Getting the towing entitlement on your licence

[_Stretchie_]

Sorry Quiff / Luckypants I mean for the car not the VFR

Anyone done this? Me and GG both passed our car tests after 01/01/97 so we have the sliding limit (according to the car vehicle you are using and MAM's and such) to what we are legally allowed to tow.

Just wondering if anyone has done what is requird to get the entitlement and if so, what was involved? Is it just like a CBT, e.g. a day in a car park towing and manouvering a vehicle around cones with a trailer attached?

Cheers

Just to clarify, this IS NOT a question about what you are entitled to tow with or without it, just what you have to go through to get it and if anyone has done it in the past 12 months, roughly how much.

Ta

no done it but i have looked into it for myself

you will need a box trailer thats taller and wider than the car iirc

also its based on the lorry test so you will be doing it at that test center

i know you have to do the reverse with the trailer and also show how to hook it up etc and check the lights


i was going to do it untill i put my car on the weight bridge and looked at the max my car could tack and with the max of the trailer at 1.5tons i would still be ok..

but thats if you dont need to tow a horse and its box or a car trailer with the car on the trailer pmsl

[_Stretchie_]

We've got a Land Rover so we'd be alright for upto a braked 3.5t trailer (we can currently tow a trailer plated for 750kg without the entitlements)

I borrowed a bike trailer the other weekend and completly fine as long as going forward. Had to reverse once, when I got it home... Lucky for me it was unloaded so I could pick up the back end of it and move it to the keen after I cocked it up

; )

A bike trailer will be a nightmare to reverse as its so small and light. Caravans arent so bad but a decent 2 axle heavy horse or plant triler is so much easier.

The test is more like a full bike test than a CBT. It starts with manouvers at the DSA site, similar to MOD1, iirc its drive up and stop by the examiner, unhitch drive the vehicle next to the trailer, then rehitch having answered basic safety / towing questions. Then a long reverse going from one side of the car park to the oher (passign a designated cone) and ending up in a coned garage. The car park section is completed by an emergency stop.

During the car park stage i think you can get out and look twice and pull forward to straighten up once.

The road section then comes straight after, and will be about 30-40 minutes of normal roads covering all sorts like part 2 or the car test. You basically need to keep the trailer wheels between the white lines on the road without crossing any of them.

I thinkthats about it

also a bit here http://direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/Dri...les/DG_4022521

ha ha see being old and a vfr owner puts me in the category of able to tow cos I passed my test before time began..

however I used to tow rally cars at work in the corporate entertainment business and I can confirm I cannot tow for toffee..

I can go straight down motorway easy but corners ?? oops... pulling in to petrol station oops.. and reversing oooo just forget it.!

so- I think the mere fact that if you passed your test before the date means you can tow is bad bad bad for everyone on the road .. it is dangerous tbh ,, I think you should take a test irrespective of when you passed your licence.

daft thing is I bet you can tow a thousand times better than me Dan and are road competent and yet you have to take a test and I can just hook up n go ! crazy

[the_lone_wolf]

Originally Posted by 7755matt

A bike trailer will be a nightmare to reverse as its so small and light.

With bikes on it's fine

Without bikes you can't see it in the mirrors or when looking out the back window so it's a PITA

[Viney]

You have to take a test to tow a trailer!! Never, ever heard of that before.

AS for having a ox trailer bigger and taller etc than the car, get a caravan!

[the_lone_wolf]

Originally Posted by Viney

You have to take a test to tow a trailer!! Never, ever heard of that before.

They changed the rules for drivers who passed after 2001

You can still tow, but the car and trailer maximum allowable mass must be below 3.5t

Not a bad idea in theory, stops little tarquin borrowing the Range Rover and twin axle caravan to go on holiday three weeks after passing his test in a Micra...

[_Stretchie_]

Originally Posted by Quiff Wichard

daft thing is I bet you can tow a thousand times better than me Dan and are road competent and yet you have to take a test and I can just hook up n go ! crazy

I love you Mr Quiffy

Originally Posted by the_lone_wolf

Without bikes you can't see it in the mirrors or when looking out the back window so it's a PITA

I know, I had to reverse in a petrol station to get out.. That was fun.

Originally Posted by the_lone_wolf

They changed the rules for drivers who passed after 2001

You can still tow, but the car and trailer maximum allowable mass must be below 3.5t

It's if you passed after 01/01/1997. I do think it's a good idea myself. Just having to reverse and turn a little casused me hassle and that was even after conciously turning the opposite way to point the trailer in the right direction then steering the correct way. So even armed with the theory, it's a bugger without the practice. Mind you, as mentioned early not being able to see what the trailer was doing was a problem.

When did you do your bike test? A mate of mine did his bike test in 96, then when he did his car test 10 years later, they added 7.5t lorries, trailers, everything that would hve been on a pre 97 car licence.

He queried it and was told that it works on the basis of when you FIRST pass a driving test and not the date of the test for the added catagory.

The exception is bike tests, you're still on 33hp even if you've had your car licence donkeys years.