If I'm towing something with a car (eg a caravan or car transport trailer), do I need seperate insurance for whatever it is I am towing?

What if I have only Third Party cover on my tow car?

With regards to towing a car transport trailer with another car on top, would I be right in saying that the towed car doesn't need to be taxed or insured as it is essentially 'not on the road'?

If the trailer itself doesn't NEED to be insured, do I still need to notify my tow-car insurance company that I plan on towing with the car? They don't ask any questions for it when giving me quotes, but surely you are more likely to crash when you are essentially driving something twice as heavy as what they think you are driving? Is it my 'duty' to inform them? Of course I won't be towing with the car all the time but I would like to be able to do it at my discretion.

Do I have to declare a tow bar as a modification when insuring my tow-car? As far as I am aware the tow bar is factory fitted.. and they don't ask if it has a tow bar fitted or not?

Do trailers require tax or insurance to be parked on the side of the road (like outside my house)?

And FINALLY, if my tow-car has normal breakdown cover and breaks down whilst towing, will the caravan or trailer that I'm towing also be recovered as standard procedure? Or will I have to inform the breakdown company that I plan on towing with the car so that they can change the arrangements of the policy?

Any help on the muchos questions would be appreciated.. as you might be able to tell, I am rather new to towing

Edited 28 April, 201016 yr by CWA

Oh and on the subject of towing, I've posted the following in a Volvo forum but had no luck for a while so might try my luck in here, hope someone can help

I gained my full UK driver's license after January 1st 1997 so am subject to the new regulations etc.. don't yet have my B+E license.

At first I thought this meant you couldn't tow a trailer full-stop without having a B+E license, but after reading up on it I know this isn't the case. From what I can understand on my current B license I can do the following..

1. Tow a trailer not exceeding 750kg, with a tow vehicle not exceeding 3500kg.. giving a total train mass of no more than 4250kg

2. Tow a trailer with gross mass of more than 750kg IF..

- The gross mass of the trailer does not exceed the gross mass of the tow vehicle

- The total train mass does not exceed 3500kg

Is this correct? If so, can I presume that the following set up would be permitted and legal under my current B license..

Volvo 850 - Unladen mass of ~1500kg. Gross mass of ~2000kg

Towing a 'Brian James Clubman 1000' Trailer - Gross capacity of 1300kg

('Load capacity' of trailer is 1000kg, making unladen mass of trailer 300kg?)

Total train mass = 3300kg

Where the Volvo 850 Max Permissable Towing Mass = 1600kg

Confirmation of this would be great for those who have knowledge of towing, cheers

Me and my dad got pulled by the police a few weeks back and they told us that the vehicle must be able to tow the loaded weight that is stamped on the trailer, even if the actual weight of the trailer is less than the vehicle could cope with.

We were towing a car on a trailer and the mass of the trailer and car being towed was about 2 tons, and the car that was towing could tow up to 2.5 tons, but because the maxium loaded weight stamped on the trailer could be 3.2 tonnes they told us we couldnt do it.

They let us off because we were only about 400 yards away from our destination and it was a hired trailer. But they said if it was vosa doing they check they would just take the car and trailer to be impounded.

We thought it was aload of crap and phoned up vosa but never got a real answer.

My point is that perhaps you should do some research into that before taking out a trailer that can weigh 1300kg if your only allowed to tow 750kg.

But trailer laws are aload of ballache and making a decision as to wether your going to be legal or not can be a right pain.

Your car insurance will cover the trailer as a 3rd party risk, eg if the trailer causes damage to something. Normally, you don't get comprehensve towing cover as standard, and check on theft, as on mine I need to have the trailer locked to the tow vehicle for it to be coverred for theft.

A towbar is a mod, so you should tell your insurance about it, they'll say "we're not bothered about that". I push for that in writing or record the call.

Trailers don't require separate tax and insurance. Though if you've leaving it unattended, be aware of the risk of someone driving off with it, or a brake failing.

Normal AA/RAC cover says, if you're towing and your tow vehicle breaks, they'll recover vehicle and trailer. If your trailer breaks, you have to blag em. Had this a while ago when I was towing and didn't realise the jack wasn't in the van, and got a flat on the trailer

As for weights, there's so many different versions of the "right" answer, it's unreal. As I understand it, the only time you're totally legal is:

If you've taken your test before 1997(?), or are towing under 750kg, or have a B+E/C+E license.

If your tow car weighs more than the trailer and load

If your tow car is capable of towing the maximum weight of the trailer loaded

If your nose weight doesn't overload the back axle of the car

If you're combined mass of trailer, car, contents and load is less than 3500kg and none-commercial, otherwise, you need a tachograph

Me and my dad got pulled by the police a few weeks back and they told us that the vehicle must be able to tow the loaded weight that is stamped on the trailer, even if the actual weight of the trailer is less than the vehicle could cope with.

Awesome, I was unsure about this aswell.. the trailer I am looking into has a maximum permitted capacity of 1300kg anyway. The 850 is permitted to tow 1600kg max, so with that trailer fully loaded I'm well within the limit. In fact, it seems pretty close to that 85% guideline that gets pottered about which is cool.. (Volvo weighs 1500 unladen )

Yeah I've been doing a fair amount of reading into it, read through alot of the stuff on the DSA website but sometimes find it hard to interpret exactly what they say. Always like to confirm it all anyway.. if I popped down my local cop shop would they be able to give me some unambiguous advice? Or like a local DSA office of something?

Your car insurance will cover the trailer as a 3rd party risk, eg if the trailer causes damage to something. Normally, you don't get comprehensve towing cover as standard, and check on theft, as on mine I need to have the trailer locked to the tow vehicle for it to be coverred for theft.

A towbar is a mod, so you should tell your insurance about it, they'll say "we're not bothered about that". I push for that in writing or record the call.

Trailers don't require separate tax and insurance. Though if you've leaving it unattended, be aware of the risk of someone driving off with it, or a brake failing.

Normal AA/RAC cover says, if you're towing and your tow vehicle breaks, they'll recover vehicle and trailer. If your trailer breaks, you have to blag em. Had this a while ago when I was towing and didn't realise the jack wasn't in the van, and got a flat on the trailer

As for weights, there's so many different versions of the "right" answer, it's unreal. As I understand it, the only time you're totally legal is:

If you've taken your test before 1997(?), or are towing under 750kg, or have a B+E/C+E license.

If your tow car weighs more than the trailer and load

If your tow car is capable of towing the maximum weight of the trailer loaded

If your nose weight doesn't overload the back axle of the car

If you're combined mass of trailer, car, contents and load is less than 3500kg and none-commercial, otherwise, you need a tachograph

Cool thanks for that dude. I will have a look into nose weights and axle weights as that wasn't something I'd considered yet! Got more info off here than on that Volvo towing forum, so thanks duudes.. will probably have more to come though.. haha

Nose weight's just down to how you load your trailer. You need a bit of it, but not a lot, and certainly never a tail-heavy trailer, as they snake and jump off towhitches.

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