Prey
Member
Registered: 30th Oct 08
User status: Offline
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i always struggle to understand why you can just plate a trailer down in weight and then it be legal to tow...
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Ian
Site Administrator
Registered: 28th Aug 99
Location: Liverpool
User status: Offline
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You can, but that reduces the payload.
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Mike
Organiser: North West and North Wales
Premium Member
Registered: 20th May 06
Location: nr. Skipton, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
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When I read threads like these it just reinforces the idea that I did the right thing, couldn't be doing with all this hassle 
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Graham88
Member
Registered: 16th Apr 07
Location: South East Kent Drives: E46 M3
User status: Offline
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What did you do Mike? A course on it? What were the costs and what does it mean over watching your towing limits etc as surely the car is still the limit of what you're allowed to tow?
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Mike
Organiser: North West and North Wales
Premium Member
Registered: 20th May 06
Location: nr. Skipton, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
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I spoke to a local fella who does the B+E training, as I hadn't towed before he said I'd need 2 days which would be £450 including the test. I did 6 hours on day 1, mostly just driving around getting my driving back to test standard, spent about 45 minutes practising the reverse then day 2 was 4 hours training, again mostly out and about, bit of reversing then drove to the test centre to do the test.
The test lasts about an hour and half. It starts with the reverse, then unhitch and rehitch the trailer followed by about an hour long drive then hopefully they tell you you've passed.
Once you've got the +E you can tow anything up to the max towing weight of your tow car as long as it fits within certain dimensions, 7m long by 2.55m wide iirc.
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Graham88
Member
Registered: 16th Apr 07
Location: South East Kent Drives: E46 M3
User status: Offline
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So it doesn't give you anything extra over what you could already do? I don't get it?
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Mike
Organiser: North West and North Wales
Premium Member
Registered: 20th May 06
Location: nr. Skipton, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
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Without +E the tow vehicles gross weight + the trailers MAM can't be more than 3.5t, with +E you can drive a train of upto 7t dependent on the trailer and tow car (upto 3.5t each). Without +E the trailers MAM can be no more than the unladen weight of the tow car which I'm pretty sure means there's no combination available which would allow you to tow more than a 1.5t plated trailer, which vastly restricts your trailer options plus with what cars are available 1.4t is a more realistic limit. With the +E the trailer can weigh more than the the tow vehicle as long as the max towing weight allows.
Basically, +E makes everything a hell of a lot simpler when it comes to working out whether or not you're legal and also gives potentially over 2t extra towing capacity.
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willay
Moderator
Organiser: South East, National Events
Premium Member
Registered: 10th Nov 02
Location: Roydon, Essex
User status: Offline
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I did training and the test (twice lol) and it was well worth it, I still dislike pulling the trailer but I'm sure its down to my van or the loading
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