- Location
- Yorkshire
What did you learn?
No car trailer test needed from Nov 15th.
- Thread starter Nearly
- Start date
Did you take a test to tow a trailer ?
Lincs Lass
Member
- Location
- north lincs
Nobody did back then
So why now is it a disaster waiting to happen ?
Lincs Lass
Member
- Location
- north lincs
I can just see lots of new drivers who have never towed a thing in their lives ,hooking up to say a horse box and not knowing how to handle it ,not thinking alot further infront of how far to start braking ,how fast to go and then comes the reversing bit ,having to think oppositely ,,some of them scrape through tests as it is
Courier
Member
- Location
- M62 - M1 - M18 triangle
What did you learn?
How the geometry of leaf spring attachment and a beam axle on a trailer can exacerbate the tendency to start a car / trailer combination to sway.
How the geometry of leaf spring attachment and a beam axle on a trailer can exacerbate the tendency to start a car / trailer combination to sway.
I sort of agree but how is this different from the first time you hooked up your trailer? Ps I actually disagree with the government on this .
Lincs Lass
Member
- Location
- north lincs
I spent many years towing farm trailers at 20 mph when that was as fast you could go ,even then it was only a 135 on a 3 tn cart untill I got more confidence and experience when I was allowed to take a 5 tn and then as tractors got bigger ,so did the trailers ,I was backing trailers into tight clumbsy grain stores at 14 ,admittedly it took alot practice but it set me up for road use once I was old enough
So no different to you or anybody else who passed before 97
shelly reynolds
Member
How did the Pre 97 club get there experience ? The Wreckers page will be busy
Courier
Member
- Location
- M62 - M1 - M18 triangle
Reversing four wheel turntable harvest trailers with sheaves of oats uphill without power steering certainly gave me an early insight in how to treat a trailer.
Ali_Maxxum
Member
- Location
- Chepstow, Wales
I don't think this announcement means we will see people flocking to the roads with trailers operated by people with absolutely 0 experience. But if some feel better by having a little moan about it then fine.
I was fully prepared to do my test, was able to get funding through YFC for a good chunk of it. Now I will save a couple of hundred quid and 2 days of faff. I can reverse a trailer better and quicker than most people on the roads can reverse their own cars. And that to me is where anyone that was seeking to get the B+E is probably pretty competent anyway, as usually anything involving a trailer is somewhat practical and hands on so they'll probably be half about the job anyway, they just needed the piece of paper so say they could.
Passing a test to show you can reverse a trailer is one thing, doesn't mean J. Bloggs will be able to negotiate his bloated single axle star ship enterprise in a rearward manner well at all.
Luckily our local driver trainer still gets a lot of people who are looking to tow a trailer, but are using their noggins and still going to them for just trailer guidance/lessons anyway.
As with every walk in life their will be a minority that will upset the majority, licence or not.
I was fully prepared to do my test, was able to get funding through YFC for a good chunk of it. Now I will save a couple of hundred quid and 2 days of faff. I can reverse a trailer better and quicker than most people on the roads can reverse their own cars. And that to me is where anyone that was seeking to get the B+E is probably pretty competent anyway, as usually anything involving a trailer is somewhat practical and hands on so they'll probably be half about the job anyway, they just needed the piece of paper so say they could.
Passing a test to show you can reverse a trailer is one thing, doesn't mean J. Bloggs will be able to negotiate his bloated single axle star ship enterprise in a rearward manner well at all.
Luckily our local driver trainer still gets a lot of people who are looking to tow a trailer, but are using their noggins and still going to them for just trailer guidance/lessons anyway.
As with every walk in life their will be a minority that will upset the majority, licence or not.
Lincs Lass
Member
- Location
- north lincs
Tatty bulkers on a bogie up hill with a leyland 270 was fun trying to line it up under the elevator
ollandroverman
Member
- Location
- nr Kendal (The Lake District)
I suppose the big difference between us older post 97 drivers , and new drivers to towing is the huge change in the towing vehicles. Like all modern cars, we now have far far heavier towing vehicles, far far more power, and more refinement.
Just like people say about 4wd combines = you go much deeper into the mire before you get stuck...with modern towing vehicles you are more oblivious to the load behind, and are going much faster and carrying more momentum when you realise it isn't entirely under your control any more....
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TheTallGuy
Member
- Location
- Cambridgeshire
I'm post '97 - my first experience of towing something big behind a car was a 16' single axle caravan behind a completely underpowered MkII Astra 1.6 Estate - it was just within the rules when everything was loaded up - I know that because I got pulled over a weighbridge on the return journey! I learned a lot on that first journey up the A14 being overtaken by hgvs as I struggled to maintain 40mph.
tullah
Member
- Location
- Linconshire
With just a slightly loose swaying drawbar across the linkage
Simon Chiles
DD Moderator
- Location
- Surrey/ Kent Border, UK
…and stability control, abs and disc brakes. At least with the heavier towing vehicles today they are nearly as heavy as the trailer even when you’re maxed out at 3500 kg. All these people who automatically got their cat E pre 1997 were probably let loose with 88” Land Rovers that probably scraped a tonne with a 3.5 tonne trailer, drum brakes that weren’t very effective even without a trailer and definitely no driving aids such as abs etc. yet somehow they think they were safer then than in modern vehicles now.
- Location
- Yorkshire
- Location
- Yorkshire
What good would 2years experience driving have. I've met people on road been driving 10s of years who can't reverse a car