Towing in a car that has no Gross Train Weight

fwor

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81949145#Comment_81949145

Initially that's where I had expected to find an explicit reference. I failed, but the document is very hard to read - it refers to tables that aren't in the body of the document.

It doesn't matter what the car is - I deliberately didn't mention that because it would just generate loads of irrelevant stuff. It's a car which has been homologated throughout the whole of Europe with no GTW.

Mildly_Miffed

https://www.ntta.co.uk/law/towbars/type-approval
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:31994L0020

Martin_the_Unjust

I am pretty sure the op knows the manufacturers maximum towing weight for his vehicle is less than he would like which is why he is not divulging what the vehicle is.

Arunmor

Why is the OP keeping the make and model of the car a secret?

facade

Interesting, as although everyone just knows that if there is no Gross Train Weight on the VIN plate, and nothing in the V5 under maximum permissible mass of trailer you cannot legally tow on UK roads, no-one knows precisely which law forbids it.

I suspect that it would be one of those prosecutions under the RTA for not complying with C&U regulations, but a really simple one would be for being overweight as no plated train weight means the combination cannot exceed the maximum gross weight of the vehicle. (but JDM vehicles don't have any weights on their plates….)

If it is a JDM import, then you can get it retested somehow and SVA'd for towing.

https://andrewsjapanesecars.com/japanese-import-towing-weights/

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32019R2144

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A02019R2144-20260107

Mildly_Miffed

Yes, exactly that. The car plus trailer combo does not meet C&U requirements, so is illegal to use on UK roads under RTA.

fwor

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81949587#Comment_81949587

Not so - TBH I'm not at all interested in towing with the car myself, but the thing that piqued my interest was the fact that it seems to be impossible to make a towbar that is legal to tow in the UK (as opposed to only being legal to carry things on such as bike racks) and yet a fully approved towbar is available in (for example) Germany.

I don't think the "overweight" argument necessarily holds up to examination. If the combined weight of the car and (small) trailer does not exceed the car's maximum gross weight, it surely can't be deemed to be overweight.

It does seem odd that you can infer that it obviously cannot be legal (e.g. just on the basis that you are using the car in a way that the manufacturer has not allowed, which invalidates your insurance), but there really does not seem to be anything anywhere that explicitly forbids it - and maybe that is why the .gov.uk guidance says "should not" rather than "must not".

I think the reason why it's difficult to understand how a German manufacturer has solved the problem is because that German manufacturer does not want to tell other towbar manufacturers exactly how they got theirs through the system - but I confess that's just a guess.

paul_c123

"there really does not seem to be anything anywhere that explicitly forbids it."

RTA 1988 42 seems fairly clear to me.

I think the problem is more that you want someone to point directly at legislation (which you don't understand) and won't accept the many and various summaries by eg NTTA which are broadly correct but obviously paraphrase or dumb it down slightly, so it is more easily understandable.

Car_54

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81950097#Comment_81950097

Section 42 makes it an offence to contravene or fail to comply with any construction or use requirement.

Which particular C & U requirement do you have in mind?

paul_c123

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81950136#Comment_81950136

The Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 80 (1) (a)