Another trailer type question

[Tinbasherdan]

Hi all, I’m looking at a sankey chassis to build an off-road teardrop style camper behind the 110 when I go to events. Question being, can I tow it without doing the trailer test? Seems the police are running out of things to do lately and are getting a bit snotty with people pulling trailers and I cannot be bothered with the hassle

 

[James1979]

Whats it plated at? It depends on that really more than anything.

There is a bit of an offset where you can go a bit heavier if your truck is lighter but that won't apply to a 110! Is your Landy a 'Special Purpose Vehicle' on the V5? That used to be a loophole but not sure if they have closed that.

Depends when you passed also:

Towing with a car

Towing trailers, caravans and horseboxes with a car, including the weight and size limits, and what licence you need to have

www.gov.uk

 

[Tinbasherdan]

Sankey are 750kg capacity but it’ll be carrying next to nothing with an ally body on

 

[Tinbasherdan]

Wonder if I can downplate it

 

[pcwizme]

Sankey are 750kg capacity but it’ll be carrying next to nothing with an ally body on

Sanky are a bit of a odd fish as the tow ring isnt technically legal for road use from what I have been told on the FB group (its literally for sanky owners), it however seems to be very uncommon to get one pulled.

I have one that should be mine at some point if I ever get to collect it....

 

[James1979]

Is it the ring that's against the regs or is it the NATO jaw, I wonder? You may be able to change the hitch but not overly sure.

If you are building it from ally it may be well under the 750. It may be worth investigating if you have to have type approval to turn it into a caravan. If you had a body which sat inside the trailer as a 'load' you would not need to change the type I think.

 

[pcwizme]

Is it the ring that's against the regs or is it the NATO jaw, I wonder? You may be able to change the hitch but not overly sure.

If you are building it from ally it may be well under the 750. It may be worth investigating if you have to have type approval to turn it into a caravan. If you had a body which sat inside the trailer as a 'load' you would not need to change the type I think.

I think its the jaw actually now you say that.

 

[James1979]

The regs with the pin and ring were that you had to get an inch round bar in between the pin / ring when it was fully forward or back. I dont know what the ± was. There may be a different test now but that was because there are several sizes of pin and ring

 

[Tinbasherdan]

It’s the jaw that isn’t type approved but I think that’s only after xxxx date, and mines a 91 so falls before. Tub is manky so not going to faff around repairing it so I can fit something inside it. Must be able to get them downplayed some way

 

[Gritineye]

Just my opinion based on experience, but I would say that with the stiff springing of a Sankey a typical home built teardrop boy wouldn't would last long.

 

[James1979]

It’s the jaw that isn’t type approved but I think that’s only after xxxx date, and mines a 91 so falls before. Tub is manky so not going to faff around repairing it so I can fit something inside it. Must be able to get them downplayed some way

You can if you take it for an IVA but its not the downplaying that is going to be the issue I think. Its the fact you are converting a trailer designed to carry a load into a caravan which is why I wondered if you could make the caravan into the load. If the tub is manky you would only need to do the bare minimum to put a rudimentary bed on it then attach your 'load' to the bed and as long as its with load restraint like ratchets or toggles I think you'd be OK.

Caravans and trailer tents are type approved. That said I have no idea if this extends to a home built one. The IVA manual would have it in I would think.

 

[Tinbasherdan]

Just my opinion, but I would say that with the stiff springing of a Sankey a typical home built teardrop boy wouldn't would last long.

Pull a leaf or two out of the pack, job jobbed. Plenty of people have managed it over the years without them disintegrating, and is like to think I’ve enough absolute in engineering to pull it off

 

[Kayos]

You will need to take your trailer test

 

[Tinbasherdan]

You will need to take your trailer test

I’ll put some greedy boards on it and say it’s for grass, boom 18t and I’ll barely have to service it and the police won’t pay a blind bit of notice

 

[Gritineye]

Pull a leaf or two out of the pack, job jobbed. Plenty of people have managed it over the years without them disintegrating, and is like to think I’ve enough absolute in engineering to pull it off

I know you know what you’re doing, but I didn’t think there was any harm in alerting you to something you may not have thought of.

The short distance between the nato coupling and the axle c/l of a Sankey, and the height of the load bed, combined with relatively large diameter tyres, can lead to some very rapid seesawing motion.

Add in the well known choppy ride of a 110 and things can get a bit frantic, and stuff can give up trying to hang on.

I speak from experience having towed my self built living pod on an Arrows trailer for 20 odd years behind Forceful, my Explorer, which is the much same setup only bigger, things inside not screwed down inside got smashed pretty quickly.

You can see the effect at the start of this video, and that’s on soft ground, speed bumps, undulations and potholes can take things to another level entirely.

Just saying…

 

[Tinbasherdan]

I know you know what you’re doing, but I didn’t think there was any harm in alerting you to something you may not have thought of.

The short distance between the nato coupling and the axle c/l of a Sankey, and the height of the load bed, combined with relatively large diameter tyres, can lead to some very rapid seesawing motion.

Add in the well known choppy ride of a 110 and things can get a bit frantic, and stuff can give up trying to hang on.

I speak from experience having towed my self built living pod on an Arrows trailer for 20 odd years behind Forceful, my Explorer, which is the much same setup only bigger, things inside not screwed down inside got smashed pretty quickly.

You can see the effect at the start of this video, and that’s on soft ground, speed bumps, undulations and potholes can take things to another level entirely.

Just saying…

there shouldn’t be much to smash up, I say camper, I mean a mattress and some insulation, and a couple of led lights. I might lengthen the draw bar a frame slightly as a matter of course

 

[Rrobson]

As above really, if the combined total mass of everything (total plated weight of tow vehicle + total plated weight of trailer) is 3500kg or less your fine without a test. If it’s 3501kg or upwards you need the +E entitlement unfortunately.
obviously the legality of the rig is another matter... but for the sake of a weekend and a couple of hundered quid it may be well worth the time and effort to attain the +E bit.

 

[Tinbasherdan]

As above really, if the combined total mass of everything (total plated weight of tow vehicle + total plated weight of trailer) is 3500kg or less your fine without a test. If it’s 3501kg or upwards you need the +E entitlement unfortunately.
obviously the legality of the rig is another matter... but for the sake of a weekend and a couple of hundered quid it may be well worth the time and effort to attain the +E bit.

Having done a bit of Google fu, it seems the government do in fact advise that if it is unlikely to ever carry its maximum payload it can be downplayed, so I think that’s the way I’ll go. It’ll be a cold day in hell before I pay for the money making scheme that is the trailer test

 

[Gritineye]

there shouldn’t be much to smash up, I say camper, I mean a mattress and some insulation, and a couple of led lights. I might lengthen the draw bar a frame slightly as a matter of course

In that case carry on, it'll be fine..

 

[Rrobson]

Having done a bit of Google fu, it seems the government do in fact advise that if it is unlikely to ever carry its maximum payload it can be downplayed, so I think that’s the way I’ll go. It’ll be a cold day in hell before I pay for the money making scheme that is the trailer test

You can plate it whatever you like, just make sure you stick to it. Last thing you want is a tug to the weighbridge to be found overweight. Apparently they tend to be a little lax with anything boarder-line (rain adding extra weight etc) but anything a decent amount over will be felt with hefty points and or fines.