Hmmm - I thought these were now not legal......
And yes - the towed car would need to be fully legal in all respects.
Trailer regulations allow an unbraked trailer up to 750 kg. To meet trailer regs you'd need a lighting board with working fog light (due to width) and you need a safety cable to cope with the towed weight (not a useless breakable cable).
Tow vehicle has to be rated for the weight of unbraked trailer and you have to have the required category on your license.
You would also need to reduce the weight of the Minor to make it under 750kg.
If the towed car was roadworthy in ALL aspects then you can be fined if the car is not taxed! Working handbrake, solid structure, and steering and legal tyres are a must. Sharp (rotten) bodywork is not allowed.
If for example engine and gearbox were removed from a Minor and the tow car allows up to 750kg unbraked trailer, your license and insurance are correct, then PC plod would be hard pushed to give you anything other than a hard time (unless they are a real nerdy expert on towing regs). Trailer construction regs require the hitch to be plated if made since ~2000. I'd avoid the issue but if brought up then remember that the car is older than 2000...
If you travel through Warwickshire, bear in mind that the police here do regular spot check on ALL towing vehicles - often on the M40. and they have a hit rate that is very high! (usually due to trailer plate infringements but also due to excess weight). Despite the fact it is very hard to find the actual rules, lack of knowledge is not an acceptable excuse to break the rules as far as the police are concerned.
One of our trailers at work was impounded this year - we were lucky that I'd researched towing rules over the last 2 years as they came in and did a spot check on site to see what other towing we did! We'd already implemented new policies due to finding out more of the very hard to find rules
We also got the impounded trailer back as they were sure it was a previous owner who had tampered with the plate].
I also have an A-frame but for the above reasons I'm careful about lending it out!
[getting off topic now] Using a braked A-frame (available and sometimes used to tow a small car behind a massive camper van) can also fall foul of the rules as there are new clauses for reversing lock / brake desing that are not met by the towed car
Manual reversing locks are no longer allowed (still allowed on old trailers). All the trailer wheels need to be braked using leading shoes to allow reversing. Any trailing shoes (like on the rear of most cars) would not meet this rule so the car wouldn't meet UK braked trailer rules.
Ray. MMOC#47368. Forum moderator.
Jan 06: The Minor SII Africa adventure:
http://www.minor-detour.com
Oct 06: back from Dresden with my Trabant 601 Kombi
Jan 07: back from a month thru North Africa (via Timbuktu) in a S3 Landy
June 07 - back from Zwickau Trabi Treffen
Aug 07 & Aug 08 - back from the Lands End to Orkney in 71 pickup
Sept 2010 - finally gave up breaking down in a SII Landy...
where to break down next?
2013... managed to seize my 1275 just by driving it round the block
