Getting confused with MAM of trailer vs car towing capacity

Michen

Michen

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Reading conflicting things on old forum threads about this. I have my B + E license. My cars towing capacity is 2000kg but my trailer (ifor 505) has a MAM of about 2500kg I think.

Do I need to have my trailer downplated to 2000kg to be legal? Aka is it illegal to tow a trailer with a MAM that is over the max towing capacity of the car, even if the trailer never actuslly weighs more than the 2000kg (in fact it won't be more than 1500kg).
 
Michen said:
Reading conflicting things on old forum threads about this. I have my B + E license. My cars towing capacity is 2000kg but my trailer (ifor 505) has a MAM of about 2500kg I think.

Do I need to have my trailer downplated to 2000kg to be legal? Aka is it illegal to tow a trailer with a MAM that is over the max towing capacity of the car, even if the trailer never actuslly weighs more than the 2000kg (in fact it won't be more than 1500kg).
Click to expand...

I see this old internet myth has reared its head again !! - not your fault but the fault of those spouting this nonsense

There is no law or rule which states that the towing capacity of a vehicle must be able to cope with the plated MAM of a trailer
That is 100% fact

The rule is that neither the towing capacity or the MAM must be exceeded so the lower of the two is used as the max actual weight of the trailer and its load when towing
 
Phew thanks Rog. I saw it from someone on here that always seems pretty sound with their advice so started to worry though I did think it seemed a bit odd, I can't imagine thst everyone downplated their trailer who tows with a small 4x4.

Thanks again :-)


ROG said:
I see this old internet myth has reared its head again !! - not your fault but the fault of those spouting this nonsense

There is no law or rule which states that the towing capacity of a vehicle must be able to cope with the plated MAM of a trailer
That is 100% fact

The rule is that neither the towing capacity or the MAM must be exceeded so the lower of the two is used as the max actual weight of the trailer and its load when towing
Click to expand...
 
In your case you have a 2000 towing capacity and a trailer MAM of 2340 with the trailer being 900 empty (I think)

That being the case you can load 1100 into the trailer
 
marmalade76 said:
I've lost count of the number of times I've argued about this on Facebook, the other gem is the 85% thing/ 'you shouldn't tow anything that weighs more than the car' :rolleyes:
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I thought the 85% rule was a guide (not a legal requirement as such) set by the caravan society? And it made sense to me at the time as my yard was up a very steep hill and I never wanted to be anywhere near max towing weight going up it.
 
It is a guide for caravans which are a completely different from horse (and other) trailers, they are much larger and lighter 'cause people don't put 1/2 ton animals in them. Though I agree that it's probably not a good idea to fully load to the max towing cap with a live load.
 
marmalade76 said:
It is a guide for caravans which are a completely different from horse (and other) trailers, they are much larger and lighter 'cause people don't put 1/2 ton animals in them. Though I agree that it's probably not a good idea to fully load to the max towing cap with a live load.
Click to expand...

A while ago, I did put up a thread to see if you could work out a safe capacity if you regularly towed up steep hills. No one was able to because it had too many variables. The hill I went up was no mountain (500 feet). I would only take 1 big horse (Jeep is a 3.7). Oh well I was probably over egging it!
 
I have to tow in a hilly area too and I am cautious also. But with a vehicle with a towing cap of 3.5t and most horse trailers with a MAM of 2.7t and the fact that I don't have any big horses means that I'm never going to be anywhere near the max towing cap. I will also pop it into low range for a steep hill, though husband and father both tell me 'you don't need to bother doing that!' but I would rather be safe than sorry and what's the point of making my vehicle work harder than it needs to?
 
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