Breakaway cable - DVSA checks

[c_lee]

Saw this earlier today and worth taking note of for any caravaners.

http://www.caravanclub.co.uk/communi...es/rt/1512729/

Made slight alteration to my towbar assembly today to enable me me to comply.

Colin

[Whyman]

The detachable Volvo(Thule?) towbar on my XC60 has a dedicated attachment point but the standard breakaway cable on my Swift caravan which is designed to pass through the attachment point and be looped back on itself is too big. I ran for a while with it looped around the towball, considered an additional link but finally bought a ALKO cable that is designed just to clip on.

The only difference between the two cables is that othe clip on one is much stronger.

I feel that this is a much safer solution.

I was on the CC site in Brighton a few years ago and noticed that the fence on the exit had been damaged in the few hours since our arrival. The wardens told me that an outfit had left the site and as it left the site the van had become detached and rolled back into the fence. Probable cause the van was not attached properly to the towball.

Human error is more likely cause than failure of the towing bracket.

[Tannaton]

I'm slightly sceptical of the artical on the website, for some reason the topic of towing and caravanning seems to attract a lot of keyboard warriors. He imlpies (but doesn't say specifically) that the prohibition notice was immediate (not delayed) - these should only be issued if the vehicle/trailer combination is considered so dangerous that driving it on a public road is an immediate risk.

Having a defect on a vehicle which could construe a criminal offence being committed does not invalidate your car insurance as required under the road traffic act. If the DVSA inspector advised this then he should be re-trained. It might impact your ability to claim for your own losses but this would be entirely down to how the contract of insurance is worded and the insurance companies interpretation of the specific events leading up to the claim. Again not something that a DVSA employee could, or should advise on.

With regard to the brakeaway cable - it depends on the year of manufacture but for the vast majority of trailers up to 3.5t with overrun brakes a brakeaway cable must be fitted and attached to the towing vehicle in such a way that the brakes are applied if the trailer becomes detached. It should be attached via a seperate bracket but can be looped around the tow ball if no such bracket is fitted.

Unbraked trailers must also have a secondary coupling (strong - usually chain).

I cannot find a link to the actual legislation but I believe this to be correct.

http://bessacarr-owners-club.org/inf...way-Cables.pdf

[Tannaton]

Look at this very detailed and useful document - see page 157.

https://www.gov.uk/government/upload...of-defects.pdf

The complete absence of a breakaway cable should result in the issue of a Delayed Prohibition notice giving the driver 10 days to correct it as it is not a safety critical defect.

There is no provision for issuing a prohibition notice due to the breakaway cable being wrapped round the towball, not a bracket.

[Rooster]

I think breakaway cables are a stupid idea anyway,

If trailer becomes detached and breakaway cable slams brakes on on trailer on motorway then its going to cause an accident,

It carn't be that hard to put a solid strap to tow vehicle so if it comes off towball then at least it will stay tow vehicle will have half a chance of bringing trailer to a stop