hello,i have just joined this forum and would appreciate some advice on the hobby landhaus caravan,i have a toyota landcruiser so there will be no problem on the towing side but i am aware that the legal limit for a caravans length in the uk is 7 metres and the landhaus is about 7.26 metres,i would like to hear from anyone who has any thoughts or experience of the legal aspects of this. also i have enquired about one or two other hobby models and was surprised to learn that about 50% of hobbies are not cris doc registered if they are imported and people will have to pay around 70£ to have the background checks done and then register them .i am sure you will be as i was not willing to take any risks buying a caravan which cannot be checked out. after contacting cris doc they agreed the situation was a bit of a grey area and advised me to contact the police about my concerns over the status of a particular van and asked them to check on the PNC computer if the van was stolen by checking the chassis number and was told that they could not give me that information,crazy i thought,i left that one alone , one other thing, i am a retired class one hgv and psv driver who passed their driving test over 50 years ago so will i need to sit another test to pull a hobby landhaus are are they just not legal on british roads thanks for reading this post and look forward to any comments.
hobby landhaus
- Thread starter sinastergator
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- Nov 11, 2009
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The legal limit doesn’t include the A frame its the body length. Is your 7.26m body length or shipping length which is overall length including A frame. Not surprised that the police were not prepared to do checks on a would be purchase. That’s not really their role. I’m sure if CRIS aren’t able to check its history there are agencies that could do it. But it wouldn’t be cheap. I’d stick to looking at ones that are Cris registered.
- Nov 11, 2009
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I should have qualified my reply by saying it’s not illegal to have a longer caravan, but there are qualifactions imposed on towing.
Here are the regulations.
Towing with a car
Towing trailers, caravans and horseboxes with a car, including the weight and size limits, and what licence you need to have
Towing: licence and age requirements
Work out if you’re old enough or have the right kind of licence to tow a trailer from different kinds of vehicle
hello and thanks for your reply,i way i read the law is that the MAM of the car and trailer is 8.25 tonnes which is well within the weight of the car and caravan but the question is that the caravan has a body length of 7.26 metres which is longer than the permitted legal limit of 7 metres.regards
- Nov 30, 2022
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The important figure is the max authorised mass of the towing vehicle on its own If it is less than 3500kg then you start running into legality issues.
The maximum authorised mass of a Landcruiser (see below) appears to be 2990 Kg, so LESS than 3500kg, so it cannot legally tow a trailer over 7m in length in the U K That's regardless of what driving licence you have. If the rig isn't legal then any insurance (for damage to the caravan would be void as well.
So in simple terms you need to find a shorter caravan, or a much heavier towing vehicle, sorry!
If your vehicle’s MAM is more than 3,500kg then the maximum lengths are:
The maximum authorised mass of a Landcruiser (see below) appears to be 2990 Kg, so LESS than 3500kg, so it cannot legally tow a trailer over 7m in length in the U K That's regardless of what driving licence you have. If the rig isn't legal then any insurance (for damage to the caravan would be void as well.
So in simple terms you need to find a shorter caravan, or a much heavier towing vehicle, sorry!
Maximum length
If your vehicle’s maximum authorised mass (MAM) is 3,500kg or less, you cannot tow a trailer that’s longer than 7 metres.If your vehicle’s MAM is more than 3,500kg then the maximum lengths are:
- 12 metres for the trailer towed by the vehicle
- 18 metres for the vehicle and trailer combined
hello and thank you for your comprehensive reply,there must be thousands of caravan owners breaking the law in the uk,i feel that the law is a ass in this instance,when a twin wheel tranny with a gvw of 3500 kgs can pull a longer van than a powerful 4 x 4 with a permanent four wheel drive which in my opinion is much safer .never mind ,many thanks
- Feb 13, 2024
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it depends on the shipping length ,which is the total with the a frame or the body length,the 7 metre limit is the body length
- Nov 30, 2022
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There might be a few (certainly not thousands) because Hobby, and other similar sized caravans are pretty rare in the UK simply because of the very issue you have come up against.
As for Transit Vans they can only tow a 7m plus caravan if their GVW is over 3500KG and there is only a single Transit variant that has a GVW that exceeds that.
A fair few are plated AT 3500kg but not over!
I realise you might not like the regulations, but they are legally enforceable and contravening them can be very costly. Better to find out now, than at the roadside because if discovered you would not, under any circumstances, be permitted to carry on your journey, which could prove "interesting" if hundreds of miles from home.
- Nov 11, 2009
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Here’s an interesting ditty wrt towing a Hobby outside of the legal regulations:
Here is a case from the From the Trailer and Towing Advisory Service identifying what may happen if you are caught........
"Upon inspection by the Police, as part of a general survey of caravans, a driver of a Hobby was required to obtain a suitable (legal) towing vehicle before he could proceed with the van. He hired a 7.5 ton truck. The alternative was to leave the Caravan in the layby"
Then, if you do not have the correct vehicle you will be driving without insurance. This could result in an immediate disqualification from driving. A driving ban can often be in the region of 28 days. For first offences, a Court generally imposes between 6 and 8 penalty points, but no ban. There will also be a fine which will vary depending on the circumstances Many Police forces issue a Fixed Penalty Notice of 6 points and a £200 fine.
Where a person is found to be towing without insurance the Police are entitled to remove the caravan from the road leaving the driver to continue their journey without the van. The Police could charge you for the cost of transporting and storing the caravan rather than to leave it on the roadside.
Here is a case from the From the Trailer and Towing Advisory Service identifying what may happen if you are caught........
"Upon inspection by the Police, as part of a general survey of caravans, a driver of a Hobby was required to obtain a suitable (legal) towing vehicle before he could proceed with the van. He hired a 7.5 ton truck. The alternative was to leave the Caravan in the layby"
Then, if you do not have the correct vehicle you will be driving without insurance. This could result in an immediate disqualification from driving. A driving ban can often be in the region of 28 days. For first offences, a Court generally imposes between 6 and 8 penalty points, but no ban. There will also be a fine which will vary depending on the circumstances Many Police forces issue a Fixed Penalty Notice of 6 points and a £200 fine.
Where a person is found to be towing without insurance the Police are entitled to remove the caravan from the road leaving the driver to continue their journey without the van. The Police could charge you for the cost of transporting and storing the caravan rather than to leave it on the roadside.
A twin wheel Transit with 3500 kg GVW is subject to the same limit as cars, a 7m body length trailer - the provision to tow longer trailers needs a GVW of 3501kg or more - it also needs a CE licence, not the BE required for cars. The twin wheel version of large US-style pickups are usually over 3501 kg and would permit towing a longer trailer - but most owners down-plate them to 3500 kg to allow them to be driven on a B licence.
You may disagree with the law but that's the way it is at present - feel free to lobby MPs to change the law - in the mean time you would be drawing attention to yourself if you ignore the limit and tow such a caravan with the Landcruiser as it seems to be popular among the "travellers".
- Jun 16, 2010
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This subject often comes up on Facebook groups, by people having bought a Hobby / Fendt / LMC etc and afterwards realising that they can't legally tow it as it's over 7m body length. Then they discover why they seemed so cheap in the first place.
I've been stopped for DVSA checks in the past, and the last time there were a couple of Hobby caravans that had been clamped - their journey ending there. One was being pulled by a Golf !
I asked the inspector about them, and in his words "They are easy pickings".
I've been stopped for DVSA checks in the past, and the last time there were a couple of Hobby caravans that had been clamped - their journey ending there. One was being pulled by a Golf !
I asked the inspector about them, and in his words "They are easy pickings".
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