Be Prepared as Essex Police stop Caravans on A12

There's not really any answer to this. The Law is the Law!

What idiot thinks that its OK to tow without a breakaway cable fitted?

Why did someone think that it was OK for him/her to tow without extension mirrors fitted?

Those driving without proper licences were just taking a chance!

The use of mobile phones at the wheel should result in an instant ban!

The driver over the 3.5 tonne weight limit must have known that he was pushing it!

I change my tyres religiously at 5 years, and earlier if I have any concerns about their integrity.  Safety is not something to be gambled with!

Sadly earlier in my Caravanning life I was also a Police Traffic officer called upon to deal with the result of far to many of these problems.  I took the trouble to try to look at the root cause of many of the accidents that i dealt with.  Many had the factors listed above incorporated in the causal factors. Tyre age was a common one.

So too was overtaking or excessive speed down hill, poorly and unevenly inflated tyres, Poorly and over loaded vans. Mis matched cars & caravans.

The towing of caravans is a bit like marriage, not to be entered into wantonly, carelessly and without a great deal of thought.  If planned properly the marriage can last a long time, and be very fruitful.

Ive been married 48 years now, and caravanned for 40 of them!  Trying to make 50 of the former!

TF

TF

Well said TF

Ditto

Totally agree with all the above. IMHO, the fines should be much, much heavier too. Surely towing a caravan without extendable mirrors, or without a breakaway cable is driving without due care and attention?

We've all seen family saloons driving in the opposite direction on the M6 towing a twin-axle with the rear end of the car virtually touching the tarmac. It's nearly as stupid as using a mobile phone whilst driving.

Hopefully the Police and VOSA will step up their efforts this year in a more coordinated and widespread policy to rid the roads of the idiots. Those who do take the trouble to be legal and safe will then, hopefully, not have to endure 7 or 8 hour tailbacks, caused by the aforementioned.

're break-away cables. The term used was missing or incorrectly fitted cable ...... we have various opinions on the gorum of how it should or shouldn't be fitted. 

And 5 plus year old tyres can only be advisory.

And the rules 're thev3.5 tonne limit for newer drivers could be clearer otherwise people wouldn't be asking about 'towing licences' when there's no such thing.

Isn't this a repeat of a story a few weeks ago?

I can see the subject of trailer MOT's coming to the fore again

 Oh !! You should see some of the decrepid trailers that arrive at the boatyard ,with boats on them !!  !! Breakaway cables ?? some hope !! Brakes ?? some hope !! lighting boards ?? ??  ??  .

Tyers are an interesting topic.

How many owners be it  Car, Caravan, Motorhome etc understand about date codes and know how to read them.  I would suggest a very small percentage.

I would also suggest that most drivers, when they have new tyres fitted, just pay the bill and assume what they have paid for are new as in recently manufactured, with cars it's probably the case but in the case of caravan tyres that are not really high volume fast moving parts. For instance, lets say a major caravan service centre buy's in a stock of popular sizes and the more they buy the bigger the discount they get so make more markup on them. They may have had them in stock for 18 months before they are fitted to your caravan and they may have already been a year old when the caravan dealer bought them from their supplier.  

Food for thought  

Unlikely I think.

Not official yet, but will be announced after the general election and implemented in may 2018.

Cars built before 1977 will be exempted for the MOT test, at the moment it only applies to pre 1960 .

There is also talk of new cars being extended to 4 years for the first test.

But when fitted to a car, tyres will likely be worn out before you need to think about how old it is. A tyre sat around at Michelin/Pirelli etc will have been stored correctly, and the date fitted will have as much significance as the date manufactured.

Plod and VOSA are to be commended for the excersie, but I wonder how many caravaning 'idiots' are to be blamed for scattering their caravan across 3 lanes of a motorway. Last time out with the caravan we were very nearly taken out by a Mercedes Sprinter van driver trying to retrieve sonething from his passenger foot well. Trouble was, as he leaned over, he turned the steering wheel too. He came within a couple of feet of us despite me brakihg hard & swerving. It pays sometimes to have a large 4x4 as a tow car.