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Trailer laws/rules


diggervan

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Hi I'm in the middle of building a plant tailer but a mate of mine has said the laws are changing soon

Something about axel weights/plateing/road conformity etc.

So just wondering if I'm wasting my time

So has anyone heard or know anything about this

Bob

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For the last decade-and-a-half, trailers have been subject to EU type-approval: as previously mentioned, see http://www.ntta.co.uk/

To be brutally honest, and having on several occasions over the last couple of decades having had to drag spectacularly-inadequately-engineered/maintained homebrew 'trailers' off the UK's roads, I can only say "About Time Too".

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Trailer IVA manual https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/367387/IVA-inspection-manual-for-categories-o1-o2-o3-and-o4-trailers.pdf

Section O2 is what you need to use as guidelines to ensure a good result

O1,Very Light Trailers, 0.75 Tonnes or less

O2, Light Trailer, Over 0.75 Tonnes up to 3.5 Tonnes

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It is one of those things that you can do, and I have done it, but will it be worthwhile? If you need something truly 'bespoke' then maybe it will be. The key thing is that the key components need supporting paperwork for the iva/sva, that (usually) means using established industry standards (eg Knott, or Peak ) for at least the brakes and coupling and probably the axles. Drawbar you can do yourself more easily but you will need to supply calculations to show that it is within the strength parametres, but if you don't fancy it then even standard drawbars are available. There was a guy on a certain well known auction site advertising sub 500kg plant trailers for 3 ton diggers at around £2300 with the iva which I reckoned was a bargain, knowing how much admin is involved, never mind building the trailer! Here in France it is even worse as class O2 trailers have their own vehicle registration documents and vehicle insurance as well, all of which may come to the UK eventually.

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Yes blanco all you have said is wot my mate was thinking all my axels /brakes/coupling/drawbar length etc conform to existing rules and regs but he seems to think it's all about to change to something like you have in France.

Whitch might make mine not worth while depending on what they change.

Thanks miketomcat/Western I will dibble check what I know with the link you surjested

Bob

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Just to clarify, its not so much the standard of the components that is changing (Knott KFG35 hitch for example has been going for 20 years to my knowledge and will continue), but the fact that the components used and the structure of the trailer is demonstrated and documented to perform/conform to the legislation. Older components will be fine so long as you can get there respective test documentation and certificates of conformity to include in your file for the iva..

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I guess the answer is probably not, trailers of only 500kg, and up to 750kg (behind a Landy for example) tend to attract (rightly or wrongly) much less attention; on the plus side the file would be smaller, no brakes or brake actuation to consider.

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