Scottish Weekend

[Tnick]

Re: Scottish Weekend

Hi Liz

Sounds like a great trip and lots of fun.


With regard to towbars

There is no specific restriction to fitting a towbar to a sports car but all vehicles registered after 1 Aug 1998 need to use a Type Approved Towbar and the manufacturer of the car needs to have authorised the towing of a trailer by declaration during the type approval process.

If the manufacturer has not authorised the towing of a trailer by declaration during the type approval process, no train weight will be shown and it is not permitted to fit a coupling device or tow a trailer.

For example the Ford KA has no declared train weight, and no mounting points for a tow bar. There are a number of other vehicles, which do not have a declared train weight and are not able to tow a trailer.

I suspect most sports car manufacturers will not have authorised the fitting of a towbar!

Regards

Nick Tinsdeall

[dave_clutterbuck]

Re: Scottish Weekend

Arrived home yesterday after doing 1975 miles. Bluebelle performed well towing caravan all the way up to John o' Groats and back.
Glad everyone enjoyed it. We did.

Heard yesterday that no sports cars can have towing brackets nowdays. Anyone heard this? I think they mean modern not 21 year olds like Bluebelle.

regards
Liz

Hi Liz
A real can of worms, I know of a prominent member of the Riley RM club who got a hefty fine and endorsements for towing a Riley RMB on a trailer with another Riley RMB. I think if the weight of what you are towing is greater than the weight of the towing vehicle you could have a problem. To avoid going over the 3500kg total limit I had to replate my trailer to a lower weight to avoid having a tachograph fitted to the car, this only applies if used regularly for hire and reward.
Regards
Dave

[David1898]

Re: Scottish Weekend

I looked into the towing business a few years ago, the rule then was that the trailer weight could not exceed 80% of the tow car weight. That was way back in the early 90's and it meant I couldn't tow my Austin ten with an Audi 80
I'm sure,if I'm wrong someone will correct me.
Regards
David

[djj_engineer]

Re: Scottish Weekend

I checked to weight of our camper and it could tow a trailer and FMB. Providing that the trailer was fairly light. It was bought and advertised as one that could be towed behind a camper.

Incidentally the camper did about 30mpg on our scottish trip including towing FMB to Cardross and back as well as 10 days on the single track roads on Coll & Tiree. I think I actually got into 3rd a number off times in the 10 days.
This is around the consumption we get out of FMB so we got to Cardoss and back free!!
So far we have been to Scotand twice and Exmoor once as well as a couple of trips to Stoneleigh and Ludlow.
The trailer has nearly paid for itself. especially as the mileage that FMB now does has dropped from about 3000 miles a year to 2000 with the associated reduction in wear and tear

The only drawback in towing the trailer is that on the rutted inside lane off the motorway the camper is happy following the ruts but the trailer, being wider track, tends to be on the edge of the grooves and wants to move to the bottom.
I found coming back that you could drive with the inner wheels between the white line and the inner groove but you didn't have much width to play with.

I have seen a number ( 6 coming back South on the M74/M6) that tow the following car on a 'A' frame. I was not sure that this was legal. Although if the tow can use the brakes on the car in some way the car would become a trailer.
Otherwise you can only use an 'A' frame to recover a car to a garage or base. As the AA or RAC do

[b_caswell]

Re: Scottish Weekend

Having spent too much time researching the subject of towing and trailers as well as the driving license side of things!!.. I would suggest anyone thinking of towing gets hold of (a) a copy of DVLA leaflet INF 30 Driver Licensing requirements for Towing Trailers in Great Britain. www.direct.gov.uk/motoring................ and(b) a copy of "the essential towing handbook" by the Police Foundation Author Philip Coyne... ISBN 0 11 552022 8 (every thing you ever need to know about towing a trailer........................... All I will say is the 85% rule is only an advisory.

[Dbdelboy]

Re: Scottish Weekend

Hi ,I could not get away last year but have managed to this year 2015, have booked a b&b but need to find more details, ie do i need to pay some money to anyone, what time do you get there and is it easy to find? regards Derek.

[lizbillings]

Re: Scottish Weekend

Suggest you contact Derek Jones as he is organising this time