motorhome

[jasonmr]

I bought myself an old 5 ton 1987 Dodge motorhome with the intention of turning it into a food truck. Its going in for its class 4 mot on Tuesday. Its now come to light that if I turn it into a food truck it then becomes a hgv and will need a hgv mot, is this correct? and is there anyway around it through exemptions?

[Rivenink]

I imagine because you're turning the purpose of the vehicle from private to commercial, you'll need to observe the rules for a commercial vehicle.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/governmen...

I'm no expert though, so hopefully someone will come to prove me wrong

[red_slr]

Goods vehicle MOT is the least of your worries as you are also going to need an OL and probably tacho depending on a few things.
You can probably get away without DQC although it might just be easier to do it as they are online now and always handy to have although its 5 days initially.

You are also going to need periodic inspections, which may be an issue as you a) will need time to do this and b) you may struggle to find someone to take it on with it being american. If its your first OL then you will most likely get 5 week inspections.

Budget £3-5,000 to keep a vehicle on the road just in terms of running repairs and inspections.

[red_slr]

jasonmr said:

and is there anyway around it through exemptions?

Categories of vehicles that are not exempt

These types of vehicles are never exempt:

mobile exhibition vehicles
catering vehicles
mobile shops
mobile medical screening vehicles
vehicles with fixed equipment carrying goods not strictly for use in connection with that equipment, or towing a trailer that’s carrying goods

[powerstroke]

jasonmr said:

I bought myself an old 5 ton 1987 Dodge motorhome with the intention of turning it into a food truck. Its going in for its class 4 mot on Tuesday. Its now come to light that if I turn it into a food truck it then becomes a hgv and will need a hgv mot, is this correct? and is there anyway around it through exemptions?

Have it down plated to 3,5 ton then it class 7 mot no O licence etc ..

[anonymous-user]

powerstroke said:

jasonmr said:

I bought myself an old 5 ton 1987 Dodge motorhome with the intention of turning it into a food truck. Its going in for its class 4 mot on Tuesday. Its now come to light that if I turn it into a food truck it then becomes a hgv and will need a hgv mot, is this correct? and is there anyway around it through exemptions?

Have it down plated to 3,5 ton then it class 7 mot no O licence etc ..

That is assuming it actually weighs less than 3.5t

I doubt that by the time it’s fitted out as a food/catering truck it will be less than 3.5t

The only way to find out is to fit it all out then get it weighed.

[Matt_E_Mulsion]

Lord Marylebone said:

That is assuming it actually weighs less than 3.5t

I doubt that by the time it’s fitted out as a food/catering truck it will be less than 3.5t

The only way to find out is to fit it all out then get it weighed.

I bet given its age and manufacturer it'll be a heavy little thing in the first place.

[anonymous-user]

Matt_E_Mulsion said:

Lord Marylebone said:

That is assuming it actually weighs less than 3.5t

I doubt that by the time it’s fitted out as a food/catering truck it will be less than 3.5t

The only way to find out is to fit it all out then get it weighed.

I bet given its age and manufacturer it'll be a heavy little thing in the first place.

I agree.

I imagine even just the chassis, axles, engine, running gear, wheels etc weigh over 2 tons before you even put anything on the chassis.

[red_slr]

Could be a B Series chassis. About 1500kg ish for the rolling chassis IIRC. The late 80s is when they changed to FWD IIRC so that might save a bit but honestly with body and equipment you are easily going to be over 3500.

[powerstroke]

Lord Marylebone said:

powerstroke said:

jasonmr said:

I bought myself an old 5 ton 1987 Dodge motorhome with the intention of turning it into a food truck. Its going in for its class 4 mot on Tuesday. Its now come to light that if I turn it into a food truck it then becomes a hgv and will need a hgv mot, is this correct? and is there anyway around it through exemptions?

Have it down plated to 3,5 ton then it class 7 mot no O licence etc ..

That is assuming it actually weighs less than 3.5t

I doubt that by the time it’s fitted out as a food/catering truck it will be less than 3.5t

The only way to find out is to fit it all out then get it weighed.

I would guess it might be over as are a huge number of vans and trucks on the road
lots have concluded it's not worth the trouble of an O licence and as the chance of being pulled for overweight are fairly slim if your vehicle looks ok ,
think it would be a good boost to road safety the economy and environment if the 3.5 ton limit went up to say 4.5 tons and then was rigorously enforced .... its just to easy to overload say a LWB sprinter and these little car transporters that are so popular must be close or over most of the time ....

[Matt_E_Mulsion]

powerstroke said:

.... its just to easy to overload say a LWB sprinter and these little car transporters that are so popular must be close or over most of the time ....

A great deal of those little car transporters are overloaded a lot of the time, but the problem is there is hardly any enforcement.

[anonymous-user]

powerstroke said:

I would guess it might be over as are a huge number of vans and trucks on the road
lots have concluded it's not worth the trouble of an O licence and as the chance of being pulled for overweight are fairly slim if your vehicle looks ok ,
think it would be a good boost to road safety the economy and environment if the 3.5 ton limit went up to say 4.5 tons and then was rigorously enforced .... its just to easy to overload say a LWB sprinter and these little car transporters that are so popular must be close or over most of the time ....

I agree.

There is so much stuff that is ‘just over’ 3.5t that is being driven on a 3.5t licence and registered as 3.5t that it’s ridiculous.

Clearly this ridiculous situation tells me that the weight limit needs to change, rather than hundreds of thousands of people start getting HGV licences, which obviously isn’t sensible or necessary.

One small example is that I know several girls who have bought those special ‘lightweight’ 3.5t horseboxes in a desperate bid to be able to transport their horses around on a car licence, but in reality there is no way they are actually under 3.5t by the time they have a couple of large horses in there, bales of hay, tanks of water, equipment, 2 passengers and so on.

Edited by anonymous-user on Sunday 13th September 20:01

[red_slr]

Matt_E_Mulsion said:

powerstroke said:

.... its just to easy to overload say a LWB sprinter and these little car transporters that are so popular must be close or over most of the time ....

A great deal of those little car transporters are overloaded a lot of the time, but the problem is there is hardly any enforcement.

The police are getting much better at pulling the small transit car transporters. I follow a couple of motorway police FB pages and they post pretty much on a daily or every other day about stopping this type of outfit.

I think DVSA are also in catch up mode as we been pulled a couple of times in the last 4 weeks. Stopped last week and they spent over an hour on the truck. They don't spend that long on annual test! Clearly hunting.

[Matt_E_Mulsion]

Lord Marylebone said:

Clearly this ridiculous situation tells me that the weight limit needs to change, rather than hundreds of thousands of people start getting HGV licences, which obviously isn’t sensible or necessary.

One small example is that I know several girls who have bought those special ‘lightweight’ 3.5t horseboxes in a desperate bid to be able to transport their horses around on a car licence,

It doesn't matter what or where the limit is people will still push the boundaries. Using your example of horseboxes, before the 3.5t licence became the norm the horsebox folk used to buy 7.5t Cargo's & Roadrunners etc with living quarters which would often tip the scales unladen somewhere in the region of 5.5 to 6 ton. Then chuck in a couple or three horses, hay, water, saddles, riding gear, three or four people, a couple of dogs and you are well in excess of 7.5t. Again no-one batted a eyelid because they never got caught.

[powerstroke]

Matt_E_Mulsion said:

It doesn't matter what or where the limit is people will still push the boundaries. Using your example of horseboxes, before the 3.5t licence became the norm the horsebox folk used to buy 7.5t Cargo's & Roadrunners etc with living quarters which would often tip the scales unladen somewhere in the region of 5.5 to 6 ton. Then chuck in a couple or three horses, hay, water, saddles, riding gear, three or four people, a couple of dogs and you are well in excess of 7.5t. Again no-one batted a eyelid because they never got caught.

There would be far fewer people pushing the limit if it was 4.5 tons and you could limit them to carrying one vehicle and or specify a maximum length I think having 2 + tonnes payload would cover most users where currently less than 1.5 tones is easy to exceed , so it would be two horses easily , more than most loads you could get in a LWB van the bigger cars on a transporter and a reasonble load for a builder or landscaper it would be a boost to the economy and make the roads safer .. if people were using vehicles designed for the weights people are currently carrying ...

[anonymous-user]

Matt_E_Mulsion said:

Lord Marylebone said:

Clearly this ridiculous situation tells me that the weight limit needs to change, rather than hundreds of thousands of people start getting HGV licences, which obviously isn’t sensible or necessary.

One small example is that I know several girls who have bought those special ‘lightweight’ 3.5t horseboxes in a desperate bid to be able to transport their horses around on a car licence,

It doesn't matter what or where the limit is people will still push the boundaries. Using your example of horseboxes, before the 3.5t licence became the norm the horsebox folk used to buy 7.5t Cargo's & Roadrunners etc with living quarters which would often tip the scales unladen somewhere in the region of 5.5 to 6 ton. Then chuck in a couple or three horses, hay, water, saddles, riding gear, three or four people, a couple of dogs and you are well in excess of 7.5t. Again no-one batted a eyelid because they never got caught.

I agree that people push the boundaries, but I think the 3.5t boundary is just daft as it sits smack across a huge number of hobbies, jobs, vehicles etc.

If it was 4.5t it would suddenly legalise:

Transit/Sprinter/Relay style horse boxes with a couple of horses in.

Transit/Sprinter/Relay style beavertail single car transporters.

A car towing an Ifor Williams type car transporter trailer with a car on it.

A 4x4 towing small plant/mini digger on a trailer.

Car towing a decent size caravan.

Fully loaded LWB Sprinter/Transit/Crafter/Relay

Builders vans pulling a trailer for materials/equipment etc.

Small tipper with a couple of pallets of building materials in the bed.

At present pretty much none of those things are legally available to anyone under the age of 41 unless you either obtain a trailer licence or a HGV licence, which most people aren’t going to do.

The economy is surely being stifled by this, and clearly the vehicles involved are safe at these weights anyway, as there doesn’t seem to be masses of accidents due to Sprinter vans being loaded to 4t, or a LWB Citroen Relay with two horses in the back of it, and everyone is doing it.