towcar for wide caravans

[SilverBirch1]

This forum is very informative.

I have seen a couple of posts saying that if you get a 2.5m wide caravan you need a 3.5Tn GVW tow vehicle. What sort of vehicles come into this category at the smaller end?

I think some of the LR Defender models come into this category. I saw the post from someone who uses a volvo tractor unit; that seems a bit over the top!

 

[NigelHutson]

To tow any trailer which has a body in excess of 2.3m wide and/or 7m in length (excluding the draw bar), it MUST be done with a vehicle which has a plated weight in excess of 3.5 tonnes. Therefore, that would generally mean a large (twin rear wheeled) Transit or similar. I don't believe that any standard 4X4 has a plated weight exceeding 3.5 tonnes. Don't be drawn by the towing capability of the vehicle, it's its own weight that matters.

Yes, there are a number of Caravan Club site wardens (and countless others) who tow wide caravans with standard 4X4's. They are ALL breaking the law.

 

[forestgump]

To tow any trailer which has a body in excess of 2.3m wide and/or 7m in length (excluding the draw bar), it MUST be done with a vehicle which has a plated weight in excess of 3.5 tonnes. Therefore, that would generally mean a large (twin rear wheeled) Transit or similar. I don't believe that any standard 4X4 has a plated weight exceeding 3.5 tonnes. Don't be drawn by the towing capability of the vehicle, it's its own weight that matters.

Yes, there are a number of Caravan Club site wardens (and countless others) who tow wide caravans with standard 4X4's. They are ALL breaking the law.

iam glad some one said this i have had this argument before with my mate who has a range rover who thinks its all right because its big / untill i got him to go to a caravan sales place and he was told he needed a commercial vehical

 

[Icemaker]

there are no transit vans that are plated over 3500 kgs appart from one special order 18 seat minibuswhich is very rare and allso very expensive. the transit along with allmost every other vehicle of this description is plated at a max of 3500 kgs unless it is plated less than this on the smaller versions so you can not tow any van over 2.3m in width with these vehicles legally in the uk.

to get a legal vehicle it has to be plated at over 3500 kgs so you are in the realms of iveco and isuzu type commercial vehicles which in turn require an operaters licence and allso require testing at a goods vehicle testing center which all adds to the cost of ownership, then you have the problem of limited seating and sites that do not allow these vehicles on site plus they are not very practicle for everyday use, and to finish you will need to check you have a licence to drive these vehicle's with a caravan on tow.

 

[Lutz]

Yes, this 3500kg GVW requirement is a UK peculiarity of which I fail to understand the logic. No other country has anything like it. Why the width of a trailer should have any relevance to the weight of the towcar beats me.

 

[SteveW77]

Yes it's a bit like our planning laws, nobody likes them, but we would be in a bl**dy good mess if we didn't have them. As has already been said there are a large number of people who think the law does not apply to them, I am sure that if the rules were relaxed, some plonker would end up trying to tow a static van with a Range Rover. Why, I don't know, probably for the same reason they tow at 70mph and over in the outside lane of a three lane motorway, just to get up my nose. It works. Personally I would stop them and take the car and the van straight to the crushers.

Steve W

 

[Icemaker]

from information ive received in the past in general conversation lutz it appears that this law is from the days when traveling fairgrounds where a lot more comon than they are now, showmen as they are known in the uk are allowed to tow more than one trailer behind a towing vehicle, you generally see a hgv tractor unit hitched to the main trailer as you would expect then the showmans caravan (extremely large in all dimensions) and sometimes another small tourer behind that.

quite why the law was passed on width rather than weight i do not know i would imagine it dates back to the days of the steam showmans engines if english law is anything to go bye !. of course these days it will be left in place as the uk is fast becoming the european capital of anti vehicle governments, fuel is once again rocketing upwards and anything that requires a vehicle is seen as anti social.

 

[forestgump]

this may be part of the plant hire law we pull crane ballast traliors that can carry 150 tons plus tax is the same as a tractor the crane it self runs on red derv

it all comes under plant or stgo3 but we are not aloud to carry paying goods or loads we also should travell at less than 30 mph thats why we have all the flashing lights.

hence fair ground wagons come undera seperatelaw but canot pull a goods tralior to earn monye off a load it must only pull its tralior to work its fair ride

 

[ProfJohnL]

this may be part of the plant hire law we pull crane ballast traliors that can carry 150 tons plus tax is the same as a tractor the crane it self runs on red derv

it all comes under plant or stgo3 but we are not aloud to carry paying goods or loads we also should travell at less than 30 mph thats why we have all the flashing lights.

hence fair ground wagons come undera seperatelaw but canot pull a goods tralior to earn monye off a load it must only pull its tralior to work its fair ride

Hello dean,

I have had some trouble reading some of your postings as you don't seem to use full stops or other punctuation. Sometimes the meaning of a sentence can be lost or changed without a full stop. It would be very helpful if you could follow normal writing conventions. Cheers

 

[Lutz]

My experience of 2.5m wide caravans is that, although I can't understand the logic of the UK law, such caravans are a bit impractical for everyday use as tourers. Over here on the Continent the caravans tend to be used less often than in the UK. Most people tow just once or twice a year and then only to get straight to their destination, mainly by motorway. That makes the extra width less of a drawback and probably explains why about 40% of all models offered here are 2.5m wide. It's just that the market on each side of the Channel and its emphasis is different.

 

[NigelHutson]

there are no transit vans that are plated over 3500 kgs appart from one special order 18 seat minibuswhich is very rare and allso very expensive. the transit along with allmost every other vehicle of this description is plated at a max of 3500 kgs unless it is plated less than this on the smaller versions so you can not tow any van over 2.3m in width with these vehicles legally in the uk.

to get a legal vehicle it has to be plated at over 3500 kgs so you are in the realms of iveco and isuzu type commercial vehicles which in turn require an operaters licence and allso require testing at a goods vehicle testing center which all adds to the cost of ownership, then you have the problem of limited seating and sites that do not allow these vehicles on site plus they are not very practicle for everyday use, and to finish you will need to check you have a licence to drive these vehicle's with a caravan on tow.

You would only require an Operator's Licenec if you were using the vehicle for Hire or Reward (samme applies to tachographs). For private use, you don't.

 

[VIP640]

Anyone towing a 2.5m wide van in the UK with the usual 'run of the mill' 4x4 is breaking the law. If they were unfortunate enough to have an accident they would not be covered by insurance as their outfit is illegal. I would like a wider van but not worth the chance....

 

[chris_374398963]

Can someone tell which caravans are 2.5m wide and who makes them.

 

[anotherDavid]

Regarding Insurance for 2.5 meter vans, they are probably uninsured. When I insured my 2.3m Fendt with the caravan club the first question was, what is the width? as they dont cover 2.5m vans

Dave

 

[Lutz]

Can someone tell which caravans are 2.5m wide and who makes them.

No regular UK caravan is 2.5m wide. Larger caravans of most Continental manufacturers are generally 2.5m though where the break is between 2.3m and 2.5m varies from manufacturer to manufacturer and some offer a choice of both widths for some models. You therefore have to check on a case-by-case basis. It is safe to assume, however, that all current Continental twin axles are 2.5m wide.

 

[TD42]

Silverbirch, In answer to your question, vehicles that would fit the requirment to tow such vans & still be within the description of a "domestic" vehicle would be The american ford F250 or the Dodge Ram trucks but these are very thirsty motors

 

[Duncan123]

Hi theres a guy in our storage yard who tows a twin axle Hobby with a L220 Warrior pick up.

When i mentioned the legal widths he gave me a look as if to say i was talking rubbish.

Hapened to be talking to a couple of traffic cops a while back and mentioned the 2.5m rule and they had never heard of it.

Some of these caravans seem very cheap always wondered if you were only gona tow a couple of times a year if it would be worth it to hire a van to pull it.

 

[SteveW77]

As has already been said, there are no vans that can legally tow these things. Only option is a small lorry, used the word lorry, because if I said truck, someone would come up with Toyota HiLux or Mitsubushi L200, which just do not qualify.

Steve W

 

[Allen774]

I must admit when I worked for the CC&C I had a 2.50m Which I towed with a sedona and was never refused insurance,was never stopped by the police,as Im sure they are not interested or have no idea of the law.We used to winter in spain and work on the sites in the summer in england,And I have never heard of anyone in all my years of caravaning of anyone being stopped or charged with any offence concerning these vans.

 

[NigelHutson]

The truth of the matter is that most Police Officers don't have a clue about the law where towing is concerned. That's not being disrespectful at all, I work in the organisation! However, just because that is the case doesn't make it right to knowingly break the law which is as previously stated. Most people don't know that it's illegal to tow many glider trailers because they are too long either, but still do because noone has ever been brought to task over it. There's always a first time though, and heaven forbid, if a collsion involved a fatality, the issue would come out then with all the implications.

Bottom line is "DON'T".