I saw this old Scammel working today dragging a 44 tonner behind and noticed that it was displaying STGO CAT2 plates, I’ve never seen a wrecker before running with these on. Surely just about any wrecker pulling anything upwards of a fully laden 18 tonner is going to be over the 44t limit.
I thought that recovery would be exempt. Or is this sometimes used as a ballast tractor of sorts?
Its a Leyland and used to be owned by Dragon rescue in Cardiff.
The rules regarding recovery trucks and weights are not particulary clear and contain lots of grey areas, at present heavy wreckers such as in the pic are usually taxed as recovery vehicles which is a reduced rate and also gives them MOT plating and testing exemption.
There have been discussions by VOSA and AVRO about changing this exemption and also about STGO status, I don’t think anything has been decided yet.
My understanding is that the STGO status is what allows them to go over the 44t train weight,normal axle weights and length regs if you consider a 3 axle heavy wrecker is likely to weigh 25ton + then that only leaves 19t to tow before you go over that limit.
The complications come in when you look at how far you can tow a loaded artic [nearest place of safety or 300 miles to owners yard?] and doesn’t STGO cat 2 normally require 2 days notice, not really suitable for recovery work.