What can I Tow

Your Vehicle

Each vehicle has a maximum un-braked and braked trailer/caravan towing capacity. You can usually find this in the vehicle owner’s handbook or by contacting your authorised dealer.    The handbook may mention train weight which means you have to take away the weight of the vehicle to find your towing capacity.

Your Driving Licence

The ability to tow a caravan or trailer will depend on the driving licence you hold. The category entitlement on your driving licence will determine the type of trailer you can tow.

Car licences held before 1 January 1997       All drivers who passed a car test before 1 January 1997 retain their existing entitlement to tow trailers until their licence expires. This means they are generally entitled to drive a vehicle and trailer combination up to 8.25 tonnes MAM. They also have entitlement to drive a minibus with a trailer over 750kgs MAM.

Car driving licence first obtained since 1 January 1997     Drivers who passed a car test on or after 1 January 1997 are required to pass an additional driving test in order to gain entitlement to category B+E.

Upgrading entitlement for trailers in general, requires an additional driving test for each category or subcategory of entitlement. But there are certain exceptions to this where drivers have already passed one test which involves trailer entitlement for a larger or equivalent sized vehicle.

This information is not intended to be a definitive statement of law.