madmatt Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 Also incorrect, with a trailer of upto 750kg the vehicle can weigh upto 4250kg - i know as i recently challenged the police for wrongly booking me on this exact thing.the weights for larger trailers are as stated by madmatt. SMO Can you supply more details please? As I read it a cat B licence holder can drive say a transit grossing 3500kg GVW and a trailer upto 750kg Gross giving a gross train of 4250kg. You seem to be suggesting that the vehicle's gross weight can be 4250kg then a 750kg gross trailer that gives a gross train weight of 5000kg?!!!! I am not arguing just intrigued as that contradicts the DVLA info below? "Motor vehicles with a MAM not exceeding 3500kg having not more than eight passenger seats with a trailer up to 750kg. Combinations of towing vehicles in category B and a trailer, where the MAM of the combination does not exceed 3500kg and the MAM of the trailer does not exceed the unladen mass of the towing vehicle " copied from here http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/Drive...ions/DG_4022547 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoggyN Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 ...thought it was acceptable to hook the emergency breakaway cable over the electrical hitch and not the towball! Strictly speaking you shouldn't hook the breakaway cable to the towball either. In case the ball comes off! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smo Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 SMO Can you supply more details please?As I read it a cat B licence holder can drive say a transit grossing 3500kg GVW and a trailer upto 750kg Gross giving a gross train of 4250kg. You seem to be suggesting that the vehicle's gross weight can be 4250kg then a 750kg gross trailer that gives a gross train weight of 5000kg?!!!! I am not arguing just intrigued as that contradicts the DVLA info below? "Motor vehicles with a MAM not exceeding 3500kg having not more than eight passenger seats with a trailer up to 750kg. Combinations of towing vehicles in category B and a trailer, where the MAM of the combination does not exceed 3500kg and the MAM of the trailer does not exceed the unladen mass of the towing vehicle " copied from here http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/Drive...ions/DG_4022547 Sorry Matt - you are correct, its the train of 4250 (3500 plus 750 trailer) including trailer. Just looked at the ticket i was given and letter i wrote and i was booked for 3500 including trailer (disco + trailer was 3680). I wholly apologise, its very easy to get confused even after aguing the toss and winning with the police and i spent hours checking the regs to see who was right and even i rememberd it wrong today!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
western Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 the regs are far to complicated, it's no wonder drivers get confused, it could be a lot simpler & use a common set of easy to read & understand wording, such a maximum loaded weight & total trailer loaded weight instead of maximum authorised mass :rolleyes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smo Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 It would be better all round if we all had B+E like the good old days! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
western Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 I can see the point in having trailer training & a test, luckily my licence is a pre '97 & I have the grandfather rights to trailer entitlement Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoggyN Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 I've got C1+E and D1+ E too. What exactly does that mean? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobed90 Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 I've got C1+E and D1+ E too.What exactly does that mean? From what i have looked up it entitles you to drive 7.5 ton plus trailer and a minibus plus a trailer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
western Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 I've got C1+E and D1+ E too.What exactly does that mean? http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/Drive...ions/DG_4022547 all explained in the link above. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madmatt Posted June 18, 2009 Share Posted June 18, 2009 Sorry Matt - you are correct, its the train of 4250 (3500 plus 750 trailer) including trailer. Just looked at the ticket i was given and letter i wrote and i was booked for 3500 including trailer (disco + trailer was 3680). I wholly apologise, its very easy to get confused even after aguing the toss and winning with the police and i spent hours checking the regs to see who was right and even i rememberd it wrong today!!!! no worries mate, it's very easy to get confused!!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cieranc Posted June 18, 2009 Share Posted June 18, 2009 Im doing mine in about 4 weeks, im just waiting all the information to come through. I was really shocked by the cost. The test fee is £115 plus training fees, which for the course i am doing ( 12 hours traning inclusive of trailer hire but in my own vehicle) is around another £600. This does seam to be a rip off but is the average price i have found. Also the course i am doing is for people with experiance of towing and not for begginers or the cost would be even more and involve around 30 hours of training. I have towed trailers of all sizes since i passed my test at 18 in 2000. I had no idea of the trailer laws and nor did the company i worked for where i did most of my towing. Mate, one of our lads just did his class 1 and it only cost £500! Are you sure that's the best price you can get? And is 12 hours driving necessary? How much is the trailer hire, not buy one yourself? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gingerlandy Posted June 29, 2009 Share Posted June 29, 2009 Im doing mine in about 4 weeks, im just waiting all the information to come through. I was really shocked by the cost. The test fee is £115 plus training fees, which for the course i am doing ( 12 hours traning inclusive of trailer hire but in my own vehicle) is around another £600. This does seam to be a rip off but is the average price i have found. Also the course i am doing is for people with experiance of towing and not for begginers or the cost would be even more and involve around 30 hours of training. I have towed trailers of all sizes since i passed my test at 18 in 2000. I had no idea of the trailer laws and nor did the company i worked for where i did most of my towing. Sounds quiet tough even only did test few years earlier seams so unfair! Looks like there is no way round it, I would simalr to towed all sorts as grew up on a farm. better just bite the bullet and get some proper lesons Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orange Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 As an aside, but related point, does anyone know what restrictions there are on towing 'plant' equipment? I don't mean large geraniums, either... One of our drivers recently got pulled at a regular VOSA stopping point and got weighed and found to be overweight (Merc Sprinter open back plus a screed pump trailing behind - not the driver himself!!). Now........VOSA didn't know what to do as the 'trailer' isn't a trailer and is in fact a piece of machinery........ There are apparently different regs for this, but none of us, nor VOSA can find a definitive answer!! Anyone had similar experience?? It's a little worrying that the people who make the rules, can't actually give you an answer!! Back on topic....... Be very careful when you enlist the help of specialist driving instructors. I have made several enquiries and found that not all of them know the rules. I have found myself directing the companies to the relevant DVLA websites for details. I did manage to get quotes for instruction and test at around the £500 mark, but I am still reluctant as it wouldn't cost any more to get C1+E, but none of the local HGV schools have trailers for 7.5tonners at the moment!! Typical! This is, however, because I have already taken the upgrade test for 7.5ton trucks (another £1000 for a course and test)... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cieranc Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 So why not just do a class 1, as I say it was about £500 for one of our lads recently. With a class 1, (artic) you can pull any trailer, you're covered for all of them, so nothing to worry about. £1000 for a 7.5 ton test??? What a waste of money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smo Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 So why not just do a class 1, as I say it was about £500 for one of our lads recently.With a class 1, (artic) you can pull any trailer, you're covered for all of them, so nothing to worry about. £1000 for a 7.5 ton test??? What a waste of money. I dont know where you managed to get full class 1 training for that as ive looked into it several times recently and it seems to be 3-4times that cost minimum! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aragorn Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 I'm sure if you worked for the haulage firm and they were using their trucks etc it would be a lot cheaper? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madcowz Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 On top of all this, it is also worth checking with your Insurance Company as I recently found out that I wasn't allowed to tow any livestock trailers no matter what size and whether they had beasties in it or not. But most importantly they stated that I was not automatically covered to tow any trailer. I queried this and asked does this mean Joe Public who buys a matchbox sized trailer from Halfrauds may not be covered and they said that is ok as it is a standard trailer, but they had to go away and check if my Sankey was covered after I described it to them. This was the NFU and what on earth is a standard trailer I don't know, but best to check before finding you are not covered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark_W Posted July 1, 2009 Share Posted July 1, 2009 Not sure if this helps, but if you want to work out what you can tow without the 'E' endorsement on your licence, then this flowchart on the Ifor Williams website seems pretty good: http://www.iwt.co.uk/brochures/ltt.pdf Cheers Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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