 with the remains of a caravan on the back. Literally. They had smashed the bodywork off the caravan with a hammer. Took about an hour to get the f*cker on there with no proper trailer ramps.

Then there was the chap who bought a Land Rover from me. Arrived with a very professional Brian James tilt/slide trailer which must have weighed a ton on it's own. All behind a 1.8 Mongdeo.

And as for that traveller who bought the XR3i cab and arrived with a static bar to take a car which I had told him had 4 bald tyres and only three studs holding each wheel on....

When there is serious distance to cover, I'm not inclined to risk it.
If it means forking out for someone else to fetch it, the actual costs and considering the risks are covered by someone else it is actually not too bad. I'll merrily utilise the A-frame for local stuff and shuttling grot betwixt the house and the farm, but that is about it.

And the hire of a 'proper' tool to do the job isn't too steep either. When Tigs brought his Rovers up to my place he hired a LWB Land Rover from Lantern Recovery for £100, which is pretty nice. As it was a "defender" type it wouldn't be too painful either. Using my older Land Rovers with big trailers was OK, legality wise, but it made you suicidal after a while... 50mph crusing at about 600decibels is NOT FUN.

[Lankytim]

Max trailer weight of the volvo is 1300kg so if you had a light trailer, say 1500kg max gross weight youd only be 200kg overweight...... just tell mr vosa you like his hair or something. Failing that fake a heart attack.

[madmart]

my understanding of the laws regarding towing is,
I'm un sure of the penalties etc for tyres providing there legal,
but a friend of mine had a tranny flatbed and got tugged and was overweight by roughly a 1/4 tonne and just got a fixed penalty fine.
I have a four wheeled car trailer too a absolutely ancient one and regularly tow it behind a 1.8td mondeo and its not too bad. the main thing is the brakes on the trailer work, been pulled a few times and that was all they were interested in. when I first bought it they did not and even in the dry you couldn't stop it safely with a car loaded on! I would imagine in the wet it would be impossible
also towing a frames are technically illegal as there un braked unless you've got a fancy one like the AA/RAC use as they have a attachment that fits inside the car to work the brakes.

also IIRC towing dollys must be braked and within the towing vehicles maximum weight
and flat towing is best done on a bar the only downside is both cars must have towing eyes attached and preferably on the same side so the bar is strait, when the bar is diagonal the person behind must be on there toes as there car will try to ride around the towing car under braking and go the opposite way when accelerating which is unpleasant and the vehicle being towed must be road legal, tires/ brakes/ lights, though a trailer board is allowed.
please tell me if I'm talking rubbish or such as I'm not sure totally myself.

[nigelbickle]

My worst 2 were a Dodge Charger behind an Opel Manta -and a Hillman Imp towed a PA Cresta to S London from Norfolk. Ohh -the stupidity of youth!!