Horse Trailer has lost weight!

We have an Ifor Williams horse trailer that we are considering selling. Looking to see what the going rates are, I noticed that some people advertise their trailers as weighing 700kgs, obviously to attract those people with a B permit. Looking at my Certificate of Conformity, the trailer weighs 700kgs empty. Yet, the official empty weight in the UK is 920kgs. It would be interesting to be taken to a weighbridge by the Gendarmes. Not a problem for us as we have the permit to tow such a weight. However, insurance would possibly be invalid.

Is it possible that there is a different specification for France?

Hi Jane,

In respect of cars there is ie rhd v lhd, but the Ifor Williams trailers are exactly the same. You can ‘downplate’ a trailer, register it to carry a lower load, but you can’t change the weight of it unless you remove something.
I have just looked at Fautras trailers, who would probably be the main competitor to Ifor Williams for that market here and there trailers are 750kg empty. In fact a few years ago we sold an older Ifor Williams trailer to a French chap that was looking for the sturdiness of an Ifor as his Fautras had tipped over. I hadn’t thought at the time about the weight of the trailer.
I have asked the question of Ifor this morning, who asked me to send a copy of the CoC.
I’ll update when I have their reply.

Paul

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If folk wish to they can take a trailer… and weigh it… on a weighbridge… the farmers use them to weigh wagons empty/full at harvest time and also for weighing sacks of grain etc and bales of straw/hay…

Our old 1925 Trefle has to be weighed as part of its contrôle tecnique. That, plus ensuring the lights work… et voila… all done :rofl::hugs:

Yes you can. I use our weighbridge fairly regularly. However, that doesn’t explain the change in weight regarding the paperwork. A sceptical person like my self might think it was a way of Ifor Williams being able to sell a trailer here to people that otherwise wouldn’t be able to tow one!

I don’t really think Ifor Williams would do that… but, whatever, it is important that folk know how much they should be towing and don’t exceed the limits. The Gendarmes do make “spot” checks and anyone found “in the wrong” will be in for a hard time.

And that is my concern. The trailer still weighs the same and so would be outside the weight limit that a Permit B could tow.

The only weight that is important is the gross vehicle weight, ie. the maximum load permissible plus the trailer weight. Your trailer clearly has a much greater g.v.w. than 700kg. somewhere between 2000kg. and 3500kg. I would guess.
Apparently There has been a recent change to the permis requirements and it is no longer necessary to obtain a medical certificate in order to tow up to 3500kg.