Another noob question from me good thing this forum exists. I hear people refer to rigid as 18 Tonner and artic as 44 tonnes and I’m confused by it. Is this the maximum weight this vehicles tend to be or the average? I thought the maximum you could carry with a rigid was 39 tonnes that would mean an artic only takes 5 more Tonnes. I must be wrong about that. Anyone able to explain it to me and why the vehicles are referred to that way? Thanks
Thanks that’s really handy so looks like 32 tonnes is the biggest rigid. I’ve been telling everyone I can drive up to 39 tonnes lol.
32 tonnes GVW is not the max rigid on a C licence - it is unlimited GVW
Are you seriously telling me that you’re running round with a class 2 and don’t understand the weights? 
You obviously are limited by axles, but your license category is ANY rigid vehicle. You’re just limited by trailer. Have you seen those 10 wheeler 50t cranes driving round? You can drive those.
Theres always been a bit of a myth that rigid licences limit the weight and dont know if it ever applied or was always a myth.
Technically a 39T rigid would be just under the max of the average artic max, but the bigger difference is space. In a rigid you might get 16 pallets, but 33 on a double decker trailer.
You can have 150 tonne artics so they arent limited to 44T and neither is the licence, but you need upgraded units and trailers.
trevHCS:
Theres always been a bit of a myth that rigid licences limit the weight and dont know if it ever applied or was always a myth.Technically a 39T rigid would be just under the max of the average artic max, but the bigger difference is space. In a rigid you might get 16 pallets, but 33 on a double decker trailer.
You can have 150 tonne artics so they arent limited to 44T and neither is the licence, but you need upgraded units and trailers.
It goes back to the old class 1,2 & 3 days
jbaz73:
Are you seriously telling me that you’re running round with a class 2 and don’t understand the weights?
It’s not something that is brought up when training bar what road you can go down with regards to 7.5 T signs. Give him a break, nobody was born with that info.
oDillonx2:
Another noob question from me good thing this forum exists. I hear people refer to rigid as 18 Tonner and artic as 44 tonnes and I’m confused by it. Is this the maximum weight this vehicles tend to be or the average? I thought the maximum you could carry with a rigid was 39 tonnes that would mean an artic only takes 5 more Tonnes. I must be wrong about that. Anyone able to explain it to me and why the vehicles are referred to that way? Thanks
As a general rule of thumb, your boggo standard rigid has a max weight of 18T, double axle at the back 26T. There of course variants but they are the general ones you would drive.
Alright thanks all makes sense now so there’s no limit per say but as long as its a rigid I can drive it. Thanks for all the help.
All a bit confusing the way its coming out on this thread isnt it? Some possible confusion between driving licences and vehicle types?
As Rog rightly says a “C” Licence is for any rigid goods vehicle. Regardless of weight.
But that doesnt mean of course, that adding axles to a conventional goods vehicle gets that vehicle to any weight. From m4rkjs link the max rigid weight is 32T. Cranes and special types are different but a rigid goods vehicle is 32T max.
The MAM or GVW will be marked on a plate on all goods vehicles. Some vehicles may be down plated, so even if designed for a heavier weight they may be only legal at a lesser weight. It`s because there are tax advantages to this.
If I remember rightly, class 3 was 2 axle 17t limit. Class 2 was as it is, any rigid vehicle. Class 1 was as is hth
Sorry if I came across wrong, it wasn’t the way I intended. But I couldn’t believe you have a class 2 licence without the basic information about gvw’s.
How are you going to know if you’re overloaded without the basics? Some operators are going to love you, because they can get away with murder.
jbaz73:
If I remember rightly, class 3 was 2 axle 17t limit. Class 2 was as it is, any rigid vehicle. Class 1 was as is hth
HGV 3 was for a 2 axle rigid, but you could also pull a trailer with it (wagon and drag). Now Class C, but no trailer allowed.
HGV 2 was for any multi-axle rigid, you could also pull a trailer with it (wagon and drag). Now Class C, but no trailer allowed.
HGV 1 was for an artic. This is now C + E. You also need C (any rigid licence) plus E (trailer licence) to drive a wagon and drag.
I don’t think any of these licence categories mentioned weight limits on the licence, be they new style C + E or the old HGV style
There was also HGV 4, which was anything up to 7.5t. But as the old car licence also gave you the same rights very very few people ever bothered.
As a general rule of thumb, the number of axles limits the max gross weight (MGW) of everything.
2 axle rigid is usually MGW of 17t I think, but it could be 18.
3 axle rigid is usually MGW of 26t I think.
4 axle rigid is usually MGW of 32t I think.
The confusion was that a 2 axle rigid used to be 17.5t, now is 18t? WHY■■?
Anyway, yes you are right, I completely forgot about the w&d entitlement. I have to remember it all from when my dad used to drive. Memories a bit sketchy and unfortunately dad ain’t around for me to ask. The old hgv licences were little books separate to the main licence too.