Perhaps not bonkers, the police only have to look at the plates on your car and trailer to prove their case, they do not have to get your unit to a weighbridge.
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It is a truly bonkers law, but so French you have to love it, thankfully my VW Golf BlueMotion (not mine realy as it's a firms car) has a MTLP of 3240kg which means I am quite ok to do 81mph towing my half ton trailer, and as andcow quite rightly states, that a Range Rover towing my trailer would only be permitted to do 56mph, but the the most crazy part is, that if I was towing a caravan upto my cars capacity, say 1400kg, ignoring the 85% C&CC guidline, then I would still be legal to do 81mph!!. all quite barmy.
Hi freeatlast, just noticed you have a Trigano Silver, I have been thinking about these, and picked up a brochure from Camperlands, they are French autoroute friendly I notice, so no extra charge, we use the SANEF TelePeage TAG, and again the Trigano will go throught the TAG fast lane no problem.
I noticed they do a UK spec version called the TDE, apart from the layout being slighlty different, the only specific UK bit, is that the door is on the UK passenger side, obviously all the other models have the door on the French passenger side, would you say that is the only main difference?.
towing speed limits only apply on motorways if the outfit is over 3500kgs, so in theory you can trundle along at 80mph!! some downhill stretches may be signed for 80kph for towing vehicles and yes i have seen the gendarms cameras halfway down waiting for you!!
however I do agree with the above re fuel costs and safety
Not so. If the outfit is over 3,500kg, then the limits in kph (solo / towing) are:
Have finally read my way through this and think it has helped but now very frustrated.
So... if my Mitsubishi Outlander has a Gross Train Weight of 3800kg then I am in the restricted limit and can only tow at 56mph. Despite the fact that I am only towing a 500kg aluminium box section trailer. Aargghh!! I thought I could do 82mph in the dry with my set up.
That is bonkers and b****y annoying. Vive la France!
GS.
It annoys the French just as much as you! We read about it when it first became law, in a French caravan magazine, and the following months the 'letters page' was absolutely full of complaints about it. No-one understood the rationale behind it and there were petitions organised. Even now, a couple or more years later, it still raises comments on every letters page in magazines such as Caravanier, which we read when we're in France.
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I was thinking the same as you, in so much as using a VW Transporter campervan, to get to my main campsite, and just use the campervan for my overnight stops etc, so would be towing my half ton trailer, with all my camping kit.
It would have been the perfect solution, VW Campervan comes in at under 2m height, so I would still be able to get through the Tolls quickly with my SANEF TelePeage Tag, and I would still be able to cruise at 81mph.
I was wrong, the Gross Train Weight of the VW van is just over 5000Kg, so even with an icle trailer, you are restricted to 56mph, so I won't be going down that road, so to speak!.
On the plus side, even at the restricted speed, you get to cover a lot more miles per hour than in the UK; and that's using the national roads.
Because this year's planned routes to campsites is a bit more deviating on the national roads, I did look up the peage charges for car+caravan. Gulp! Except for a few short lengths where convenient, they are a definite no-no for us.
I agree the tolls are enough for car only, last year we spent £106.53 on the Tolls, for getting to the Southern Ardeche and back, using the Dunkerque crossing, and the Eastern Autoroutes.
Thankfully there is no charge for our half ton camping trailer, but looking to the future we may get a caravan, so having had a look I came across the Trigano Silver 430, decent size van, and a perfect tow match for the VW Golf (Diesel), but the best bit is that the roof drops, to just under 2m, so no charge on the Autoroute, and it can go through the TAG lane.
So I will be checking out those vans, at the next oportunity.
The toll from Dunkerque to Aubenas, one way, with a car is 49.50 - with a caravan it rises by another 30.00 euros to 79.60! You can see why we keep off the toll roads, too!
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I am quite happy to pay the £53 each way like we did last year, but I wouldn't want to pay much more, your costing is spot on, as we pay an extra 2Euro per month for using the SANEF TelePeage TAG, but the 2Euro charge only aplies for each month or part of, that your car is on the autoroutes.
Using the TAG is great, and well worth that 2Euro charge, especialy as we normaly go during the peak period of July.
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Topic: french speed limits (towing)
