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twice_nightly

New Member
I've a winch bumper and winch fitted to my 300tdi Disco and in my haste to get it MOT'd and back on the road I fitted a standard rectangular number plate onto the nearside bit of the bumper, in doing so I covered the hi-lift jack hole and the swivel recovery hole, a friend of mine says I've compromised the offroad recovery of the car by doing this.

Having looked at a couple of solutions I've come up with either getting a square number plate for the front or a self adhesive one for the bonnet. Anyone ever had trouble with the law or MOT with these? I've done a search and can't find anything specific about square plates on the front but the DVLA does suggest stick on one's could be a problem.

Also I can understand covering the hi-lift jack hole a bit silly, but is my friend right, do you actually need two swivel recovery points?
 
twice_nightly said:
I've a winch bumper and winch fitted to my 300tdi Disco and in my haste to get it MOT'd and back on the road I fitted a standard rectangular number plate onto the nearside bit of the bumper, in doing so I covered the hi-lift jack hole and the swivel recovery hole, a friend of mine says I've compromised the offroad recovery of the car by doing this.

Having looked at a couple of solutions I've come up with either getting a square number plate for the front or a self adhesive one for the bonnet. Anyone ever had trouble with the law or MOT with these? I've done a search and can't find anything specific about square plates on the front but the DVLA does suggest stick on one's could be a problem.

Also I can understand covering the hi-lift jack hole a bit silly, but is my friend right, do you actually need two swivel recovery points?
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your friends talking ****,
if your that worried why not put num plate on with velcro so you can remove/replace num plate easily
 
wiltshire landyman said:
your friends talking ****,
if your that worried why not put num plate on with velcro so you can remove/replace num plate easily
Click to expand...
cos this would make it potentiallly ilegal. I had a magnetic one that was to proper standards on me bonnet but i needed the old one to pass the MOT(even the old one was fooked and shouldnt have passed anyway.....:doh:)
 
flip up/down plate with a hinge and a securing latch or some form of quick release plate?
 
Is the front grill still there or has it been removed to fit a winch in?

If it's not gone screw a standard number plate to it, job done.
 
Please forgive me if you feel I'm talking boolocks

The Boring Bit - according to the road traffic act the number plates have to conform to standard sizes, fonts and be perpendicular to the road surface. Stick on plates that are slanted on the bonnet or front spoiler are not legal BUT they are accepted for the most part because - and this is the doosey, it is not illegal to have no front plate.

That's right it is not illegal to have no front plate but every traffic copper will do you for not having one as you cant identify the vehicle from the front. It's a bit like your car can pass and MOT without having a spare wheel but having a spare wheel with no tread will cause a fail. I believe.

The Fun Bit - I screwed my front plate to the grill when I removed the bumper for a small perd of time and that was fine.

Having a number plate that can be easily removed is illegal as are magnetic swing plates. Motorcyclists get done with these at the back.

My brother has a lotus seven and we didn't like the number plate on the front of the new nose cone. So we made a new one up and left it in the wrapper. This resides in the footwell and if stopped he simply says he has just brought it and will fit it when he gets home. However he hasn't been stopped at all yet.

With regards to the recovery point. Yes there is a certain amount of recovery compromise by having only one recovery point. By using two you gain a more perpendicular pull on the vehicle and benefit from redundancy should one point fail during recovery. After all you don't see steering guards with only one built in recovery point do you.
 
I run a Japanese import plate on the front, it's the smallest front plate you can legally fit

Strictly speaking its not legal to fit an import plate to a vehicle that COULD have a uk plate fitted, so it's a bit of a grey area.

Does me anyway, and if the particular mot tester didn't like it I'd slap a uk one on temporarily.

Cheers

DSC_0007-4.jpg
 
For clarification in case you want to take the pee


Police are not allowed to stop a vehicle for having an illegal number plate. It is not a moving traffic offence under the Road Traffic Act as plate regulations are covered under the vehicle registration act.

Having said that, if you are stopped for a moving traffic offence or by VOSA, you are likely to be advised to change it or rectify any issue and you will need one for the MOT.

Number plates are also covered to a lesser degree under the construction and use regs if this helps.

Also any imported vehicle can has motorcycle sized plates on it front or rear. finally I had a Mitsubishi Gallant Sport Estate and the front plate plinth was very small. I fitted a motorcycle size plate to it which in turn was trimmed too. Never got pulled for it in over 120,000 miles of uk driving. Only once was it mentioned by a copper in Swindon when I was done for speeding and it even went through three MOTs with it fitted.

Mr Noisy,

Are you stalking me? Your Discos the dogs danglers matey. Very nice piece of kit. What tyres are they? I can't get a hold of any KL71's
 
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I know bikers/cars who have driven round England where they live and NEVER had a pull yet the minute they cross the border to North Wales they get pulls for things like itallic number plates, illegally blacked out windows and all the other things real people dont care about, the problem is where I live in Wales there is very little "real" crime, also if a copper doesnt reach his "quota" then he is deemed too "in with the locals" and moved to police a different area. They def pick on tourists aswel around our area to keep thier quota up and not **** off the natives too much, for example: EVERY bank holiday they will sit on a road at the bottom of the hill which enters a popular holiday resort on the friday catching you guys coming in and on the monday they will be at the top of the hill catching you guys going home! The bottom line around here is they need to do you for something and as rapes and murders are in short supply around here, they settle for a dodgy plate. So if your planning a holiday to north wales just remember what I have said......
 
mrnice said:
I know bikers/cars who have driven round England where they live and NEVER had a pull yet the minute they cross the border to North Wales they get pulls for things like itallic number plates, illegally blacked out windows and all the other things real people dont care about, the problem is where I live in Wales there is very little "real" crime, also if a copper doesnt reach his "quota" then he is deemed too "in with the locals" and moved to police a different area. They def pick on tourists aswel around our area to keep thier quota up and not **** off the natives too much, for example: EVERY bank holiday they will sit on a road at the bottom of the hill which enters a popular holiday resort on the friday catching you guys coming in and on the monday they will be at the top of the hill catching you guys going home! The bottom line around here is they need to do you for something and as rapes and murders are in short supply around here, they settle for a dodgy plate. So if your planning a holiday to north wales just remember what I have said......
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Yep and they've got good old Richard The ****er Brunsom. Or has he fooked off yet???
 
The tyres are maxis buckshot mudder mate.

They road very well but are not that wonderful off road :(

If I had the cash and wanted to stick with mud terrain I would go for bfg mud km2

If I had less cash I would go for cooper stt I think.

The maxxis are on eBay at about 140 each, but tbh I wouldn't buy them new cos I don't think they're worth it!

Don't get me wrong they've been superb on road and seem very very sturdy off road, they have huge cuts in them and are still happy, they just have zero side tread so don't make much grip off road.

I will use them til they wear out or are ****ed and find something similar but better :)

P.s. thanks mate! But no I am not stalking you unfortunately ;)
 
Green hornet do you know what the crack is with fitting those black and silver number plates to the back of a discovery? You know, like the ones they have on classic cars etc. I quite fancy one of them on mine
 
jonny mac said:
Green hornet do you know what the crack is with fitting those black and silver number plates to the back of a discovery? You know, like the ones they have on classic cars etc. I quite fancy one of them on mine
Click to expand...

Need to be registered pre 72 to be legal
 
Its as if the powers that be passed a car one day and thought 'hold on, those number plates are gonna look cool on these future cars, we're gonna have to put a stop to that. We'll give them something **** instead'. thats how i think its happened
 
It's all about Revenue collection. If the cameras can't capture ya reg no. they can't use ya as a cash dispenser..
 
a mate had his front number plate in his windscreen and took ages for petrol pumps to authorise
 
fanatic said:
can beat the camera's
Click to expand...

Ah yes you can if you pass them at anything above 172mph.
The first number plate was issued in 1933. Back then it was just a letter and numbers 1 thro 9999.

The change from black surround to white was actually done in 1968 as an option. The new number plates had the reflective background and was an option upto 1972 and is now legal on cars only constructed before January 1973.

Motorcycles had to have a front and rear number plate upto 1975 after which the requirement for a front plate was dropped. HOWEVER did you know that motorcycles registered before 1 September 2001 can still have a front plate if the owner decides to.

Finally the only vehicles that still use the old style plates and text are military vehicles. This is due to the fact that laser guided weapons can lock onto the reflective material used in the normal number plates.

Ohh an yes the letters on the number plate denote where your vehicle was first registered. My motorbike HS02 was registered in Hampshire/Portsmouth.mMy Discovery PTY is I think Preston.

Oh and as an aside to this subject matter, did you know that the whole road signage was redesigned and approved in 1957 by just two people. Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert.

Is that enough Geeky trivia?:D
 
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