Is the Trailer Width Legal ?
Page 48
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\TOUR issue of October 7 (page 263) gives an
I interesting account and illustration of a six-wheeler conversion. It is stated that the total unladen weight of the vehicle is 3 tons 17 cwt. and that it has a body 8 ft. wide. It would be interesting to know how the legal requirement of regulation 37 of The Motor Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations, 1955, is being met.
While on this subject of width, there is a strong body of opinion that the existing regulation regarding that
of an articulated vehicle should be amended. The present Construction and Use Regulations require the motive unit alone to weigh 4 tons or more and to be 8 ft. wide before it can have a trailer portion 8 ft. wide.
As the combined weight of the motive unit and trailer portion of an articulated vehicle is taken for taxation purposes, why should it not be accepted for the purposes of width and so put this type of vehicle on an equal footing with a rigid vehicle?
L. PATRICK,
Divisional Secretary, Traders' Road Transport Association, Birmingham, II. West Midland Division.
[The regulation referred to reads, "a vehicle the unladen weight of which is 4 tons or more . .. and which is either a goods vehicle or a vehicle so constructed or adapted as to form part of an articulated vehiele.--ED.]