The legalities of welding/repairing trailers - to tow on the road

[ELL]

I have my eye on a trailer on Ebay. It needs welding to make it roadworthy I believe. My welding is at a level where I trust it to hold and be safe. But, what are the legalities of repairing trailers? Do you have to get it signed off by a competent person of some sort? Thanks.
My apologies if I am not posting this in the right section of the forum.

 

[colnerov]

As I understand it, you can repair it, but if you modify it you should resubmit it for a BIVA test. Whether you do is down to you.

 

[Erie Fred]

Do you sign your welds ?

Who is gonna know what weld was made by what person ?

 

[Porkypine]

Don't tell 'em Pike...

 

[addjunkie]

I have my eye on a trailer on Ebay. It needs welding to make it roadworthy I believe. My welding is at a level where I trust it to hold and be safe. But, what are the legalities of repairing trailers? Do you have to get it signed off by a competent person of some sort? Thanks.
My apologies if I am not posting this in the right section of the forum.

The same could be said for mot car welding. Id say if you are just fixing it for you do it. If someone is paying you, best hope you can demonstrate some level of competency for your insurers to pay out, should it all go pear shaped.

 

[winchman]

Car trailers have no MOT so I would assume any one can weld them but hopefully as in your case you have asked as you don't want to cause an issue. As I see it its for your own use and you can weld I don't see what not.
If you where to modify the chassis IE cut bits alter the draw bar etc that could be a different mater but I cant think what they would do you for? Does Construction and use for Cars apply to trailers?
I once fitted a different draw bar but I did get some one to do the calcs

 

[northwest]

I do get that work like this by an incompetent could spell disaster but as you are invested enough in the job to ask for opinions I suggest you will be fine. If you could care less you wouldn't have asked.

 

[Robbie260]

Car trailers have no MOT so I would assume any one can weld them but hopefully as in your case you have asked as you don't want to cause an issue. As I see it its for your own use and you can weld I don't see what not.
If you where to modify the chassis IE cut bits alter the draw bar etc that could be a different mater but I cant think what they would do you for? Does Construction and use for Cars apply to trailers?
I once fitted a different draw bar but I did get some one to do the calcs

Not yet but I was away on a HGV and PSV inspection course the other month the lass who runs it is ex dvsa. They are bringing in x number of weekly inspection schedules for trailers and possibly mots a well soon. Gov has released the template inspection sheets already. They haven’t mandated frequency yet but it will be coming.

There is also mutterings about trying to ban welding ie any car that has ever been welded will not be able to pass a mot it will be an automatic major fail. But this is just a rumour as far as I can find for now.

 

[fizzy]

I do get that work like this by an incompetent could spell disaster but as you are invested enough in the job to ask for opinions I suggest you will be fine. If you could care less you wouldn't have asked.

couldn't

 

[colnerov]

Not yet but I was away on a HGV and PSV inspection course the other month the lass who runs it is ex dvsa. They are bringing in x number of weekly inspection schedules for trailers and possibly mots a well soon. Gov has released the template inspection sheets already. They haven’t mandated frequency yet but it will be coming.

There is also mutterings about trying to ban welding ie any car that has ever been welded will not be able to pass a mot it will be an automatic major fail. But this is just a rumour as far as I can find for now.

They were on about this 15 yrs ago, before the introduction of the IVA test for trailers in 2012.

 

[gaz1]

Not yet but I was away on a HGV and PSV inspection course the other month the lass who runs it is ex dvsa. They are bringing in x number of weekly inspection schedules for trailers and possibly mots a well soon. Gov has released the template inspection sheets already. They haven’t mandated frequency yet but it will be coming.

There is also mutterings about trying to ban welding ie any car that has ever been welded will not be able to pass a mot it will be an automatic major fail. But this is just a rumour as far as I can find for now.

the first part im not surprised with this and surprised its taken this long to consider trailers having one

buy i suspect it will go on anything thats towed not just trailers but also caravans as well

as goes for the second part well thats pure looneysey in the first place as most cars want welding with age

but heres the thing even companies weld cars so are they trying to ban welding once its on the rd ?

 

[addjunkie]

the first part im not surprised with this and surprised its taken this long to consider trailers having one

buy i suspect it will go on anything thats towed not just trailers but also caravans as well

as goes for the second part well thats pure looneysey in the first place as most cars want welding with age

but heres the thing even companies weld cars so are they trying to ban welding once its on the rd ?

Banning welded cars, is like the Germans banned puncture repairs. It just ensures its as designed and manufactured. Once welded, no matter how good the repair there is always a chance it might not be. It also removes old polluters from the road just like the cash generator rules in the cities. Fairly good government ploy to kill another industry car restoration.

 

[Robbie260]

the first part im not surprised with this and surprised its taken this long to consider trailers having one

buy i suspect it will go on anything thats towed not just trailers but also caravans as well

as goes for the second part well thats pure looneysey in the first place as most cars want welding with age

but heres the thing even companies weld cars so are they trying to ban welding once its on the rd ?

Yeah I should have made that clearer it was to try and ban any non factory repair that involved welding.

factory welds of course would be acceptable/permissible, though most car manufacturers are starting to move away from welding as a construction method and now using panel bonding agents instead.

There is already a lot of cars you cannot weld to repair them if accident damaged or corroded due to the alloys used in their construction tig braze is occasionally permissible but there a lot out there now it’s a no no on as you’d change the heat treatment of the alloy too much reducing the cars structural strength.

 

[gaz1]

i see that as a pen pusher looney that wants being put in a crowd and let them loose

its also saying to me you can only buy new at all times by some beauracrate

in end up why would i want to buy a new car at the price of a house if its only going to last 10 years and be scrapped as thats what uk cars are like and fords are teh worst vehicles going total rust buckets

as goes for the metal as its pure junk anyway has been for years since we imported from where ever and before that it was junk on the likes or rover, ford, vauxhall even jags suffered crap metal on there cars
i bet when you weld new metal onto the car its even stronger than the crap the car had on it in the first place

 

[Smallfry]

If you are confident of your welding, and it doesn't look like it has been done by a drunken bovine with boxing gloves on, you should be fine

 

[jo1010]

I'd suggest any welding should look competent ...in one scenario if the s**t hits the fan and there's a serious road accident then everything gets looked at, so welding needs to look like it's quality...not necessarily toothpaste tube regularity (we're not driving aircraft here) but not full of gaps and blobs either

(btw that might be a useful check on car MOT inspections although god knows non-welding mot inspectors could make a dog's dinner of that...)

 

[bricol]

Banning welded cars, is like the Germans banned puncture repairs. It just ensures its as designed and manufactured. Once welded, no matter how good the repair there is always a chance it might not be. It also removes old polluters from the road just like the cash generator rules in the cities. Fairly good government ploy to kill another industry car restoration.

Germany banned puncture repairs?

When?

Edit:
I know I have had punctures repaired in Germany, but not for a year or two. The law is very similar to ours in where punctures on the tyre can be repaired, but does state only professional repairs are allowed - no home repairs - its in the German Road Traffic Licensing Regulations.

 

[minimutly]

Germany banned puncture repairs?

When?

Edit:
I know I have had punctures repaired in Germany, but not for a year or two. The law is very similar to ours in where punctures on the tyre can be repaired, but does state only professional repairs are allowed - no home repairs - its in the German Road Traffic Licensing Regulations.

Most tyre fitters will suck their teeth and say no, it's damaged the fibres, new tyre, especially on low profile tyres.

 

[addjunkie]

Germany banned puncture repairs?

When?

Edit:
I know I have had punctures repaired in Germany, but not for a year or two. The law is very similar to ours in where punctures on the tyre can be repaired, but does state only professional repairs are allowed - no home repairs - its in the German Road Traffic Licensing Regulations.

Twas my understanding that many of our used but good second hand tyres come from Germany for that reason.

 

[ibrooks]

As with any rule change there would be a good while where you could conceivably get away with saying it was done before the rules changed.

Taking the welding cars for example - there are a huge number of cars on the road right now with welded repairs. If you made it illegal tomorrow you couldn't simply say that all those cars become scrap at their next MOT (assuming they didn't need more welding at that point). So there will still be a load of cars on the road with welded repairs. All you need to do is make sure that any welding is done before the next MOT tester identifies it and say it was done before the rule change - they aren't going to start documenting every repair on every car to make sure that it's not had any more since such a date.

Trailers - if you make a new one it needs to be tested and have a chassis number. If you've got an old one that never had a chassis number you don't have to retrospectively get it tested and have a chassis number assigned. So I know of trailers that are like triggers broom - an old trailer was "repaired" by replacing almost every part, in fact I know of one that's only got the leaf springs and cast hitch from the original trailer that was bought in the 1980's because I did most of it.