Towing agricultural trailers. Has law changed?

[FiF]

Per title just querying something seen today that I think is illegal but things change so fast at times.

Mini convoy. Two Fastrac type tractors both towing two close coupled agricultural trailers. Second one hooked onto rear of first one. Looked as if all brake lines connected. Lights and registration marks all to blazes nowt new there.

Anyway that's not the question. It's always been ok for an agricultural vehicle to tow two unladen agricultural trailers or one trailer and a wheeled agricultural implement and so on. These things were brimming with spuds though which I reckon is illegal.

Probably running on red too. Sodding farmers.

[165gt]

AFAIK, if a tractor is towing two (or more) trailers, they must be unladen. However, the difference here may be that they were Fastracs, eg. they're allowed to travel at higher speeds because they meet the construction/use requirements of LGVs; maybe this means the towing allowances are similarly different too?

[Scuffers]

it's allowed within the max weights and overall length tip to toe

same as showman's lorries often have a trailer off a trailer

or very heavy haulage

[markmullen]

I thought showmans trailers were only allowed as one had to be a tender, eg carry water.

[Willy Nilly]

They will have been both empty and as the brake were connected will have had looooaaaaaaddddddssssss of braking capacity, empty trailers weigh bugger all. Most of the tillage trains that you see being moved between fields will weigh far more than two empty trailers, and be wider. Towing two trailers is pretty widespread across Europe. When you put the indicators on a light will flash if the trailer indicator is working and a second light will flash is the trailer 2's light is working.

I have a number plate for my tractor that can be moved between trailers. As far as I know, we don't have to have the plate of the drawing vehicle on there as long as the plate (if it has one) can be traced back to the owner. It's good practice to have plates relevant to the drawing tractor, but not legally required.

farmers are allowed to use red diesel as long as they are not hauling for hire or reward. While it is cheaper, tractors fuel consumption is savage (never mind the purchase price and other running costs) on haulage 5mpg on a round trip is good. So this combined with how slow they are and the weight of load they are carting makes it quite expensive. We use tractors because they are pretty much the only tool for that particular job, not because they are cheap.

[FiF]

Errrrr which bit of "brimming with spuds" is a bit confusing?

[Scuffers]

FiF said:

Errrrr which bit of "brimming with spuds" is a bit confusing?

still not illegal, within the weight limits.

[prongy]

No the law hasn't changed. You can tow two trailers of any type but the second one must be empty and the weight limit doesn't change from the 24,390kg gross. That's the one that is routinely ignored and if they wanted to, then VOSA (or whatever they are called now) could make hay. (pun intended)

[Willy Nilly]

FiF said:

Errrrr which bit of "brimming with spuds" is a bit confusing?

Skim read - my bad.

Filled with spuds in May?

How big were the trailers? These are typical spud trailers http://richard-western.co.uk/root-crop-trailers.ht...

[FiF]

Well filled with some sort of crop, looked like spuds to me, maybe they are last years being taken somewhere from storage to wherever, dunno tbh, but they were not empty. and yes the trailers looked pretty much like that, one hooked on the back of the other, rather battered though, seen a hard life..If anything slightly shorter but deeper load area, ie higher sides..

[MoggieMinor]

Now the important question: Did you pick up any tatties?

[spudt8]

October 17th 2014 ~ The government have just announced their intentions to INCREASE the weight limits for agricultural tractors and trailers and incidentally also the speed limits. Seems like retrospective planning permission as I have come across quite a few doing these speeds already here in West Sussex.

See here for details:-
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/weight-and-...

[Scuffers]

spudt8 said:

October 17th 2014 ~ The government have just announced their intentions to INCREASE the weight limits for agricultural tractors and trailers and incidentally also the speed limits. Seems like retrospective planning permission as I have come across quite a few doing these speeds already here in West Sussex.

See here for details:-
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/weight-and-...

The speed limit refereed to in that is for old style tractors, not new sprung ones with proper brakes etc that have been allowed to go somewhat faster fir a while... (thing fast-track)

[V8 Fettler]

Scuffers said:

spudt8 said:

October 17th 2014 ~ The government have just announced their intentions to INCREASE the weight limits for agricultural tractors and trailers and incidentally also the speed limits. Seems like retrospective planning permission as I have come across quite a few doing these speeds already here in West Sussex.

See here for details:-
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/weight-and-...

The speed limit refereed to in that is for old style tractors, not new sprung ones with proper brakes etc that have been allowed to go somewhat faster fir a while... (thing fast-track)

In reality, the braking ability for faster tractors on tarmac is restricted by tyres, not brakes. When Farmer Giles can be bothered to slow down at all that is.

[Scuffers]

V8 Fettler said:

In reality, the braking ability for faster tractors on tarmac is restricted by tyres, not brakes. When Farmer Giles can be bothered to slow down at all that is.

these days that's true, older stuff only has rear brakes that were somewhat 'interesting' at times.

adding front brakes made a massive difference to stopping power, to the point you can brake hard enough to lift the rear wheels on quite a few if your brutal enough.

[V8 Fettler]

Scuffers said:

V8 Fettler said:

In reality, the braking ability for faster tractors on tarmac is restricted by tyres, not brakes. When Farmer Giles can be bothered to slow down at all that is.

these days that's true, older stuff only has rear brakes that were somewhat 'interesting' at times.

adding front brakes made a massive difference to stopping power, to the point you can brake hard enough to lift the rear wheels on quite a few if your brutal enough.

Have the days of wheelying tractors gone? Through the mists of time, I can recall that an incorrectly weighted 2WD John Deere could be held at the balance-point for an eternity.