I have just received an Email from HMG regarding trailers. Interesting reading.
www.gov.uk
Government report on trailers.
- Thread starter Hutch
- Start date
Interesting reading. Caravans come out reasonably well in the grand scheme. It is interesting that the high incidences of caravan defects are in areas that are easy to spot and rectify (lights and presumably breakaway cables). It is also interesting to see that tyres do not rate really highly at all, are people heeding warnings or are old tyres really not such a big issue?
Interesting reading indeed - with caravans far less likely to be prohibited than any other type of trailer.
It may be that the issue with caravan breakaway cables is predominantly user error rather than faulty equipment.
It may be that the issue with caravan breakaway cables is predominantly user error rather than faulty equipment.
Of the 730 caravans inspected over 50 were immediately taken off the road and not allowed to travel further. In my opinion 50 is still a very high number of dangerous and unroadworthy caravans on the road.
Immediate prohibition means rectify the defect before continuing - the report statistics don't show how easily or quickly the defect(s) could be rectified - failure to use the breakaway cable would count as an immediate defect but easily rectified.
57% prohibition for caravans was associated with lights. Not that difficult to sort out as its most likely bulb failure, bulb contacts or towing cable continuity.
The report makes clear the data set cannot be assumed to be a fair representation of all trailers. But I believe provided the the ways the trailer selected for inspection were essentially random, then the proportions of faults are likely to fairly realistic.
However I don't think the incidents of failure can be attributed directly to failure to service. Bulbs can go at almost anytime, so that is certainly not a reasonable connection to make.
If the proportions of failure are to extrapolated 50 of 730 is about 7% with an estimated 550,000 touring caravans in use in the UK that could mean 38,500 could technically be unroadworthy.
The 57% lamp failures struck me as a very high frequency bearing in mind the number of times tuggers check their lights.
I did say the minority of failures , not bulb failures ,which were a different item in the report probably relate to lack of service. Maybe it was ambiguous.
I did say the minority of failures , not bulb failures ,which were a different item in the report probably relate to lack of service. Maybe it was ambiguous.
Do people check their lights or do they just hook up and go? Personally I think it is probably the latter going by watching people leave a caravan site. We always check the lights after connecting up the electrics and at the same time make sure that the mirrors are aligned correctly.
We always checked caravan lights bringing it from storage, before leaving on a trip, coming home and back to storage. Kept plenty of spare bulbs in the “ odds and sods” draw. Even if I was on my own I would do it, and brake lights would be activated by inclining my tool bag against the brake pedal.
We check most of the lights each time - tail, brake and indicators but not reverse or fog light (old habits die hard) - the car's equipped with bulb failure warning which includes trailer/caravan lights when plugged in.
So make that 4.5 of us !
So make that 4.5 of us !
It’s not so easy to rectify faulty bulbs on modern caravans, they are LED and I’m not sure they are user replaceable, that’s the impression I got when reading what to do if there was a fault.
When we got our caravan from storage we check all the lights to make sure they are working before we set off and also our towing mirrors
Fortunately Volvo XC 40 electronics offer to do a lamp test o the trailer immediately you switch the ignition on after coupling the electrics. My wife visually checks at this point, and all lights including reversing and fog light as one, before each set of lights individual light in a cycle. This gives a "pass" to the test, and makes it easy when bright sunshine can give some dubiety...
My V90 also has this but if doing it alone you don't get much time to get from the drivers seat to the back of the caravan to see it!
I'll confess that when we moved into our current home, there was loads of rubble / garden waste to clear out of the garden.
So i bought a cheap 6x4 trailer and set about making sure it was roadworthy (new wheels & tyres, new lighting board, hitch coupling etc). Unfortunately. i didn't pay any attention to the floor which was well past its best.
On what turned out to be the last trip with that trailer, i set off to the dump with a trailer load of rubble and soil. I arrived only to find an empty, floorless trailer.
I bet had someone else bought that same trailer, they would have ignored all the other issues and used it as it was. Just goes to show that even i, with best intentions, still got it wrong.
So i bought a cheap 6x4 trailer and set about making sure it was roadworthy (new wheels & tyres, new lighting board, hitch coupling etc). Unfortunately. i didn't pay any attention to the floor which was well past its best.
On what turned out to be the last trip with that trailer, i set off to the dump with a trailer load of rubble and soil. I arrived only to find an empty, floorless trailer.
I bet had someone else bought that same trailer, they would have ignored all the other issues and used it as it was. Just goes to show that even i, with best intentions, still got it wrong.
I would question the validity of the published figures as I have little confidence in those carrying out the checks.
A couple of years ago I was pulled into a checkpoint in Bala (not towing. but driving a truck showing orange plates) where they were predominantly checking trailers. As expected we had a clean bill of health, but there was a collection of farm trailers and caravans that were parked up. Chatting with the caravan owners it turns out they had been parked up as they had their breakaway cable looped around the towball and had been told it was `illegal`. Thing is, three of them had no specific attachment points for a cable. so had looped around the towball as direted by the major clubs, the person doing the examination refused to believe this explanation.
I`m all for safety checks, but lets make sure those doing the checks know what they`re talking about, eh?
A couple of years ago I was pulled into a checkpoint in Bala (not towing. but driving a truck showing orange plates) where they were predominantly checking trailers. As expected we had a clean bill of health, but there was a collection of farm trailers and caravans that were parked up. Chatting with the caravan owners it turns out they had been parked up as they had their breakaway cable looped around the towball and had been told it was `illegal`. Thing is, three of them had no specific attachment points for a cable. so had looped around the towball as direted by the major clubs, the person doing the examination refused to believe this explanation.
I`m all for safety checks, but lets make sure those doing the checks know what they`re talking about, eh?
That's one for me to avoid then as my towbar has no attachment points and no way of fitting one - it was built in the last model year before it became mandatory.
Last year, I bought a cable attachment point as my TowTrust towbar did not have an attachment point.
Trailer Safety Cable Mounting Plate, Breakaway Cable Plate, Eye, Trailer Bracket | eBay
Mounting bracket for fixing a breakaway chain or cable to on unbraked trailers. Can also be used to support breakaway cables from dragging the ground on braked trailers.
www.ebay.co.uk
I don't have anywhere to fit such an attachment - it's an "electrically-deployable" towbar with a swan-neck - but the only bolts are at either end of the cross-member.Last year, I bought a cable attachment point as my TowTrust towbar did not have an attachment point.
Trailer Safety Cable Mounting Plate, Breakaway Cable Plate, Eye, Trailer Bracket | eBay
Mounting bracket for fixing a breakaway chain or cable to on unbraked trailers. Can also be used to support breakaway cables from dragging the ground on braked trailers.www.ebay.co.uk
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