Caravan Park

I wonder what category that is, it is not Class 1 HGV, but probably 7.5 tonnes with trailer.


Anyone know because I have been known to wonder.

A standard driving licence will allow the holder to drive motor homes weighing up to 3,500kg. To drive a larger C1-class vehicle weighing up to 7,500kg requires an additional test. Those who passed their test before 1997 and are not yet 70 can drive both vehicles without taking the extra test. 



If you have the oldie exception for 7.5 tonnes you can tow up to half of that again (so 10&3/4 tonnes MMA = total train weight - in any combination so in principle a 2 tonne truck and an 8 & 3/4 trailer, but that would not be recommended.)

No double or articulated trailers unless someone has a showman's licence and is happy to have 2 drivers in the cab, have the vehicle adapted only for show use, move at 20 mph, and report to the police in each county you cross ?


Joking aside, the towing thing  is useful for scouts with camping gear or minibusses and and canoe trailers, though there is the caveat it cannot be driven for reward.

Problem is all the leaders with older style licences are getting a bit long in the tooth and the bar for the C1 or D1 category is set too high for a 20 something to train up to get the ticket just to drive something for a few long weekends per year, so a lot of groups with younger leaders do things with car convoys with one or two kids in each car, which are probably much worse environmentally, as well as socially.


I see battery vehicles may need a re-visit of the maximum authorised mass and train weights anyway to get greater  maximum ranges, we do not all live within 100 miles of a charge point.

errata worth checking on the

DVLA link


It can get quite complicated - the C1E = 7.5 tonne plus heavy trailer is 12.5 tonnes total for those taking the C1E test recently, or 8.25 for some others..


The definite is to put your details into the 
DVLA 'what can I drive' web pages. need licence no and NI no to prove it is you.



note that

The unladen weight doesn’t include the weight of:

• fuel

• batteries in an electric vehicle - unless it’s a mobility scooter or powered wheelchair

link..


oh  they make it complex.

It can be even more complicated. Just by moving to Switzerland and back I gained an A1 bike category and if I wanted to keep my 7.5 tonne category in Switzerland  rather than the Swiss 3.5 Tonne level I had to take a medical test. When my father applied for his licence many many years ago he simply chose the groups he wanted including steam rollers. Subsequently at the end of the war as an engineering officer he then had to approve military drivers for a civilian licence.


Best regards


Roger

Returning to the O/P, I suspect that a supply limited to 10 amps per caravan might tend to be less heavily loaded than a 16 amp supply per caravan.


To the average and not very technical camper, a supply limited to only 10 amps means "need to use gas for heating and cooking" whilst a 16 amp supply means "electric heating and cooking OK"

Hmm. Just told them how much 6x4 pitch boxes and a new feeder box would cost.


It's gone eerily quiet.....


George?

You could arrive on a camp site and charge your EV from the pitch socket protected by the 10 amp MCB, just so long as you are not planning to drive it for twenty four hours or so and you are not trying to use a multiway adapter to try and supply something else at the same time.


It's going to happen.


Andy B.

It already is happening.

One site I look after (50 static caravans and  20 touring hookups) has recently found  a couple of electric cars plugged into the touring hookup points.

The touring field is a pretty minimum charge anyway and if you want electric its £1.50 a day more.

I think that might have to change.


George

There really should be a regulation banning two 30mA RCDs in series the same circuit.


The first thing I'd do is remove the one at source, or replace it with a 100mA delayed trip device.


We go to endless trouble trying to achieve discrimination along an electrical system then allow this sort of thing!


And, yes, in the old days. a caravan used two thirds of nothing as the whole thing was powered from a battery storing 1kWh that needed to last several days. Now, with electric fridges and car chargers it might be different. Maybe provide for charging cars separately.

That endless trouble to achieve discrimination has been rather eroded since the introduction of MCBs.. 

The trusty 13A fuses and B32 circuit breakers discriminate on overloads, not really on a dead short, and MCBs feeding submains to other MCBs such as supplies to garages and summer houses and so on are just as problematic

Given the reliability issue with  RCDs - I bet you like me have found more than a few that do not actually trip at all when called upon to do so; I'm not that worried about cascaded RCDs, - I'd rather something tripped than nothing.  Right now they are required by the regs for  caravan supplies anyway, one on the campsite, one inside  the caravan itself..


I suggest that there would  be scope for some finer stages of delay and rating than seem to be readily available - if not for caravans then the submain situation for flats etc would benefit from a 30mA fast at one end, and a 30mA , not quite so fast, but still safety of life, at the meter end, perhaps restoring some selectivity/discrimination.