Trailer confusion! any advice welcome

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berti

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I am interested in buying a Cheval Liberte 1003 XL pullman or racer single horse trailer. I have been on various trailer sales sites and they all seem to give different unladen weights, some say 550kg, some say 500kg, some say 675kg - all for the same trailer! It's very confusing! My cars maximum towing weight is 1000kg braked and my 14.3hh is approx 420kg, so it is vital that the trailers unladen weight is around 550kg. Does anyone know the unladen weight? please, thank you:)
 
It's not what you were asking but I wouldn't be towing with that car I'm afraid! Even my Clio has a higher braked amount than that :eek:
 
What car do you have? I had an estate with the same top weight and I wouldn't have towed anything with it. Smaller cars come with smaller brakes, clutches etc and you're much closer to the limit if anything goes wrong.
 
Is it 80 or 85% of the maximum braked towing capacity of the vehicle you should not go above??
A car that can tow 1000kg is definitely not legal for your combo!
 
the 85% is a recommendation, not a legal requirement. However, it has been strongly suggested on previous threads that if you choose to ignore this, the police "could" press for driving without due care and attention. I went for a 4 x4 to make sure I had plenty of extra capacity left. I am probably towing at around 50% and some of the hills are still hard work!
 
Luci07 said:
the 85% is a recommendation, not a legal requirement. However, it has been strongly suggested on previous threads that if you choose to ignore this, the police "could" press for driving without due care and attention.
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Total rubbish - the police will not go for DWDCaT if towing over 85%

If any set up/combination is deemed to be unsafe no matter what the weight is then they will consider doing so

To the OP - are you on a B or B+E licence?

1000 max towing capacity for a horse & trailer = not likely to work out IMO
 
I towed with a car that had a max capacity of 1400kg. Trailer + 1 pony totalled around £1200kg & it struggled. It was a temporary short term measure for short distances. Wouldn't have wanted it to be a permanent set up xx
 
Just to add to my earlier post- I went to look at a tiny caravan. It weighed about 700kg- under the limit for my car.

My car really struggled to stop it, even at a very slow speed.
 
Are you sure that's what your horse weighs? There have been lots of posts on here where weigh tapes have been wrong - usually by making the horse lighter than they are!
 
Theocat said:
Are you sure that's what your horse weighs? There have been lots of posts on here where weigh tapes have been wrong - usually by making the horse lighter than they are!
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I agree. I have 14hh New Forest, a bit overweight who weighed in at 405kg on vets scales last summer. If your 14.3hh horse is very slim build it might just be 420kg but safer to over-estimate.

I also agree that a car with braked towing weight of 1000kg is not suitable for towing horse and trailer safely. I had VW Touran, with towing capacity of 1500kg to tow two 12hh ponies (prob combined trailer/pony weight of 1350kg) - it was pretty good unless you had to go off road but I didn't need to tow very often or over long distances so just about adequate.
 
The internet appears to be full of conflicting and wrong advice, so I went directly to VOSA and received this reply:

If VOSA were to weigh your vehicle at the roadside, then the weights should not exceed the maximum shown on the vehicle and trailer weight plates. The weight plate on the vehicle should show four weights, the first of which will be the gross vehicle weight (ie the maximum that the vehicle plus any load including drivers, passengers and fuel should be); the second will be the gross train weight (ie the maximum that the vehicle plus any load plus the weight of the trailer and the load on the trailer should be).

In short, as long as the MAMs are not exceeded and the vehicle can brake safely, then you would be legal.

I attach a link to our Quick Guide to Towing Small Trailers which may also be of use to you:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/vosa/publications/leafletsandposters/safetyandmaintenanceleaflets.htm

I hope this information has assisted you with your enquiry, but if you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Kind Regards,
Stephen

Customer Service Centre
VOSA Operations Directorate
Tel: 0300 123 9000
 
VOSA are good for weight laws but not for licences as that would be the DVLA

For a driver they need both weight and licence laws together to determine if they are legal or not
 
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