SVA approval for trailers?

Does anybody know if home made trailers need any form of SVA approval?

I have an idea for one to drag behind my Disco on long haul which is going to be around 8' long and based around a fairly heavy box section chassis riding on what is effectively the rear suspension from a range rover.

The idea for this is that I've looked at the Safari trailers that some companies provide and decided that nice as they are, £10k is well more than they are actually worth.

I have a need for a towable fuel bowser (150-200 gallons), portable generator, small scale field kitchen including fridge and a substantial water store and general storage.

I'm planning on having this thing sitting on top of Rangie suspension with the bottom of the trailer actually being the same level as the spring hangers. Using a rangie rear axle means that I have a trailer with the same track as the Disco.

I was planning on having the fuel split across maybe 5 separate tanks with transfer pumps to try and keep things balanced, a couple (maybe as many as four) of deep cycle batteries, a decent sized gas cylinder available for the cookery side of things and a few other treats.

I figure that I can build the trailer itself for £2-300 and maybe the same again (or a little more) to kit it out.

So - does this think need any form of legal approval.

I suspect that making it a fuel bowser changes the rules a little.

P.

Reply to
Paul S. Brown
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From the above it's likely you'll need an engineer to design the trailer for you. Additionally you'll need to sort out what you do about brakes. From yuor description you'll not only be over 750kg and need override brakes, but you'll be over 1500kg and need breakaway activation of the park brake too.

Build one on leaf springs (even parabolics if you like) - they are simple, easy to look after and very quick o boild. Also they'll give an engineer less grief to state some specs for.

Jesus man - 200 gallons is nigh on 700kg of fuel even before you add anything else. What's the unladen weight of a Disco - from my reading of the regs your trailer will have to be less than this laden, and the whole shooting match will have to be under 3500kg fully loaded. With the amount of stuff you want to carry this is not looking possible.

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Leaf spring it, and make a tube axle to suit - bolt on rangie stub axles and use the rangie hubs, calipers and discs.

Probably - my reading of the regs are it will need plating and an engineers input of some sort.

For diesel it's fairly easy

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For petrol I can't find anything definitive, but it looks like the full force of the regulations will apply (placards, licences, training, extinguishers, etc, etc)

Reply to
EMB

If this gets off the ground, could you let me have the plans? I could do with one to go behind the Rangie.

;-)

Reply to
Richard Brookman

cylinder.........

I hope the specification includes a few fire extinguishers!!

Reply to
SimonJ

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