101 MOT

Your bit about a "Category B" licence is unfortunately out of date. You are limited to 3.5 tonnes GVW on a "B" licence these days; if you passed your licence before 1997 heavier vehicles are "grandfathered in" as C1 and D1.

The Motor Vehicles (Driving Licences) Regulations are enlightening, and not as inpenetrable as some legislation:

Class 7 vehicles are basically goods vehicles (vans/pickups) between 3000 kgs and 3500 kgs. The certificates are exactly the same, the test is identical with one or two exceptions so if you book it in at a place that does class 7 there should be no problem

Andy

On or around Tue, 02 Mar 2004 22:35:24 GMT, snipped-for-privacy@dev.null (QrizB) enlightened us thusly:

this is true. D1 being minibuses between 9 and 16 pax.

But there's still the camper loophole - you can have a 20-ton motorhome. Silly, really - the once-a-year motorhome driver in giant winnebago is much more likely to forget the size of his vehicle than someone who drives a 7,5T delivery lorry all year round.

Certain categories of vehicle are exempt from the Category B weight limit. Heavy goods vehicle made before 1960 can be driven on a B licence. As are steam vehicles, and quite a few others, including recovery trucks, interestingly

Alex

Quote:

(4) A person who holds a relevant full licence authorising the driving of vehicles included in category B, other than vehicles in sub-categories B1 and B1 (invalid carriages), may drive -

(a) an exempted goods vehicle other than -

(i) a passenger-carrying vehicle recovery vehicle, or (ii) a mobile project vehicle,

Exempted goods vehicles and military vehicles 51. - (1) For the purposes of this Part of these Regulations, an exempted goods vehicle is a vehicle falling within any of the following classes -

(a) a goods vehicle propelled by steam;

(b) any road construction vehicle used or kept on the road solely for the conveyance of built-in road construction machinery (with or without articles or materials used for the purpose of that machinery);

(c) any engineering plant other than a mobile crane;

(d) a works truck;

(e) an industrial tractor;

(f) an agricultural motor vehicle which is not an agricultural or forestry tractor;

(g) a digging machine;

(h) a goods vehicle which, in so far as it is used on a road - (i) is used only in passing from land in the occupation of a person keeping the vehicle to other land in the occupation of that person, and (ii) is not used on roads for distances exceeding an aggregate of 9.7 kilometres in any calendar week;

(j) a goods vehicle, other than an agricultural motor vehicle, which - (i) is used only for purposes relating to agriculture, horticulture or forestry, (ii) is used on roads only in passing between different areas of land occupied by the same person, and (iii) in passing between any two such areas does not travel a distance exceeding 1.5 kilometres on roads;

(k) a goods vehicle used for no other purpose than the haulage of lifeboats and the conveyance of the necessary gear of the lifeboats which are being hauled;

(l) a goods vehicle manufacturered before 1st January 1960, used unladen and not drawing a laden trailer;

(m) an articulated goods vehicle the unladen weight of which does not exceed 3.05 tonnes;

(n) a goods vehicle in the service of a visiting force or headquarters as defined in the Visiting Forces and International Headquarters (Application of Law) Order 1965[52];

(o) a goods vehicle driven by a constable for the purpose of removing or avoiding obstruction to other road users or other members of the public, for the purpose of protecting life or property (including the vehicle and its load) or for other similar purposes;

(p) a goods vehicle fitted with apparatus designed for raising a disabled vehicle partly from the ground and for drawing a disabled vehicle when so raised (whether by partial superimposition or otherwise) being a vehicle which -

(i) is used solely for dealing with disabled vehicles; (ii) is not used for the conveyance of any goods other than a disabled vehicle when so raised and water, fuel, accumulators and articles required for the operation of, or in connection with, such apparatus or otherwise for dealing with disabled vehicles; and (iii) has an unladen weight not exceeding 3.05 tonnes; (q) a passenger-carrying vehicle recovery vehicle; and (r) a mobile project vehicle.

We use the Garage at Dunton Bassett cos he uses a pit not a lift and is used to doing landrovers unlike some places

Ooops .. tiggurrs is due as well - time to fix the handbrake

Rich

I saw on ebay a while ago a Volvo B10M LWB with Double Deck Jonkheere coach body, camper conversion. Re-registered, perfectly legal to drive on a B licence.

Now, I can drive a coach both as B and under my Cat D licence, but I defy the ordinary Metro driver to get out of thier euro-box and into a

Alex

You're on. You provide the coach, I'll give it a go!

Do you have the ebay link?

David

Martyn - you have 2 mins 7 seconds to get a new camper conversion platform for £721 -

No, that one was a while ago. But there's usually a few 40ft'ers on ebay.

Alex

That was a bargain for someone... the sale of the seats should fund the engine fix and part of the conversion.

Lee D

-- ________________________________

hmm. I could buy one of them and live in it. I could afford that!

I was out playing in Grumble when you posted this, so obviously, I was a little p*ssed off that you got me out of the jacuzzi to go read some pathetic usenet posting about an old shed on eBay... ;-)

On or around Wed, 03 Mar 2004 18:23:01 +0000, Alex enlightened us thusly:

which, really, is silly. They're all fired up on stopping people driving small lorries without a special test (class C1) and then you get ridiculous loopholes like this. Personally, I reckon motorhomes over 3.5T should require a commercial licence appropriate to their size and weight.

exactly. Even a 7.5T lorry (especially a box van) requires considerably more thought than a transit-sized van, and that'll be about half the size of the above.

No dual purpose is defined as "a vehicle constructed or adapted for the carriage of passengers and of goods or burden of any description"

Andy