Catamaran Trailer Manufacture

And John tacho regs could affect you as you are 'in the business' and Im sure I can guess the stickers on the boat ;)

We now use an exemption in the driving hours regs that says you can tow above 3500kgs without tachometer as long as it is for new trailers not yet in service or road testing after major maintenance or modification. Which we effectively do.

Section 18 in here. We make road transportable equipment for utility companies and are having to go through all our existing designs in time for next year to make sure we comply and all our kit will have to go the VOSA guys to have an IVA test carried out before we can sell it.

Also, these days EU rules specify that cars have to carry information on "technically admissible unladen masses" on their "statutory plates" too.

We got picked up a while back by the Vehicle inspectorate for towing a larger, unloaded trailer on a Nissan Navara (which can tow over 2.5 tonnes). If you exceed 3.5 tonnes all up then you need a tachometer for most commercial use. The actual weight on a weighbridge would have been less than 3.5 tonnes as the trailer was unladen but because all they effectively do is add up the maximum weight of the car and the maximum possible weight of the trailer when fully loaded (taken from the data plate on the trailer) then the Gross Train Weight of everything exceeded the tacho limit.

I had a 1988 motorcycle trailer with a data plate, I think VOSA would generally need it as evidence of weight loading to see if you are road legal relative to the car you use.

 

Thanks for this. I'm looking for a local person to modify an existing trailer for me and this could fit the bill.

 

Cheers.