Could you please confirm what the law is regarding toeing weights please? The reason I ask is I normally tow our van, but due to recent surgery I have to surrender my licence for anything from between 6-24 months, depending on what DVLA say.
I'm sure I've read that full UK licence holders can tow certain vans depending on the combined weight of both car and van. Can you please confirm if this is the case and what the combined weight is? Any other information would be much appreciated.
If you passed your test after 1997 your licence will only have cat B & not cat E as well.
Many find this difficult to understand, so to explain...
You take MaM of car, this is max gross weight of car, ie max load that is allowed & not the actual weight on weighbridge. You add that to mtplm of caravan, which is MaM of caravan & not necessarily the actual on road weight. These 2 figures added together must not exceed 3.5tonnes to drive on just cat B licence.
You cannot lightly load a car/caravan with combined MaM's of over 3.5tonnes in order to keep outfit's actually weight to under 3.5tonnes as weighed on weighbridge.
When considering purchase of car & caravan, among other things, you need to know mtplm of caravan which will be the higher figure on plate & also will be noted on caravan spec in brochure or manufacturer website. Max laden weight of car will be in handbook & on V5 doc as 'max permissable mass'.
Also worth pointing out that a larger car, particularly a 4x4 will have high MaM so this will restrict your size of caravan that can be towed on a B licence.
It sounds daft but you can often legally tow a large caravan with smaller vehicle on a B licence whereas what might be considered a safer outfit of larger vehicle & smaller caravan would need B+E licence to legally tow.
Craig, when you have to surrender your license due to medical reasons do you have to resit another test or do you get it back with your original Classes on it?
I thought you got your original Classes back unless you have the HGV ones which they sometimes keep back for a longer period?
Appreciate all your information. I will now just double check the weights of both car and van, but hopefully think we will be inside the combined weight.
ST1100, when I get it back I'm sure it will come back with original classes, just need recovery time after an operation.
I wasn't sure if I had to, so contacted DVLA to be on the safe side. I've now sent my questionnaire off and they will now consult my surgeon. They will then decide how long I have to surrender it :-( Gutted.
Appreciate all your info. Could you please confirm that when I get my licence back, I will still be entitled to tow my van as previously. Also what categories will I lose?
Quote: Originally posted by Teessider2015 on 09/11/2015
Appreciate all your info. Could you please confirm that when I get my licence back, I will still be entitled to tow my van as previously. Also what categories will I lose?
Cheers.
Impossible to answer, as it can depend on why you have had your licence withdrawn.
For example; if you lose it because of epilepsy you would not get back PCV or certain of the HGV groups.
The only people who can give you a full and correct answer is the DVSA. I suggest you ask them.
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Topic: Towing laws
