Which legal checks apply to towing a caravan?

A caravan is a trailer. Every towing rule on this site applies: licence, MAM, train weight, brakes, mirrors, lights, number plate and speed. Highway Code rule 98, checked in 2025, is the single list. You must not tow more than the licence permits, both vehicle and trailer must be roadworthy, you must not overload, you must have an adequate rearward view, and you must fit a secondary coupling. The 50 and 60 mph caps in rule 124 apply as soon as the hitch is on.

GOV.UK's equipment page adds type-approved tow bars for cars first used on or after 1 August 1998, working brakes if the loaded van is over 750 kg, and a matching number plate. DVSA's safety checks page is the walk-round: coupling, breakaway cable, tyres at 1.6 mm, lights, load, then the speed and snake advice once you are moving. A free NTTA safety check exists for trailers up to 3,500 kg. It is not a legal substitute for those duties.

The caravan plate gives its MAM. The car VIN plate gives the car MAM and the train weight. The handbook gives the towing capacity, often a braked figure and a lower unbraked figure. None of those is optional. A 1,500 kg MAM caravan behind a car whose train weight is 3,000 kg and whose own MAM is 1,800 kg is a 3,300 kg combination, which is 300 kg over the plate if both are fully loaded.

Nose weight is a separate manufacturer figure. Rule 98 wants heavy items over the axle and a downward load on the ball, inside that figure. Too little nose weight is how snaking starts. Too much is how the rear axle and the hitch complain. Stability is both a legal overload question and the DVSA advice not to brake harshly on a bend.

Tow bar type approval for cars first used from 1 August 1998. Working brakes if loaded weight is over 750 kg. A breakaway cable or secondary coupling in every case. Tyres on car and van at least 1.6 mm in the central three quarters, all the way round. Lights working, including the van's indicators and fog lamp. The car's registration on the rear of the van. Towing mirrors if the van is wider than the car.

GOV.UK says you can be fined up to £2,500, banned and given 3 points for using a vehicle in a dangerous condition, and up to £1,000 and 3 points for towing without proper mirrors. Those are the published figures. A snaking van with a slack cable and no extra mirrors is several of those offences at once.

DVSA says ease off the accelerator and reduce speed gently. Do not brake harshly. Snaking is a sign you are going too fast or the van is loaded wrongly. Rule 98 says the same: ease off, reduce speed gently, do not brake harshly. Get to a safe place, then move weight over the axle and check nose weight before you continue.

A breakdown while towing is slower to recover from. Rule 98 notes that towing on a tow rope is potentially dangerous and that a solid bar or professional recovery is the better option. Building up speed to rejoin a carriageway also takes longer. Leave more room than you would in the car alone.

A hire caravan still has a MAM plate. A hire car still has a train weight. The hire contract can forbid towing even when the licence would allow it. A foreign caravan used in Great Britain still has to meet GB construction, lighting and speed rules on GB roads. An NI-registered outfit used in GB is using GB roads, so the GB speed caps and the GB mirror and plate rules apply for that journey.

Going abroad with a caravan over 750 kg usually means trailer registration. That is a GOV.UK trailer registration check, not a GB speed-limit change.

Matching the van to the licence and ignoring the car plate. Leaving the water tank full plus the boot full plus four adults. Skipping extra mirrors because the interior mirror still shows a slice of road. Using the car's 70 mph motorway habit. Forgetting the breakaway cable. Putting the car's old plate on the van after a private plate change, so the two marks disagree.

The walk-round in DVSA's video is the antidote. Do it every time, not only at the start of the holiday. A cable that was fine on Friday can drag on Sunday.

Highway Code rule 98 cites Construction and Use regulations 27, 33, 86A and 100, the Lighting Regulations regulation 18, the Motorways Traffic Regulations regulation 12, and the Driving Licences Regulations. GOV.UK's equipment page publishes the £2,500 dangerous-condition tariff and the £1,000 and 3 point mirror tariff. DVSA's safety checks page, updated 22 April 2024, is the walk-round, including 1.6 mm tyres on both car and van and the 750 kg unbraked loaded line.

A caravan is not a special lighter class. It is a trailer. The licence page, the weights page, the unbraked page, the mirrors page, the number plate page and the speed page are the same checks with caravan facts filled in. Use the calculator on the hub first, then come here for the outfit as a whole.