Membership Fee Increase

When our caravan is serviced the capability of the brakes shoes to move is obviously part of the service whereas, I would suggest that many of the caravans that are only used for 2 or 3 weeks a year are rarely serviced and could well be described as a potential danger. 

A caravan MOT would at least ensure that the brake shoes move, the chassis is not rotten, the breakaway chain is in place etc.

Really? As you said, it’s only your suggestion.

Demonstrating that the brake shoes move is not the same as proving the overrun system actually works. 

Any MOT finding will only be applicable at the time of the test and will not necessarily have any bearing on the state of play 24 hours later.

Any MOT finding will only be applicable at the time of the test and will not necessarily have any bearing on the state of play 24 hours later.

Absolutely true but the same applies to cars and motorhomes - are you saying those MOT's are a waste of time and money

It does indeed also apply to motor vehicles. 

You make what you like of it but "waste of time and money" are your words, not mine. 

An mot may pick up problem,  but they should also be annually as with commercial vehicles from new, as an mot is done after three years and most company vehicles are on three year lease with far higher millage  than the normal owner drivers and certainly higher than any c/van is likely to do in its lifetime

And before the argument of the lease vehicles are "serviced" a neighbour was allowed to keep his last company car when he retired,which had just finished its lease,when it was given an MOT it failed and was deemed unsafe to drive without a large amount of money spent on it,

 PS  are farm vehicles and trailers given MOTs?

PS are farm vehicles and trailers given MOTs?

Sorry no idea but you can educate me!

I'm sure that Lutz will correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't it only the UK that objected to the caravan MOT whereas the rest of the EU voted for it?

+1

But you should, or people who suggest these things should, look at the real data before making such statements or decisions. The accident rate for caravans is about 0.08% (according to government statistics). To put that into perspective, that means that caravans are involved in not 1 in a hundred accidents - that would one 1%, not 1 in thousand (0.1%) but 8 in every ten thousand accidents. The government viewpoint was that such low numbers would not merit a caravan MOT.

Also this would mean that every single caravan would need it's own centrally held 'registration number', more cost to the tax payer which you would be no doubt willing to pay perhaps from your saving of not not joining the club.

I suppose caravan users may have gone for this but perversely all those farm trailers across the UK and the EU were somehow exempt.  

And I suspect that many (most?) of those small number of caravan accidents relate to stability issues of the caravan whilst being towed. Not something that could be tested during an MOT.

I would just like to share this with members , my nephew is a Traffic cop in the East Midlands (Derbyshire) he tells me that 95% of caravan related incidents he's attended over several years on duty are wheel or tyre related .

Loose wheel nuts & tyre blow outs or sudden deflation are the main culprits.👍

I think I mentioned this on a thread months ago .