Towing with a Van

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bigray

Active Member
Posts
132
Location
Notts
Hi,

If all goes according to plan I should be getting a company vehicle soon. The tax payable on commercial vehicles (such as a Freelander Van or Defender crew cab) is generally considerably less and as there is only 2 of us (plus the dogs) I am thinking a commercial might be a better bet.

The thing is that I remember hearing somewhere that if you tow anything with a "commercial" vehicle you have to have a tachograph?

Does anyone know anything about this and if it's required how easy/hard is it to fit one?

Thanks
 
bigray said:
Hi,

If all goes according to plan I should be getting a company vehicle soon. The tax payable on commercial vehicles (such as a Freelander Van or Defender crew cab) is generally considerably less and as there is only 2 of us (plus the dogs) I am thinking a commercial might be a better bet.

The thing is that I remember hearing somewhere that if you tow anything with a "commercial" vehicle you have to have a tachograph?

Does anyone know anything about this and if it's required how easy/hard is it to fit one?

Thanks
Click to expand...
towing for work or private?
 
The legal speak is "hire/reward" - which is different, and more broad-reaching, than doing it for business or profit. For example, an interpretation is that someone who has a car transporter trailer and a track car who goes to an event and is fastest on the day and wins a little trophy, is "rewarded" and thus needs a tacho.

There's a mountain of regulation and exemptions, tread carefully and don't get caught with your trousers down.
 
I posted on this subject a few times.

The rules are if driving the van are your main duties (courier furniture removals etc) then you need a tacho. if you only use the vehicle to trsansport your own goods and tools. and within a fixed distance of the registered address of the vehicle (100km IIRC) then you don't need a tacho.
 
I'm planning to use it for towing a caravan mainly for holidays/Land Rover Shows. The problem is the Vehicle is likely to be sign written. So when i'm towing it will be for private use.
 
bigray said:
I'm planning to use it for towing a caravan mainly for holidays/Land Rover Shows. The problem is the Vehicle is likely to be sign written. So when i'm towing it will be for private use.
Click to expand...

Can you not get magnetic signs made? Less prblem if you ever decide to sell the vehicle, and for your caravan trips remove the sign's.

Andy.
 
Hi, Thought about that but it's going to be owned by the Company I work for so they will probably want permanent signage.
 
another thing to be cautious about is that most caravan sites won't let you on with a van, i used to have a vw transporter people carrier/van and could'nt get on alot of sites with it
 
if the van is used for hire/reward and the gross train weight exceeds 3.5 ton the you need a tacho fitted, so if you took the caravan to a show with the van full of spare parts you wanted to sell then, if the maximun autherised mass exceeds 3.5 ton then yes (van and caravan combined) and your talking around £500 just to buy a tacho head then it needs to be fitted and calibrated also if the van is registered after 2006 then it would need a digi tacho
 
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