Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 44 total)
  • What do you mean 'You can't tow that'?
  • piedidiformaggio
    Free Member


    😯

    What stupidity do people have that makes them think this is a good idea?

    From my local rag (advert overload warning if you click the link!)
    http://www.essexchronicle.co.uk/Essex-Police-arrest-alleged-drug-drivers-seize/story-29323195-detail/story.html

    phiiiiil
    Full Member

    A fine of £100 is pittance, but I wonder how much it costs to hire a crane and low loader at short notice?

    mattyfez
    Full Member

    Blimmin ek !
    If you can afford a car like that and a boat like that.. presumably hiring a suitable vehicle to tow it for the day isn’t going to break the bank.. what a complete tool!

    Aside from the car..is the trailer even rated for a load that size? It looks a bit lost under that boat!

    CaptainFlashheart
    Free Member

    Essex. Innit.

    Edukator
    Free Member

    When you look at the other offenses in the article I’d rather share the roads with that than many of the other telephoning, unisured, doped or light jumping drivers.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    [video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAfZ1N56qjY[/video]

    CountZero
    Full Member

    Chuffin Nora! 😯

    spekkie
    Free Member

    The caravan clip is an old classic!

    Wasn’t that someone from on here videoing ?

    fourbanger
    Free Member

    Probably a lot bigger than it looks with that camera angle.

    nick1962
    Free Member

    Driving up the M61 just past Rivington services I saw an almost identical arrangement gone awry.It had jacknifed and the boat was in the fast lane on one side ,the trailer over the crash barriers and the Rangerover on it’s roof in the fast lane on the other side.

    TheDTs
    Free Member

    Looks like he only has one strap n it too! 😯

    bencooper
    Free Member

    When I was a kid, my best friend’s dad had a knackered old Range Rove and a yacht – he towed it from Glasgow to Dunoon once with the two of us in the yacht pretending to steer!

    Looking back, that was really dangerous.

    He later almost tore the Range Rover in half trying to tow the thing up a steep hill.

    Tom-B
    Free Member

    That’s insane bencooper!!!! Ha genuine lol!!!!

    scaredypants
    Full Member

    Long time ago my brother in law bought a lovely old jag (mk10 maybe) to do up. Shoved it on a trailer and towed it home behind his ford escort.

    It may still be embedded in the grass bank on the first roundabout he came to 😆

    WorldClassAccident
    Free Member

    Long time ago my brother in law bought a lovely old jag (mk10 maybe) to do up. Shoved it on a trailer and towed it home behind his ford escort

    My mates brother picked up and old Jag XJS really cheap and towed it home behind his Astra on a rope with me and my mate steering the Jag (about 14 years old).

    It was great until he drove down Remenham Hill into Henley. About half way down we discovered the Jag had no brakes. We hit the back of the Astra as he slowed for the bridge and then pushed him over the bridge, through the red lights and into the big wall opposite the church.

    nickc
    Full Member

    Remenham Hill into Henley

    with no brakes? I bet that was “exciting” 😯

    WorldClassAccident
    Free Member

    Very!

    The guy in the Astra kept changing his mind between wheels locked and being pushed out of control by the Jag or full throttle trying to out run us. It was like a cross between bungie jumping and bumper cars. Thankfully the light had only just turned red so there were no cars in front as we skidded through

    sharkbait
    Free Member

    Looks like he only has one strap n it too!

    Actually you don’t tend to strap them down like that, you have two straps from the stern going forward to the trailer (stops the boat going backwards) and two straps from the bow going back the trailer (stops the boat moving forwards under braking).
    He seems to have the bow straps at least. Trailer looks like it’s up to the job (if the brakes are OK) but I somehow doubt the car was!

    molgrips
    Free Member

    How much does a boat like that weigh then?

    WorldClassAccident
    Free Member

    How much does a boat like that weigh then?

    Can’t weigh much, it floats…

    cbike
    Free Member

    Can only guess about 2.5 – 3 tons dry?

    A 31 foot sailing yacht is about 7 tons and 4.5 – 5ish of that is lead ballast.

    You could move an empty hull that size but not a built boat with engine.

    5lab
    Full Member

    apparently a range rover has a 3.5 tonne towing limit. It was apparently over that, but based on cbike’s estimate, it wouldn’t have been a huge amount over.

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    a ton over according to the report.

    Don’t forget the weight of the trailer counts too and it’s not a light one.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Now this is interesting (kind of). The RR might have a 3.5t weight limit on paper, but that’s more than the weight of the vehicle, clearly. I’m told that the cops can get you on a safe load clause if you’re over 100% trailer…? And in any case it can’t be wise to tow more than the weight of the car.

    B.A.Nana
    Free Member

    My boat and trailer weighs 2 tonnes with all the ski gear in it and it’s tiny compared to that.

    EDIT If it’s a Bayliner 305 then I think the boat alone weights 5.4 tonne, that trailer must add over a tonne.

    convert
    Full Member

    Surprised the most cost effective solution was a crane and low loader, not just a bigger/heavier towing vehicle.

    TheBrick
    Free Member

    That trailer would have overrun brakes. For a load that heavy you would need coupled brakes.

    wwpaddler
    Free Member

    What’s bigger and heavier than a range rover that you can tow with on a normal licence?

    molgrips
    Free Member

    What’s bigger and heavier than a range rover that you can tow with on a normal licence?

    Nothing on a ‘normal’ license at least not if you’ve had it since 1997.

    You’re probably into some kind of LGV vehicle territory there.

    thisisnotaspoon
    Free Member

    Now this is interesting (kind of). The RR might have a 3.5t weight limit on paper, but that’s more than the weight of the vehicle, clearly. I’m told that the cops can get you on a safe load clause if you’re over 100% trailer…? And in any case it can’t be wise to tow more than the weight of the car.

    You can go well over the weight of the towing vehicle, think tractor and trailer. The maximum you can tow is stamped on the car somewhere, and usually based on the car being able to pull it up a certain gradient. Going downhill you rely on the trailers brakes.

    That trailer would have overrun brakes. For a load that heavy you would need coupled brakes.

    I’m guessing not, otherwise it’d not be on a trailer that look like it belongs with the boat, unless the trailer was for something else and just happened to fit. Plenty of big boats on the south coast are kept on trailers as there’s a shortage of marina berths.

    What’s bigger and heavier than a range rover that you can tow with on a normal licence?

    Depends when you took your test.

    <1995 you can drive a lot more than you could afterwards (3.5t van + whatever the van is rated to tow IIRC?). Later licences only allow a maximum of 3.5t MAM (not gross weight, the max allowable mass as stamped on the car and trailer, so you can’t even tow a big empty trailer behind an empty car)

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Going downhill you rely on the trailers brakes.

    Unless they are overrun brakes.

    convert
    Full Member

    What’s bigger and heavier than a range rover that you can tow with on a normal licence?

    Think it through!

    andyl
    Free Member

    Out of UK sourced cars the RR, Discovery, Defender, Isuzu, Toureg (probably also a Q7, Cayenne and new Bently) and possibly a Shogun are rated for 3500kg tow.

    The Ford F150 is rated higher but they are imports but you would normally use a 5th wheel set up for that I think. You can get 5th wheel caravans under 3500kg too which are more stable than your usual and towed by things like a Navara with a 5th wheel hitch in the bed.

    If your licence is pre 1997 you can tow up to 3500kg MAM trailer with a gross train weight of up to 8250kg.

    If you are post 1997 with a B + E licence you can tow up to 3500kg MAM trailer using a 3500kg vehicle. Not sure on the post 2013 rules, they did change a little for the trailer towing without the E bit.

    If you want to tow anything that big then you need a C1 + E licence but the trailer cannot exceed the weight of the towing vehicle.

    tinybits
    Free Member

    Yep, my Touareg (I say mine, more my wifes) can tow 3500kg. More than the car. Not sure how it would feel doing it though. Normally my max towing weight is around 2 ton.

    Daffy
    Full Member

    If you passed your test after 1997, then the maximum combined weight of car + trailer + load MUST be less than 3500kg….considering the car is 2600kg unladen and that the police told the reporter that the load was over 1000kg over the limit, we can assume that either the boat + trailer weighed 1900kg, or that the driver passed his test before 97. If indeed that is the case, then the vehicle tow limit, not the law may be the deciding factor. If you passed before 1997, then you can legally drive with upto an 8250kg max combined weight…I’m assuming that the boat + trailer aren’t 6650kg, which means that the boat + triler may be 4500kg…. which is the tow weight of the vehicle +1000kg

    wicki
    Free Member

    If you want to tow anything that big then you need a C1 + E licence but the trailer cannot exceed the weight of the towing vehicle.

    How does that work with a tractor unit usually around 8 ton and a total weight can be 42 ton on 6 axles 3 trailer 3 for the tractor.

    andyl
    Free Member

    Daffy – Member
    If you passed your test after 1997, then the maximum combined weight of car + trailer + load MUST be less than 3500kg

    Nope. You can drive a 3500kg with a 750kg trailer so gross train weight of 4250kg, I think that no longer applies post 2013 changes.

    Or if your trailer is over 750kg then the combined weight of 3500kg applies.

    It used to be written as actual weight not MAM but I thinkt hey recently changed it, which is a pain for me in a way but we are sticking with a freelander until I do my trailer test as the gross weight on that is about 2200kg so I have the capability for a 1350kg plated trailer and the car is capable of pulling 2000kg but I wouldnt want to do that too often with it.

    Our sheep trailer is very old and has no plate. If it did have one I would have it downrated and load it as we do now which is accordingly.

    wicki – Member
    If you want to tow anything that big then you need a C1 + E licence but the trailer cannot exceed the weight of the towing vehicle.
    How does that work with a tractor unit usually around 8 ton and a total weight can be 42 ton on 6 axles 3 trailer 3 for the tractor.

    Tractors are different. You are allowed to tow anything the tractor can pull as it is designed specifically for that and the braking system will be plumbed into the tractor so you are not relying on over run brakes which is what causes the problems with a very heavy trailer. it is a very crude system.

    it would be silly to require the tractor to be heavier than a whole trailer of hay bales as the engines would end up being a lot bigger and they would need much bigger tyres to avoid sinking into mud and would end up slower etc. So they are just designed specifically to tow with lots of low down grunt and coupled braking systems. The same way you articulated lorry tractor unit doesnt weigh as much as the fully loaded trailer it’s pulling. the 5th wheel hitch and coupled brakes make it suitable.

    garage-dweller
    Full Member

    So what you are saying is he should have got a tractor not a range rover 😉

    andyl
    Free Member

    That Bayliner looks like a 3055 so about 3600kg, trailer will be about 1000kg so as the article states all up just over 1000kg over the max weight. I am sure the range rover will take it but still illegal and very dangerous, especially is it is a very high load. I wonder what fuel consumption is he was getting?

    andyl
    Free Member

    So what you are saying is he should have got a tractor not a range rover

    yup. But that might take a while and technically needs a different trailer.

    We are considering getting a tractor so I can tow a 3500kg trailer without buying a bigger 4×4 which we only need for towing and having to do my test (which I need to do at some point). Any long distance journeys can be done with a small trailer and the tractor has lots of other benefits and they are great 😀

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