Van plate weights and towing

Van plate weights and towing

Author
Discussion

cheechm

Original Poster:

243 posts

136 months

Tuesday 4th July 2017
quotequote all
Hi all,

Looking at getting a 3.5t Citroen van. The max braked towing weight is 3t making the GTW 6.5t. A few questions:

- We'll only be carrying our own goods in the UK. Is a restricted O-licence sufficient?

- Will the van need a tacho fitted?

- Does the plate weight of the van need to be changed? As long as the GTW is written we should be fine right?

- Any driver with a B+E licence is good to drive the van and trailer, right?

- we normally drive lutons. Is there anything I haven't considered?

Cheers

Ex X Power

89 posts

137 months

Wednesday 5th July 2017
quotequote all
Welcome to a very grey area.... I'll be interested to see other peoples views.

The way I see it if you are just carrying your own goods (hypothetically A race car on the trailer and its spares in the van) and they belong to you, You need neither O licence or tacho.

As far as licence is concerned I passed my driving test in 1997 so had to take a trailer test (B+E) I did this in 2005... I can drive this van.... the only grey area here is some of the newer B+E's ( taken in the last couple of years) there are some different rules here... The licence info is online and easily understandable.

And thats about it, You need do nothing to van, just dont overload it, remember your train is 6.5t but your vans gross is still 3.5t, so you cant fill the van to 6 tons and drag an empty trailer around to be within the train weight (Seen it done before)

R0G

4,984 posts

154 months

Thursday 6th July 2017
quotequote all
For commercial or private use ? - I assume commercial ?

When it is over 3.5 tonnes combined plated weights it will come under EU tacho regs unless an exemption applies

O licence - if only own commercial goods then restricted O licence