Would you buy a car with a welded shut bonnet?

LloydJ ( snipped-for-privacy@aol.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Like I said. 80% as a rule of thumb. Conor might disagree, but his vehicle is kinda designed to tow trailers heavier than itself...

I just don't get this obsession with loading up horses into the back of pikey 7.5 tonne trucks or towing massively over weight trailers behind fashion SUVs every weekend.

Surely it's not good for the horses?

If anybody wants to buy a proper horsebox - 17t, 5horse, 16ft full luxury living, hot water, central heating, shower, toilet etc then please let me know! I'm dying for all the overladen 7.5's to be stopped when overweight and the trade for the the little wagons falls thru' the floor!

Guy King ( snipped-for-privacy@zetnet.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

No, it isn't.

It's the trailer weight. The GTW is damn near 7ton for a Disco3.

" "

The message from Adrian contains these words:

The comment I was replying to said;

"Not quite that straightforwards - the legally important number is the gross train weight. For any current "proper" Landy - Rangie, Rangie Sport, Disco or Defender, that's 3.5t - assuming your licence is up to it."

Someone else asked if that meant they could tow 3.5 tonnes and I said no, "The 3.5 tonnes is the maximum combined mass of the trailer and towing vehicle and anything else that's attached.", which is correct. The numbers may actually be wrong (I wasn't commenting on the numbers), but the meaning of GTW is as stated, the total weight of the entire moving assembly.

If your car allows a GTW of nearly 7 tonnes then that's because your GTW is nearly 7 tonnes. Subject to other rules like licensing and such, obviously.

Thanks for the that - makes sense what you are saying :-) Now we travel the horses backwards I have to say they travel very much better (especially the bigger horse)

Yes - makes much sense! I have bright white partitions - stupid colour - now splattered with poo and pee lol Jo

Thats what we have, Equi-Trek - it is the answer for us as hobby riders.

Yes and when a 3.1 turbo derv Isuzu fails to tow two large horses in it fully laden, in a comfortable fashion up a Welsh hill, you know your overweight! ;-)

I am afraid we have had to purchase an american dodge pickup, 5.2 ltr V8 and that is some piece of kit - just cant afford to go very far or rev it to often! Jo

Thx 4 that - you never know when it'll come in handy

.....just being nosy is it a black one on 52 plates......?

Guy King ( snipped-for-privacy@zetnet.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Ah. Arse. Yes. My bad.

Sorry - I meant that the trailer weight for those is 3.5t, and the GTW is

6t+

& that's assuming you're not doing it for any commerial reasons or you'll need a tacho etc.

Duncan Wood ( snipped-for-privacy@dmx512.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

But of course.

What cracks me up is that the Disco 3 is so damn lardy that the payload is roughly similar to my 2cv van - else it'd be perilously close to being over

3.5t, and therefore tacho/bigger licence...

Who ate all the pies?

You can either use a feed of air from the towing vehicle to keep the brake chambers pressurised, or there is a mechanic wind off system on the handbrake actuator. On most 7.5 tonners it is a right pita to wind them off, so I tend to keep them fed with air.

Bear in mind of course if you take Dobbin to a horse show where there are cash prizes paid, then in the eyes of the law it is a commercial business, and your horsebox must be fully 'o' licensed and tacho'd.

Unfortunately no - but being female "kind of wish it was!" lol Ours is red and turning into a skip on wheels - hubby thinks it is a very useful tool for carrying alsorts of crap in! Jo

This old chestnut! :-)

There is no reason at all why a vehicle cannot legally tow more than its own weight, many 4WD vehicles have recommended maximum towing weights which are a lot more then their weight.

Not to mention that in the UK there isn't an actual legal limit on towed weight for a private car, see:-

However you should observe the "Maximum Towing Weight" advised by the manufacturer, modern vehicles will have this in the handbook.

Remember also that you are probably limited by your driving licence to a Maximum Train Weight (i.e. total of trailer plus towing vehicle) of 3500kg and that people who have passed their tests recently aren't licenced to tow a trailer at all.

That "rule of thumb" was (apparently) invented by the Caravan Club many years ago and doesn't really have anything to back it up.

Think about articulated lorries for example - OK, they're designed as towing vehicles but there's no way the 80% rule applies to them. Also farm tractors and such.

The 80% rule *might* be a sensible one to apply to ordinary 2WD cars towing small trailers and caravans but I don't think it necessarily makes sense for (say) 4WD vehicles pulling well designed horse trailers.

That's 3500kg *total* train weight, i.e. Range Rover plus trailer, look at your licence, it's detailed there, nothing to do with the vehicle it's a limit on what you're licenced to drive unless you took your test a *long* time ago or you have an LGV licence.