One step forward...... Three back

One step forward... the caravan is now sold, which means that's one less thing to worry about being left in storage after we depart.





And three steps back......




It has come to light that the licence I hold is restricted to towing a combined weight of vehicle and trailer to only 8250kg, which has come as a bit of a shock.

I have the right to drive a mini bus as I hold a D1+E without weight restrictions which allows me to drive with a combined minibus and trailer weight of 12000kg. But my C1+E with a 170 code (something to do with grandfathers rights.) won't allow me to tow over 8250kg on the motor home.

I received bad information from the DVLA when I enquired at the main office. I was informed that my D1+E without restriction superseded the 107 code on the C1+E part.
Wrong!!! a later Telephone conversation with their customer enquiries said I had been given the incorrect information.
Seems like the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing in the DVLA.

Unfortunately the Toyota weighs 845kg and the trailer 300kg total of 1160kg and when you add that to the RV's Max GVWR of 7500kg the total comes to 8660kg I'm 410kg over weight.
Damn Damn Damn........
So is there a solution..... I could resit the C1+E course and hopefully get the 12000kg limit or try to lose weight somewhere else on the RV.
To resit the test would involve a medical and its costs, re-doing a theory test (more expense) four or five days training (even more expense) and then the test itself (yet more cost.) As Kay said 'do you really want all that extra expense (we worked it out at over £600 pounds or more) and the hassle to go with it at your age?'
I must admit I'd rather not, I just want to enjoy life.
So it meant a grovelling call to the trailer people to see if we could cancel the trailer for an A Frame hopefully they can and the weight saving would be immense some 280Kg.

IQ with A Frame

It also means some culling of items we planned to take, fortunately the GVWR of the RV includes full tanks of fresh water six passengers and full petrol tanks.
As the RV will never be driven with 56Gal's of fresh water (I tend to empty tanks, why pay to tow water?) or more than the two of us and the petrol is never more than half full as the LPG is the main fuel.
We should then be under the weight limit, so I think our first step is to a public weighbridge to weigh the RV and to see what we can and can't do without.

The A frame for the Toyota will be a lot less heavier than the weight of the trailer so it seems to be the answer but their could be issues when using it in Spain or Germany.

Strange that I can drive a bus full of passengers and tow a trailer combination up to twelve tons, but not just me and Kay in a motor home with a small car on a trailer.

As Bob Monkhouse once said "I want to die like my dad peacefully in my sleep , not screaming in terror like his passengers" unless of course it's a bus full of DVLA staff.

More Anon