Biggest van on car licence

ianm1234

My provisional license says I can drive a van under 3.5 ton but does that mean it has to weigh 3.5 ton when fully loaded or empty?

Rave.ef

Yes 3.5 ton gross vehicle weight

CiniO

It's 3.5 tonne design gross vehicle weight.
This will be indicated in registration cert same as on vehicle weight plate.



For example this one is rated to 2505 kg.
If that value is above 3500kg, you can't drive that vehicle with category B licence.

JBokeh

It will have to be designed to carry max of 3.5t. This would be the likes of ford transit t350 , or a sprinter, crafter, ducato type van.

Depending on what you're putting in it, the large vans can be put over weight pretty easily. They have a high volume so you're more inclined to pack more stuff into them. One guy doing building work on my house managed to get 2 tonne bags of gravel, 8 bags of cement, few more of sand, and all his tools into a LWB transit, and it didn't show too many signs of being overloaded from the outside, but i'd say there was 2.5 - 3 tonne of load in that van, not including the weight of the van it's self

CiniO

JBokeh wrote: »

It will have to be designed to carry max of 3.5t. This would be the likes of ford transit t350 , or a sprinter, crafter, ducato type van.

Depending on what you're putting in it, the large vans can be put over weight pretty easily. They have a high volume so you're more inclined to pack more stuff into them. One guy doing building work on my house managed to get 2 tonne bags of gravel, 8 bags of cement, few more of sand, and all his tools into a LWB transit, and it didn't show too many signs of being overloaded from the outside, but i'd say there was 2.5 - 3 tonne of load in that van, not including the weight of the van it's self

Overloading a van has nothing to do with driver licensing.

If you're driving empty t350 transit van - you need B licence.
If you're driving fully loaded t350 transit van to 3500kg - you need B licence.
If you're driving overloaded t350 transit which in fact weights 4500kg - you still only need B licence.

Obviously you can be done for driving overloaded van as it's illegal to drive overloaded vehicle, but you can't be done for driving without appropriate licence category, even if van is overloaded and in fact weights more than 3500kg.
All that matter is that it's designed to carry 3500kg max, and that's enought to require only category B licence from you.

ianm1234

JBokeh wrote: »

It will have to be designed to carry max of 3.5t. This would be the likes of ford transit t350 , or a sprinter, crafter, ducato type van.

Depending on what you're putting in it, the large vans can be put over weight pretty easily. They have a high volume so you're more inclined to pack more stuff into them. One guy doing building work on my house managed to get 2 tonne bags of gravel, 8 bags of cement, few more of sand, and all his tools into a LWB transit, and it didn't show too many signs of being overloaded from the outside, but i'd say there was 2.5 - 3 tonne of load in that van, not including the weight of the van it's self

My intention was to get a twin axle transit tipper for landscaping but the truck itself it 2,300kg so I can only carry 1,200kg but sure that's pointless now when the bed would be nearly empty with 1 ton in it!! May eventually get a big truck license or just keep paying delivery charges

ltdslipdiff

Don’t forget you can pull a trailer with a DGCW of 750kgs or less along with the Transit. But yes most tradies seem to get materials delivered on site these days.

ianm1234

ltdslipdiff wrote: »

Don’t forget you can pull a trailer with a DGCW of 750kgs or less along with the Transit. But yes most tradies seem to get materials delivered on site these days.

Wouldn't be worth the time it takes to hook up a trailer to carry 750kg, I'll stick with the panel Van

mullingar

ltdslipdiff wrote: »

Don’t forget you can pull a trailer with a DGCW of 750kgs or less along with the Transit. But yes most tradies seem to get materials delivered on site these days.

Not on a B license. B license covers the combined dgvw of the car/van & trailer to max 3500kg, this includes weigh of car/van & trailer & loads

CiniO

mullingar wrote: »

Not on a B license. B license covers the combined dgvw of the car/van & trailer to max 3500kg, this includes weigh of car/van & trailer & loads

That's true in case of trailer having D.G.V.W of over 750kg.

However you can tow a trailer up to 750kg D.G.V.W with 3500kg transit on B licence.

mullingar

But not when the van is loaded to near 3.5t, including van weight.

You can only drive a van that is plated to max 3.5t on a B license, loaded or not. If you fill the van you have no capacity left on license for any trailer.

Alkers

mullingar wrote:

But not when the van is loaded to near 3.5t, including van weight.

mullingar wrote:

You can only drive a van that is plated to max 3.5t on a B license, loaded or not. If you fill the van you have no capacity left on license for any trailer.

That's not true, trailers of up to 750kg do not count towards the gross train weight

CiniO

mullingar wrote: »

But not when the van is loaded to near 3.5t, including van weight.

You can only drive a van that is plated to max 3.5t on a B license, loaded or not. If you fill the van you have no capacity left on license for any trailer.

That's completely wrong.
Driving licencing requirements don't apply to actual weights, but design gross weights.
It makes absolutely no difference for your licence if you drive an empty, fully loaded vehicle.

B licence allows to drive vehicles up to 3500kg design gross weight, and up to 9 seats (including the driver). You can always attach trailer with design gross weight up to 750kg.
If you want to attach heavier trailer, you need to make sure, that sum of design gross weights of vehicle and trailer doesn't exceed 3500kg.


So in short refering to your example, no matter if you drive an empty van or fully loaded van to 3.5t, you can always have 750kg trailer attached to it. (that's obviously provided van is rated to tow 750kg unbraked trailer, as some might not be).

mullingar

Yes, license weight limits are the design gross vehicle weight or also known as mam (maximum authorized mass), not the actual weight.

I've a BE license so I know.

If you tow any trailer in a van with a dgvw of 3500kg, you need a BE license as that allows a train dgvw of 7,000kg.

If you can post a link that allows you to drive a 3.5t dgvw van with a 750 kg trailer on a B license, I will stand corrected.



The B Licence specifies max 3.5T DGVW, that's the max Designed train weight.

CiniO

mullingar wrote: »

Yes, license weight limits are the design gross vehicle weight or also known as mam (maximum authorized mass), not the actual weight.

I've a BE license so I know.

If you tow any trailer in a van with a dgvw of 3500kg, you need a BE license as that allows a train dgvw of 7,000kg.

If you can post a link that allows you to drive a 3.5t dgvw van with a 750 kg trailer on a B license, I will stand corrected.



The B Licence specifies max 3.5T DGVW, that's the max Designed train weight.

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2006/si/537/made/en/print?q=+Road+Traffic+Licensing+of+Drivers

Article 6 contains list of licence categories.

B

Vehicles (other than motorcycles, mopeds, work vehicles or land tractors) having a design gross vehicle weight not exceeding 3,500 kg., and having passenger accommodation for not more than 8 persons and where the design gross vehicle weight of the trailer is not greater than 750kg

_Brian

Simona1986 wrote: »

That's not true, trailers of up to 750kg do not count towards the gross train weight

This is correct.
Essentially the law ignores trailers with a dgvw 750kg or less.

So you can drive a vehicle with a dgvw 3500kg AND still pull a trailer up to dgvw 750kg.