Towing licence

[trakie23]

Please could anyone advise if I Can tow on a normal licence passed in 1998
Caravan details: Bailey 1995 Discovery SE Limousin Noseweight (kg) 75
Unladen Weight (kg) 884
Kerb Weight (kg) 1444
Max Weight (MTPLM) (kg) 1128
Unbraked Maximum Tow (kg) 750
User Payload(kg) 244
Maximum Tow (kg) 1300
Hitch Limit (kg) 100
Max Tow at GTW (kg) 1300
Car details
Kerbweight 1444
Unbraked max tow 750
Braked max tow 1300
Max tow at gtw 1300
Gross weight 2074
Train weight 3374

 

[Woodentop]

Yes you can.

The rules are that you take the biggest number off the car certification plate - on the bottom of one of the door pillars or riveted to the front scuttle above the radiator - and add to it the MTPLM of your caravan. You can tow it on a B licence if the two do not add up to 3500Kg or greater which your figures suggest they do not.

If you are a newcomer to towing it is usually advised that the MPTLM of the caravan should not exceed 85% of the kerb weight of the towing vehicle which your figures suggest is 78%.

Take care to make sure that the noseweight of your caravan does not exceed the maximum weight that the vehicle towball/chassis can take. The noseweight that you have specified (75Kg) is probably the weight of the caravan ex-factory and this will increase as you load the van and depend upon where you place the weight. You should aim to run the measured noseweight of the caravan as close as possible to the maximum that the towball/vehicle chassis can take - this should work out to no more than 7% of the MPTLM - in your case about 79Kg. Note that what the ball will take and what the chassis can take may not be the same. My last car - a Passat B6 estate - was rated 90Kg maximum for the ball, but the Thule (detachable) bar was rated 85Kg. On my current car - also a Passat - the Westfalia towbar and car chassis are both rated 90Kg.

 

[trakie23]

thankyou for your reply ,So going off these figures you say I can,I was not sure which Weight on the car to go off? These details are off the tow match through the c and c club. I can only see numbers on my vehicle documents my v5 can't see any on my car.

 

[trakie23]

How Do I know what weight the tow bar can take, as you can guess I'm new to caravanning xxx

 

[WoodlandsCamper]

It may state the figure in your car handbook (if you have one) and there should be a plate on the tow bar itself which give max nose weight.

 

[trakie23]

What will it be refered to on my documents, there's that many numbers! lol

 

[colin-yorkshire]

Yes you can.

The rules are that you take the biggest number off the car certification plate - on the bottom of one of the door pillars or riveted to the front scuttle above the radiator - and add to it the MTPLM of your caravan. You can tow it on a B licence if the two do not add up to 3500Kg or greater which your figures suggest they do not.

hi, not sure that is the correct information :S as the biggest number is the gross train weight, this is the figure for the maximum combined weight of the car and the trailer that the car can tow,
the rule is a cat B can tow up to a maximum authorised mass of 3500kg, ie the MAM of the the car which is the MGW, and the MTPLM, of the caravan. so it would be the second biggest number on the VIN weight plate and not the biggest. as you would be calculating the trailer weight twice.

also as far as I understand it the Gross Train Weight of the car can be higher than 3500kg on a cat B. providing the Gross Vehicle Weight and the MTPLM is less than 3500kg .
for instance, a car with a GVW of 2200kg can tow a caravan up to a maximum of MAM 1300kg, and still be legal. even if the same vehicle has a Gross Train Weight of say 4000kg.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello trakie23

Your question was about driving licence limits rather than the cars limits.

Colin has given the lowdown, but just to clarify a couple of points.

Towing a caravan with a domestic car falls under Cat. B entitlements. Over the years the definitions of the categories have changed, but somewhat annoyingly, when a new definition is created, it does NOT update your licence so you must always use the definition that was applicable when you passed your test.

You passed your test in 1998 which falls into the 1997 to 2013 definitions.
The essential details are you may drive

• A vehicle where the solo vehicle's MAM does not exceed 3500kg
• A coupled vehicle and trailer where the combined MAM does not exceed 3500kg & where the MAM of the trailer does not exceed the unladen weight of the tow vehicle.

The definition of MAM or Maximum Authorised Mass is the same as the cars Gross Vehicle Weight, and the caravan's MTPLM.

The important word that Colin missed is "combined" which is not quite the same as "added" as there is one important element which if you simply added the values, you would actually add twice because it occurs in both the cars GVW and the trailer's MTPLM, and that is the actual nose load.

When coupled the trailer nose load is carried (not towed) by the car, and so it must form part of the cars actual load, which must be kept within the GVW limit. But the nose load is also part of the caravan's MTPLM, so adding GVW and MTPLM is not the same as the combined value to extent of the actual nose load created.

So technically the combined MAM is GVW + MTPLM -Nose load. BUT its not simple, because you need to know what your nose load actually is, not its maximum value.

So for simplicity it is easiest and legally safest to just add the GVW & MTPLM to get your combined MAM value. in your case its 2074 + 1128 = 3202kg and is well within the 3500kg entitlement limit.

Colin is absolutely correct when he points out that for some vehicles the Gross Train weight of the tow vehicle may be quoted above 3500kg, but provided the combined MAM of the solo vehicle and trailer is below 3500 then thats fine.

 

[Woodentop]

In the final analysis its all about interpretation of the wording.