What cars for towing over 3500kg?
Discussion
I have just acquired a boat, where the trailer and the boat weigh just over 4000kg. I have a HGV license (from a previous life!), so this should be legal as far as my license goes, but I have to find the right vehicle. Nearly every vehicle I can find goes up to 3500kg max. I don't want a lorry, as this will be my daily driver as well. I was thinking of a pickup or large 4x4. Is there anything sold in the UK? I know in America you have options, but I am in the UK. Happy to consider vehicles up to 15 years old.
Jordie Barretts sock said:
Nothing.
Maximum permitted is 3500kg. Over that is commercial.
Them's the rules. I had a similar problem when I was trying to find something to tow a friend's boat a while back. Maximum permitted is 3500kg. Over that is commercial.
5lab said:
f150 has a much higher tow rating in the US. I don't know how you'd go about plating it correctly here, but they're pretty car-like inside.
The car (/truck) may be able to do it and do so safely but the law will make this difficult. Towing heavy boats is a world of pain.
Why and where do you want to tow it so often that you're looking to spend big money on shaping your daily driving around this?
Personally, I would either avoid the issue entirely, find shore storage by the water perhaps, pay someone commercial to do it, hire the appropriate vehicle or find some other solution.
A boat which has a claimed weight of 4 tons on its trailer could be quite different in reality.
If it's a power boat, it could have serious amounts of fuel on top.
If it's a sailing boat, it will have several hundredwight of add-on crap.
Boatbuilders have lovely designs with finely calculated design displacements, then the boats are actually built by blokes with buckets of resin...
Sometimes there are ways around. You can get lighter trailers. You can remove heavy stuff from the boat to get the weight down to 3500kg perhaps?
I'm not sure that importing a car from the US with a plate saying it can tow more in the US actually cuts any mustard in the EU and UK?
The car will either have EU type approval (and an EU towing limit) or you won't be able to import it anyway or you'll need a SVA or something?
I'm not sure how driving licenses work with something registered as a car, does you licence allow you to drive that with over 3500kg?
The yot'n'boat world has some great stories of people who've towed boats more than sensible.
One chap bought an artic trailer, had it modifed to fit his boat and hired a man with a tractor unit when he wanted it moved from the Baltic to the Med or whatever.
Why and where do you want to tow it so often that you're looking to spend big money on shaping your daily driving around this?
Personally, I would either avoid the issue entirely, find shore storage by the water perhaps, pay someone commercial to do it, hire the appropriate vehicle or find some other solution.
A boat which has a claimed weight of 4 tons on its trailer could be quite different in reality.
If it's a power boat, it could have serious amounts of fuel on top.
If it's a sailing boat, it will have several hundredwight of add-on crap.
Boatbuilders have lovely designs with finely calculated design displacements, then the boats are actually built by blokes with buckets of resin...
Sometimes there are ways around. You can get lighter trailers. You can remove heavy stuff from the boat to get the weight down to 3500kg perhaps?
I'm not sure that importing a car from the US with a plate saying it can tow more in the US actually cuts any mustard in the EU and UK?
The car will either have EU type approval (and an EU towing limit) or you won't be able to import it anyway or you'll need a SVA or something?
I'm not sure how driving licenses work with something registered as a car, does you licence allow you to drive that with over 3500kg?
The yot'n'boat world has some great stories of people who've towed boats more than sensible.
One chap bought an artic trailer, had it modifed to fit his boat and hired a man with a tractor unit when he wanted it moved from the Baltic to the Med or whatever.
OutInTheShed said:
Towing heavy boats is a world of pain.
Why and where do you want to tow it so often that you're looking to spend big money on shaping your daily driving around this?
Personally, I would either avoid the issue entirely, find shore storage by the water perhaps, pay someone commercial to do it, hire the appropriate vehicle or find some other solution.
Find a storage place that has one of these Why and where do you want to tow it so often that you're looking to spend big money on shaping your daily driving around this?
Personally, I would either avoid the issue entirely, find shore storage by the water perhaps, pay someone commercial to do it, hire the appropriate vehicle or find some other solution.
https://www.nauticexpo.com/prod/roodberg/product-2...
What sort of trailer is it currently on?
Find someone locally with a suitable commercial
truck to tow it and offer some cash? Unless it's something you're planning on doing on a regular basis then it'll likely work out cheaper.
One alternative that might be worth looking into would be a 7.5T truck which are available pretty cheaply secondhand and aren't too ridiculous to run privately. I'm sure an ex gf's horse lorry was plated to 12000 kg total train weight.
Find someone locally with a suitable commercial
truck to tow it and offer some cash? Unless it's something you're planning on doing on a regular basis then it'll likely work out cheaper.
One alternative that might be worth looking into would be a 7.5T truck which are available pretty cheaply secondhand and aren't too ridiculous to run privately. I'm sure an ex gf's horse lorry was plated to 12000 kg total train weight.
Snow and Rocks said:
One alternative that might be worth looking into would be a 7.5T truck which are available pretty cheaply secondhand and aren't too ridiculous to run privately. I'm sure an ex gf's horse lorry was plated to 12000 kg total train weight.
The trailer can't be heavier than the truck so the truck would need 1-2T of load to tow a 4t trailer.Or £8k
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/truck-details/2024081...
braddo said:
And *that*, boys and girls, is why PH is such enormously bad news. Because people post links to something which I could find a whole load of want for but which costs less than a second hand Golf GTI. Braddo, you're a bad, BAD man!
Gassing Station | Car Buying | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff