Speed Limits whilst towing

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Speed Limits whilst towing

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Not in danger of a speeding ticket

I drive a Comerical van (3.5T)
And i've got a baby caravan now too!
The rules are the same regarding speed limits

In a 30 its 30
40 its a 40
50 its a 50
In a Single Carrigeway @60
Both Van and trailer do 50

Due Carriage ways / Motorways @ 70mph
Both do 60mph MAX
(well the van is limited at 55 / 58mph)

But what if its a dual carriageway @60mph signed?
Do i do 50?

First time i came across it in birmingham.... A38

Ziggy
 
From the Gov.uk website..

National speed limits
Type of vehicle Built-up areas mph (km/h) Single carriageways mph (km/h) Dual carriageways mph (km/h) Motorways mph (km/h)

Cars, motorcycles,
car-derived vans and
dual-purpose vehicles 30 (48) 60 (96) 70 (112) 70 (112)


Cars, motorcycles,
car-derived vans and
dual-purpose vehicles
when towing
caravans or trailers 30 (48) 50 (80) 60 (96) 60 (96)


How big is your small caravan ?
 
Not in danger of a speeding ticket

I drive a Comerical van (3.5T)
And i've got a baby caravan now too!
The rules are the same regarding speed limits

In a 30 its 30
40 its a 40
50 its a 50
In a Single Carrigeway @60
Both Van and trailer do 50

Due Carriage ways / Motorways @ 70mph
Both do 60mph MAX
(well the van is limited at 55 / 58mph)

But what if its a dual carriageway @60mph signed?
Do i do 50?

First time i came across it in birmingham.... A38

Ziggy


as you are no doubt aware ,
"commercials" have different solo speed limits to cars, (catches out lots of converted "campers":eek:)
whether this is lowered still whilst towing, I'm unsure..:confused:
 
A strange thought just popped into my head. If car derived vans are subject to car speed limits, are van derived cars (Doblo, Kangoo) subject to van speed limits?
devil.gif
Chicken and egg. Technically a small van that was then produced as an MPV is subject to the same speed limits as a 7.5T lorry. The MPV made from it is subject to the same limit as a car, unless it has more than 8 passenger seats (minbus). This was a issue with LWB landrover station wagons years ago and there is actually a clause in the UK construction and use regulations exempting vehicles "made by Land Rover and called a Landrover" from the minibus requirements. I had a 12 seat SIII years ago, very "cosy" with 12 up.

Roert G8RPI.
 
A strange thought just popped into my head. If car derived vans are subject to car speed limits, are van derived cars (Doblo, Kangoo) subject to van speed limits?
devil.gif
Chicken and egg. Technically a small van that was then produced as an MPV is subject to the same speed limits as a 7.5T lorry. The MPV made from it is subject to the same limit as a car, unless it has more than 8 passenger seats (minbus). This was a issue with LWB landrover station wagons years ago and there is actually a clause in the UK construction and use regulations exempting vehicles "made by Land Rover and called a Landrover" from the minibus requirements. I had a 12 seat SIII years ago, very "cosy" with 12 up.

Roert G8RPI.

The speed rules about vans was written a long time ago, when we really just had car-derived vans, and larger vans.
Now we have a whole raft of small vans, not derived from any car, but just as competent, but subject to the lower speed limits of the larger vans. The car derivative is classed as a car, so is subject to car speed limits.
e.g. A doblo van has limits of 50 on a single carriageway, and 60 on a dual, but the Doblo car has 60/70.

The Vauxhall Corsa van, fitted with the Fiat 1.3 diesel engine, as used by Royal Mail, is allowed to do 60 on a single carriageway, and 70 on a dual, but due to its gearing makes a hell of a fuss at anything over 55mph. The Fiat Fiorino/Peugeot Bipper, is restricted to 10mph less, although much more capable.

Some police forces either don't know, or don't care, but some are very hot on it. Devon & Cornwall are very hot on vans exceeding their limits.
Pick-up trucks are usually classed as commercial vehicles, including the double-cab ones, so are subject to the lower limits. I've met a few owners now who've had their holiday to Cornwall spoilt having been stopped at 70 on a dual-carriageway. If more police forces enforced this, we could lose a lot of pick-ups.

A 3.5 tonne van is subject to:
Single carriageway - 50mph, Towing - 50mph
Dual-carriageway - 60mph, Towing - 60mph.
Or whatever lower limit is in force for that stretch of road.
 
<SNIP>


Pick-up trucks are usually classed as commercial vehicles, including the double-cab ones, so are subject to the lower limits. I've met a few owners now who've had their holiday to Cornwall spoilt having been stopped at 70 on a dual-carriageway. If more police forces enforced this, we could lose a lot of pick-ups.


<SNIP>.


Unfortunately speed cameras can't tell the difference so don't activate for commercials going 70. "Manual" traffic law enforcement seems to be virtually non existent in many areas. The rise in pick-ups is due to a company vehicle tax loophole.


Robert G8RPI.


Robert G8RPI
 
Unfortunately speed cameras can't tell the difference so don't activate for commercials going 70. "Manual" traffic law enforcement seems to be virtually non existent in many areas. The rise in pick-ups is due to a company vehicle tax loophole.


Robert G8RPI.


Robert G8RPI

Most speed cameras now are digital, sending the pic electronically to the ANPR system. The ANPR system does know the type of vehicle, but the lookup needs to be programmed to highlight vehicles other than standard cars. If a camera is triggered above the 'car' threshold, it is way above the commercial threshold, so can be highlighted for personal attention, then summoned for 'exceeding limit for type'. It seems most forces don't do this yet.
 
Hi,
I did think about that, but other than for "time and distance" systems it won't work. The system would either have to photograph (flash) every vehicle over the lowest limit and then check the registration or have a separate ANPR cameras (these use IR illumination and don't flash) and database access fast enough to tell the vehicle type before it goes out of range of the speed camera. This is unlikely with current technologies.

Robert G8RPI.
 
Hi,
I did think about that, but other than for "time and distance" systems it won't work. The system would either have to photograph (flash) every vehicle over the lowest limit and then check the registration or have a separate ANPR cameras (these use IR illumination and don't flash) and database access fast enough to tell the vehicle type before it goes out of range of the speed camera. This is unlikely with current technologies.

Robert G8RPI.

Not that complicated. Perhaps my reply made it seem so.
Vans and pick-ups travelling at legal car speeds will not get caught by cameras.
Any vehicle travelling fast enough to trigger the camera will be identified by the ANPR system, to identify the owner. It can also be used to automatically highlight those types of vehicle that have lower limits than cars, and these may be separated for a different prosecution.

e.g. Limit 60mph.
Camera set to trigger for any vehicle travelling at 69mph or above.
Any vehicle at 67mph, gets away with it.
A car at 70mph will trigger and get a standard notification.
A 3.5t van at 70, should be identified by the ANPR and pinged for personal attention. It then gets a prosecution for 'exceeding speed for type' and 20mph over, rather than 10.
 
Not that complicated. Perhaps my reply made it seem so.
Vans and pick-ups travelling at legal car speeds will not get caught by cameras.
Any vehicle travelling fast enough to trigger the camera will be identified by the ANPR system, to identify the owner. It can also be used to automatically highlight those types of vehicle that have lower limits than cars, and these may be separated for a different prosecution.

e.g. Limit 60mph.
Camera set to trigger for any vehicle travelling at 69mph or above.
Any vehicle at 67mph, gets away with it.
A car at 70mph will trigger and get a standard notification.
A 3.5t van at 70, should be identified by the ANPR and pinged for personal attention. It then gets a prosecution for 'exceeding speed for type' and 20mph over, rather than 10.


You have sort of paraphrased my point. the van driver at an illegal 58.9MPH will not be caught under the system you describe. In practice it is a person, not ANPR who will identify the vehicle type AFAIK we don't have fully automatic ticket issuing in the UK. A person looks at all the photos. They may not look closely but they look. ANPR is not an instant system. For example the system fitted in police cars will normally be set to identify high priority "targets" from a database uploaded to the cars computer. Anything from the main database takes much longer.


Robert G8RPI.
 
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