Trailer towing:- B and B+E licence rules explained

[Chicken Chaser]

Just to thank the contributors of this thread, it seems that my question on B licence towing has been answered through previous replies on here, particularly R0G so thank you!

The only thing I will add is most of the time, car specs only show the kerb weight and not the GVW. I've been looking about for a suitable towcar for a 1450kg caravan with a B licence but I appear to be struggling. Some of the cars I've looked at are 2000kg GVW yet kerb weight is around 1500kg which is by my understanding of the weight rules, way over 85% ratio for a suitable match.

Edited by Chicken Chaser on Tuesday 11th July 23:59

[R0G]

Chicken Chaser said:

Just to thank the contributors of this thread, it seems that my question on B licence towing has been answered through previous replies on here, particularly R0G so thank you!

The only thing I will add is most of the time, car specs only show the kerb weight and not the GVW. I've been looking about for a suitable towcar for a 1450kg caravan with a B licence but I appear to be struggling. Some of the cars I've looked at are 2000kg GVW yet kerb weight is around 1500kg which is by my understanding of the weight rules, way over 85% ratio for a suitable match.

The 85 % ADVICE is so that the actual weight at the time of towing is not more than an 85% match so what weight do you estimate your car and caravan will be at the time of towing ?

CC figures of vehicle kerb weight and caravan MTPLM use the worse case scenario where the caravan is loaded to the max and the car only has the driver in it

[scorcher]

Is this a load of old nonsense or not? I can remember a while back there was a thing about downplating trailers,(to comply with your MTW) but do you still have to do this?

Also the nonsense about the irrelevance of the towing vehicle weight??


"and by the way, there's no point in actually weighing your vehicle.. the vehicles actual weight is irrelevant (stupid I know) but the way it's worked out is on the plated weight... i.e. a 280 transit, is 2800kg whether or not you actually have it fully loaded or not makes no ends.. you can tow 1.3t even if you had a license and it only weighed 2.2t at the time... as the police look at the rated weight and add it to the rated weight of the trailer... so the trailers gross weight also has to add up to less than 3.5t when added to the towing vehicle rated train weight


soo.... if your vans max train weight is 3.5t and its gross weight is 2.8t you can only tow a trailer RATED UP TO 700kg... you technically can't even tow an unladen trailer if it can potentially weigh more than 700kg

its done this way, so it's easy for plod to nick you basically, without having to actually weigh the vehicles"

[R0G]

scorcher said:

Is this a load of old nonsense or not? I can remember a while back there was a thing about downplating trailers,(to comply with your MTW) but do you still have to do this?

Also the nonsense about the irrelevance of the towing vehicle weight??


"and by the way, there's no point in actually weighing your vehicle.. the vehicles actual weight is irrelevant (stupid I know) but the way it's worked out is on the plated weight... i.e. a 280 transit, is 2800kg whether or not you actually have it fully loaded or not makes no ends.. you can tow 1.3t even if you had a license and it only weighed 2.2t at the time... as the police look at the rated weight and add it to the rated weight of the trailer... so the trailers gross weight also has to add up to less than 3.5t when added to the towing vehicle rated train weight


soo.... if your vans max train weight is 3.5t and its gross weight is 2.8t you can only tow a trailer RATED UP TO 700kg... you technically can't even tow an unladen trailer if it can potentially weigh more than 700kg

its done this way, so it's easy for plod to nick you basically, without having to actually weigh the vehicles"

Rubbish !!

The only time a driver can be nicked is if they only have a B licence and the vehicle GVW + trailer MAM weights total more than 3500kg if the trailer is over 750kg MAM

There is no law or rule which states that the total plated weights must not be more than the GTW or that a trailer MAM must be within the listed towing capacity

Those are the legal facts

Where do you get your info from ?

[scorcher]

Ta.

Just a post from a nobody on another site!

[CrazyBaptie]

Can someone help, I was wondering is it possible to drive a small flatbed/car transporter on a B licence - if so how would the weight work for transporting a car on it?

[scorcher]

CrazyBaptie said:

Can someone help, I was wondering is it possible to drive a small flatbed/car transporter on a B licence - if so how would the weight work for transporting a car on it?

Upto 3500kgs MAM if you passed your test on or after 1st Jan '97. Upto 7500kgs if you passed before that. The weight of car you could carry would depend on the unladen weight of the transporter. If the transporter was 2000kgs you could carry a car upto 1500kgs as long as it didn't exceed the transporters axle load limit.

[CPC]

From reading this thread i believe this will be legal

I passed my test in 2003 so standard B licence and have a 2007 Rav 4 and looking to tow my classic mini race car on a small trailer

Toyota Rav 4 - 1595kg curb weight with 2000kg braked towing capacity
Mini race car - 590KG
Brian James trailer - 390kg with 1400kg gvm

So in theory around 2600 kg total ( plus spares/tools 100kg maybe in tow vehicle)

Thanks
Chris

[R0G]

CPC said:

From reading this thread i believe this will be legal

I passed my test in 2003 so standard B licence and have a 2007 Rav 4 and looking to tow my classic mini race car on a small trailer

Toyota Rav 4 - 1595kg curb weight with 2000kg braked towing capacity
Mini race car - 590KG
Brian James trailer - 390kg with 1400kg gvm

So in theory around 2600 kg total ( plus spares/tools 100kg maybe in tow vehicle)

Thanks
Chris

What I need to give you a legal definitive answer is the GVW of the vehicle - the one figure you have not posted !

[youngricharduk]

R0G said:

CPC said:

From reading this thread i believe this will be legal

I passed my test in 2003 so standard B licence and have a 2007 Rav 4 and looking to tow my classic mini race car on a small trailer

Toyota Rav 4 - 1595kg curb weight with 2000kg braked towing capacity
Mini race car - 590KG
Brian James trailer - 390kg with 1400kg gvm

So in theory around 2600 kg total ( plus spares/tools 100kg maybe in tow vehicle)

Thanks
Chris

What I need to give you a legal definitive answer is the GVW of the vehicle - the one figure you have not posted !

Exactly this above, If the MTPLM (Maximum Technically Permissable Laden Mass) of your trailer is 1400kg then the MAM (Maximum Authorised Mass) or GVW of your car can't be more then 2100kg. As mentioned in the thread it's not the Actual Weights that count for B licence restrictions, this means it's easier to enforce as you only need to look at the weight plate's on the car and trailer and add the gross weights together without the need to actually weigh anything.

[CPC]

R0G said:

What I need to give you a legal definitive answer is the GVW of the vehicle - the one figure you have not posted !

Sorry for the delay. from the chassis plate on the door post the GVM is 2070kg. So is this technically fully legal? even tho the trailer or car will never have max weight?

Thanks

[Gtom]

It's simple maths, 2070+1400=3470.

You are 30kg under so totally legal.

[R0G]

CPC said:

Sorry for the delay. from the chassis plate on the door post the GVM is 2070kg. So is this technically fully legal? even tho the trailer or car will never have max weight?

Thanks

Gtom said:

It's simple maths, 2070+1400=3470.

You are 30kg under so totally legal.

I agree - 100% legal on a B licence even if the car and trailer are loaded to their max limits

[anth7714]

Hi - really sorry if this has been done to death but just wanting to check I have understood this correctly as this has had me confused for a little while. Have been interested in getting a caravan but obviously want to make sure all fully legal.

I drive 15 plate Octavia VRS TDI

Sticker on the side says:

Maximum permissible gross weight 1920kg
Maximum permissible towed weight 3520kg

Caravan I am interested in Chateau 470 plated at:

Maximum permissible laden weight 1270kg

I take it as 1920 + 1270 = 3190 which is both under the cars maximum towing weight and the 3500kg limit on a B licence so all ok?

Would appreciate if one of you more clued up folks could confirm I have understood this all ok.

Thanks in advance

[Gtom]

All legal.

[anth7714]

Gtom said:

All legal.

fab - thanks for your help

[Glasgowrob]

utterly baffled trying to work out what I can and cant tow with a B licence,


just out of curiosity I've been looking at car/caravan combos


now say my caravan has a laden weight (or is it plated weight?) of 1600kg,

I cant tow it with my vivaro which has a towing weight of 2000kg as its over 3500 MAM

but I can tow it with my Mondeo which has a towing weight of 1800kg under the 3500 MAM.

am I doing this right? vehicle kerbweight doesn't come into it just the plated towing weight and the weight of the trailer/caravan?

[R0G]

Glasgowrob said:

utterly baffled trying to work out what I can and cant tow with a B licence,


just out of curiosity I've been looking at car/caravan combos


now say my caravan has a laden weight (or is it plated weight?) of 1600kg,

I cant tow it with my vivaro which has a towing weight of 2000kg as its over 3500 MAM

but I can tow it with my Mondeo which has a towing weight of 1800kg under the 3500 MAM.

am I doing this right? vehicle kerbweight doesn't come into it just the plated towing weight and the weight of the trailer/caravan?

Forget towing weight - what you need is the GVW of the vehicle and the MTPLM of the caravan for licencing

MAM / GVW / MTPLM are the same thing - the max each can legally weigh when fully loaded

If the caravan MTPLM is 1600 then the max GVW for the vehicle is 1900 for B licence towing as the max total cannot be more than 3500

NOW we see if the towing capacity can accommodate the ACTUAL weight of what is being towed

[Leptons]

Hi, I think I’ve read so much into this subject now I’ve fried my own brain!

I’ve done B+E and now looking to buy a trailer. It’s mainly to tow the car to track days, tow vehicle will be my works Vivaro. The Max Train weight of this is 4790kg.
The Max Gross weight of the Vivaro is 2790kg

Because I’ve got B+E am I correct in thinking I could tow any trailer plated up to 3500kg as long as I don’t exceed The Maximum Gross Train weight of the Vivaro? I.e it goes off the actual weight of the trailer and load rather than the Plated weight of the trailer?

TIA

[Zoobeef]

Yes use actual weights when you have b+e.
Actual weight of trailer can't exceed towing capacity of van.
Actual weight of van plus trailer can't exceed train weight.