Towing with a Hijet????????

What are peoples opinions legally and practically towing this with the Hijet (1.3)





I'm not that good with weight but the total gross weight of the trailer is 750kg.

I think the max towing capacity of the Hijet is 600kg. Can I legally tow this trailer if its not fully laiden?

The trailer itself isn't very big, a little taller than the van but not as wide.

I think that the max towing weight is 85% of the vehicle all up so if you get pulled into a weigh bridge the trailer cannot exceed 85% of the towing vehicle but tow bars should have a rating plate on them as to the vehicle they are to be fitted to and the max weigh they are rated for.

However I made the tow bar set up for my car it was never rated and I towed a caravan that when all was loaded the car did struggle on the inclines that were more than slight and it never let me down and I am fairly sure it was well over weight.

Thinking about it Tuks was looking into a fifth wheel type trailer on a pickup and I think he said the max towed weight was 850kg I think.

from a quick glance at the hitch id say it was unbraked. Having towed various trailers and loads across the years, id say that a 750kg unbraked trailer towed with a hijet would be at best dangerous and at worst fatal. You need some weight and power to the tow vehicle to get yourself out of trouble.

To give you an example, towing a braked 4 wheel trailer with a grasstrack ax on the back of it, total weight 1200kg with a 2.4 litre turbo hilux - 2500kg weight, it caught a good sidewind and it was very close to tipping the whole lot over, taking 2 lanes of the motorway to sort it out....

Very hairy, definately new pants time!

You just pulling it home or is it going to be a regular thing? For a one off job id say take it slow and youll be fine, other than that dont bother...

I've bought it so just want to get it home. 30 miles. Plan is to get a tdi audi 80/a4 estate or passat estate to tow it in the long term, would have been nice to tow it with the Hijet though.
Rough guess is the coffee machine and other stuff on it come to about 150kg, any idea what the trailer might weigh roughly?

if its just to get it home, stick as much stuff out of it as you can in the back of the van and take it nice and steady. Just be aware that if you get stopped, or have an accident that it probably is overweight, especially if its unbraked.

EDIT - 600 kilo limit....

Dont forget gross is the total weight of the trailer and all its contents.

http://www2.whatvan.co.uk/vandata.asp?id=14

As the trailer has no plating requirements i'd be making sure the max gross was 550 kg If there's no markings the pork would need to weigh it.

The trailer is plated - 750kg.

What would you estimate the trailer weight at then? I thought it would most likely be ok (under 600kg) seeing as there was very little in it other than the coffee machine and waffle maker.

I'm not talking safety or opinions here, read the law!

Did you pass your test before or after 1st of January 1997? Not sure? Check to see if your photo card has B+E...

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/DriverLicensing/CaravansTrailersCommercialVehicles/DG_10013073

You may be in breach of the fit for use regulations as you are towing more weight than your towing vehicle is plated for (think hijets are 550kg). But as logi stated, if you make a new plate up saying 540kg then you'd be above board paperwork wise, but then legally your trailer is then overloaded. If you ended up being taken to a weigh bridge you'd be in trouble.

I've towed some pretty dodgy stuff on my old silver hijet mpv, worst was I pulled my little trailer with about 1000kg of rubble plus the 120kg trailer to the tip. Could feel the bounce of the trailer pushing the van about, pretty damn scary, after that I just shoveled into the van instead. It crossed my mind that if anyone might walk or pull out in front of me I wouldn't be able to stop any time soon.

If I was you, I'd look to hire a car (or preferably van) for a day just to get it home....

I've seen some rental vehicles (usually vans) with tow hitches.....

it usually costs £40~£60 a day, but at least then you could have a vehicle thats legally allowed to tow that weight.....

whats £40~£60 if it keeps your licence clean and your insurance valid.........



SWB transits are pretty good vehicles to tow with, so thats what I'd choose



(unless you can borrow a suitable vehicle from a friend for the day?)

HighlyJetted wrote:I'm not talking safety or opinions here, read the law!

Did you pass your test before or after 1st of January 1997? Not sure? Check to see if your photo card has B+E....

You know, being and old fart(and a class one licence holder) i forget about that

I used to be in a marine rescue unit and I used to tow the units 4.1m rib on a double axle braked trailer with a LWB defender I have a new type licence as passed in 1998 total combimed weight for this type of licence is 3.5t

yeah i've checked the license situation and its all above board, I passed after 1998 but the trailer and vehicle combo is under 3.5kg and the trailer is less than have the gross vehicle weight. (think thats what it was off the top of my head).

Legally as long as the trailer is under 600kg actual weight its all legal. According to the trailer association it doesn't matter if the gross of the trailer is above the vehicles towing limit as long as the actual weight of the load isn't

yes, but its the GROSS weight of the trailer you have to work on!

unless you get the trailer weighed and then reclassified to a lower weight limit (if its within the hijets towing limit if its lighter) then its illegal....

just the same as towing a trailer with a gross weight more than the vehicle is authorised to tow!


I'm a little shocked that the trailer association are citing that you dont need to worry about the trailer gross weight!



if you got pulled for a spot check, and they realised your towing more than your meant to be, you will be in a world of trouble!

they can charge you with:

- driving within breach of your license
- driving with no insurance (your using the vehicle outside its official safety limits, and your driving with an invalid licence)

and anything else they want to.....



and if you were involved in an accident because of it............

8bit-ash wrote:yeah i've checked the license situation and its all above board, I passed after 1998 but the trailer and vehicle combo is under 3.5kg and the trailer is less than have the gross vehicle weight. (think thats what it was off the top of my head).

Legally as long as the trailer is under 600kg actual weight its all legal. According to the trailer association it doesn't matter if the gross of the trailer is above the vehicles towing limit as long as the actual weight of the load isn't

The gross weight is the weight of the trailer and the load.

The net weight is that of the load, the tare weight when working out the gross is that of the unladen trailer

The plated weight of the trailer is that of the trailer as it was manufactured and plated before any bits were added. If the cooker etc was added then technically the trailer should be replated.

Your towing vehicles max weight means the gross of the trailer should be less than the manufacturers towing weight, anything else as already stated is illegal, that said most people have pulled overweight before - if your going to then just be careful.

right so its this paragraph that has confused me from the FAQ section on the National towing associations website -

What unbraked trailer can I tow? You can tow a maximum of 750 Kg with an unbraked trailer but you cannot exceed half the kerb weight of the towing vehicle. You can tow a trailer with a Gross Weight higher than your car’s towing limit as long as you only load it up to that limit. It is illegal to exceed the car’s towing limit

from here -

http://www.ntta.co.uk/faq/

8bit-ash wrote:right so its this paragraph that has confused me from the FAQ section on the National towing associations website -

What unbraked trailer can I tow? You can tow a maximum of 750 Kg with an unbraked trailer but you cannot exceed half the kerb weight of the towing vehicle. You can tow a trailer with a Gross Weight higher than your car’s towing limit as long as you only load it up to that limit. It is illegal to exceed the car’s towing limit

from here -

http://www.ntta.co.uk/faq/

You can tow up to 750kg unbraked so long as that figure is not above the cars unbraked towing limit (which is sometimes lower than the towing limit)

The gross weight mentioned in the paragraph refers to the trailer and its load.

For example a trailer with that weighs 500 kg could carry a ton. Therefore the gross would be 1500kg. That is above your towing limit, so you could tow the 500kg trailer with a 250kg load in it meaning that at 750kg it is at the maximum towing weight for your vehicle. One kilo over and your illegal.

ax16vts wrote:

8bit-ash wrote:right so its this paragraph that has confused me from the FAQ section on the National towing associations website -

What unbraked trailer can I tow? You can tow a maximum of 750 Kg with an unbraked trailer but you cannot exceed half the kerb weight of the towing vehicle. You can tow a trailer with a Gross Weight higher than your car’s towing limit as long as you only load it up to that limit. It is illegal to exceed the car’s towing limit

from here -

http://www.ntta.co.uk/faq/

You can tow up to 750kg unbraked so long as that figure is not above the cars unbraked towing limit (which is sometimes lower than the towing limit)

The gross weight mentioned in the paragraph refers to the trailer and its load.

For example a trailer with that weighs 500 kg could carry a ton. Therefore the gross would be 1500kg. That is above your towing limit, so you could tow the 500kg trailer with a 250kg load in it meaning that at 750kg it is at the maximum towing weight for your vehicle. One kilo over and your illegal.

I'm in agreement with that, just a couple of people said thats illegal because the gross weight of the trailer is more than the tow limit of the car, despite the trailer not being full.

difflock123 wrote:

I'm a little shocked that the trailer association are citing that you dont need to worry about the trailer gross weight!



if you got pulled for a spot check, and they realised your towing more than your meant to be, you will be in a world of trouble!

they can charge you with:

- driving within breach of your license
- driving with no insurance (your using the vehicle outside its official safety limits, and your driving with an invalid licence)

and anything else they want to.....



and if you were involved in an accident because of it............

They're saying the MAXIMUM gross weight of the trailer doesn't matter as long as the actual gross weight of the trailer doesn't exceed the vehicle towing limit.

Reading the DVLA website i'm believing this is true.

If thats the case i'm perfectly inside legal limits to drive a hijet and the trailer on my license. I'll get the seller to put it on his weigh bridge at his work to check the weight first so as long as its under 600kg i'm all safe.

8bit-ash wrote:
I'll get the seller to put it on his weigh bridge at his work to check the weight first so as long as its under 600kg i'm all safe.

I was just about to say get it to a weigh bridge with a vehicle that is definatly legal and check it out most dumps/recycling centres have one and the plod so long as you are legal would usually help if you are checking that you arn't going to break the law.

must admit, i know i was/am confuzed about the curb weight/brake etc..
i know i have a "new" licence of 750kg max tow or drive.

my bike is 198kg wet weight
my bikes trailer is 200/250kg in dead weight & unbraked.
the van can "tow" 550kgs
i usually tow with an empty van or + 1 passenger if i am retrieving a bike.. (biggest is a blackbird so far)

so from what i can tell..... i am getting close to illegal.

leopard_pagan wrote:must admit, i know i was/am confuzed about the curb weight/brake etc..
i know i have a "new" licence of 750kg max tow or drive.

?? AFAIK a new, post '97 licence doesn't allow towing anything?

Logi wrote:

?? AFAIK a new, post '97 licence doesn't allow towing anything?

Later ones maybe different but I was in St. John Ambulance and it was there vehicle and RIB so I had them check it out for me which is the only reason I know it is 3.5t combined weight.

Logi wrote:

leopard_pagan wrote:must admit, i know i was/am confuzed about the curb weight/brake etc..
i know i have a "new" licence of 750kg max tow or drive.

?? AFAIK a new, post '97 licence doesn't allow towing anything?

It does -

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/DriverLicensing/CaravansTrailersCommercialVehicles/DG_10013073

Later licenses are cat B,

Just going to re-surface this thread, and state that it contains some correct information and quite a bit of mis-information.

So if you are reading this, just understand that:-

Trailers plated GMW must be equal or lower than the maximum approved towing capacity of the Hijet e.g (600kg)

It does not matter if the trailer is loaded or not, the plates are deciding factor - unless the trailer is overweight!

It is not permitted to use an unbraked trailer, the laden weight of which exceeds 50% of the kerbside weight of the towing vehicle.

Also:-

DVLA wrote:Licences held from 1 January 1997
If you passed your driving test after 1 January 1997 and have an ordinary category B (car) licence, you can:

drive a vehicle up to 3.5 tonnes or 3,500kg MAM towing a trailer of up to 750kg MAM
tow a trailer over 750kg MAM as long as the combined weight of the trailer and towing vehicle is no more than 3,500kg

So basically you must be within:-
-your drivers licence criteria (otherwise you are driving without a licence)
-your tow vehicle criteria (otherwise you a driving a vehicle fit for the road)

Think I was pushing the limit it a bit  

Nahhh, the highway maintenance and council stickers are a get out of jail free card.

Sooooo a 20KVA genny & van loaded with A bands PA/drum kit miiiight have been a tad over.....
The oddest one was a 1/4th filled IBC on a trailer, water was rocking the van as got up to speed...
Pulled a twin axel caravan after been sat for a year out mates grass garden...
These vans have the low end grunt to tow more than they are legally allowed, read up folks :0)