A 'Fair' rig!!

The other day I passed a convoy of fair (showman’s) trucks on the motorway and 1 of them was an old ERF unit with a trailer loaded with dodgems and also towing another trailer which was twin axles done out as living accommodation and if that wasn’t enough there was also a small caravan tagged on the end. :open_mouth: I’d certainly hate to reverse that :exclamation: But is it legal to have all that pulled by one unit? Know idea what the length of it was.

i saw a very similiar rig in southampton last week. a unit pulling a mobile home size caravan with a small trailer behind it. i wondered if it was legal too. can we tow 2 trailers in this country?

I think the fairground folk are a bit of a law to themselves. :confused:

I’ve seen similar outfits and also see traffic cops just drive straight past them. :confused:

I thought that if the load exceeds 60ft long you are required by law to fit flashing beacons ?

Showmans’ Exemption, officer. :wink:

It seems that only Showmen can do this,

From www.chrishodgetrucks.co.uk/pixlaw/wd12.jpg

thought that if the load exceeds 60ft long you are required by law to fit flashing beacons ?

never heard of that rule before and i,ve certainly never been stopped for it :wink:

chaversdad:
thought that if the load exceeds 60ft long you are required by law to fit flashing beacons ?

never heard of that rule before and i,ve certainly never been stopped for it :wink:

So why aren’t any of our ‘standard’ trailers any longer than 45ft then ?

Show people have an exemption, I don’t know the details of it but I am pretty sure that a lower speed limit is part of it.

We can take a 60 foot trailer without any beacons or any other special markings, provided that it is to carry an indivisible 60 foot + load. The long load only has to travel one way, you could take a load of palleted goods the other way. With the allowed 5 foot overhang, that means we can take a 65 foot load (of say steel beams). It wouldn’t need any notification to anyone either. I would mark it with either long load/wide load markers and light it, if I had the gear with me to do that. The load could be even longer than that, if you have a suitably designed trailer, so that the load could safely be put over the headboard, but it can’t extend more than 1 metre over the front of your unit. All quite legaly without any beacons, special markings or notifications.

Simon:
Show people have an exemption, I don’t know the details of it but I am pretty sure that a lower speed limit is part of it.

I think the speed limit is 30mph (on all roads).

It’s illegal to tow more than one trailer, although showmen are exempt.

Vince

Ah, not quite. I thought you could pull more than 1 trailer if the drawing vehicle came in at more than 11tonnes - think recovery truck drawing an artic.

Agricultural and Showmans vehicles are exempt, and possibly Recovery trucks

Bit ■■■■ Denby and Stan Robinson from Stafford are going to prove us wrong

Simon:
Show people have an exemption, I don’t know the details of it but I am pretty sure that a lower speed limit is part of it.

We can take a 60 foot trailer without any beacons or any other special markings, provided that it is to carry an indivisible 60 foot + load. The long load only has to travel one way, you could take a load of palleted goods the other way. With the allowed 5 foot overhang, that means we can take a 65 foot load (of say steel beams). It wouldn’t need any notification to anyone either. I would mark it with either long load/wide load markers and light it, if I had the gear with me to do that. The load could be even longer than that, if you have a suitably designed trailer, so that the load could safely be put over the headboard, but it can’t extend more than 1 metre over the front of your unit. All quite legaly without any beacons, special markings or notifications.

I’ve seen 60’ trailers-they are legal in 3 states in the US. Trust me, you don’t want to drive one…