Thread: A framing a vehicle

I recon Ill just have to give it a go and find out, just try and stay under the radar and be courteous to other roadusers and you shouldn't attract too much attention. See the car wreck guys towing wrecks around all the time....

If anything Id look at one of those Dolly's. Haven't got the room for a car transporting trailer to be sitting here 99% of the time not being used already got 1 ornamental trailer already...

Biggest issue with a frames nowadays is frontal impact compliance,which is why the dolly’s came about but by the sounds of it you won’t be involved in, may get away under the Ag rules but ya can’t go over 40
But of late the 5.0 are clamping down on a few of the “grey “ areas as a few are starting to take the piss of said “grey “ areas

Originally Posted by blip

If anything Id look at one of those Dolly's. Haven't got the room for a car transporting trailer to be sitting here 99% of the time not being used already got 1 ornamental trailer already...

Might be a damn good option, register that and it gets around the other sticking points.

Ive got a isuzu mu off-roader that i have built a A-frame for, at first i looked at getting a trailer to tow it round but didnt want to leave a truck and trailer down the river as it probably wouldn’t take long to get stolen, i spent a bit of time getting the a-frame angles right, tows well behind my hiace van, ive got the rear taillights hooked up to a trailer plug, on tow sign at the back and safety chains on all the a frame connections, have towed it round town and out to the river a number of times without any problems, if its well set up and your courtesy to other road users i doubt you have issues

I will always remember being told the story of a mates dad (the one that dozed in Takapari road) went off to Masterton to buy a brand new Suzuki Jimney. The early 2 stroke one. He already had an A frame ready for it, paid the money, connected the A frame up to his Range Rover (the early 1970's baby poo yellow one) and headed back North. After half an hour he was out on those long straights and opened her up, to his usual 75mph travelling speed. Glanced in the rearvision mirror and nearly shat himself as all he could see was a Suzuki Jimney hard up his arse wanting to overtake him.

It took him a few seconds to remember he was A framing it

The unbraked towing rating of your vehicle (usually 500-750kg for decent size/weight vehicles) is only a manufacturers recommended maximum to protect themselves from Muppet owners who might hook up 2 tonne unbraked then drive down the crown range quickly with the auto in D and run out of brakes before the last corner.
The LAW in NZ is that a trailer over 2 tonnes in weight must be braked.
You must be able to stop in 7 meters or less from 30kph speed.
If your brakes,tires,suspension are all up to scratch you should have no problem at all doing that if your trailer is half the weight of your vehicle....Up to 3/4 the weight of the vehicle and some older vehicles will start to struggle to achieve this.
Pays to remember also that a trailer will or should have between 5 and 10% of its total weight as download on the towball....this weight assists vehicle traction during braking as well as combination stability.
An aframe has no ball download and this should be considered.
Also an aframe needs to have its pivot point at close to the same height off of the ground as the tow vehicles ball....usually 400-450mm high...If not then when brakeing download or more commonly UPLOAD can be applied to the towing vehicle and this can be dangerous.
I have attached many a Suzuki to a Grey nomad vehicle.

Originally Posted by veitnamcam

The unbraked towing rating of your vehicle (usually 500-750kg for decent size/weight vehicles) is only a manufacturers recommended maximum to protect themselves from Muppet owners who might hook up 2 tonne unbraked then drive down the crown range quickly with the auto in D and run out of brakes before the last corner.
The LAW in NZ is that a trailer over 2 tonnes in weight must be braked.
You must be able to stop in 7 meters or less from 30kph speed.
If your brakes,tires,suspension are all up to scratch you should have no problem at all doing that if your trailer is half the weight of your vehicle....Up to 3/4 the weight of the vehicle and some older vehicles will start to struggle to achieve this.
Pays to remember also that a trailer will or should have between 5 and 10% of its total weight as download on the towball....this weight assists vehicle traction during braking as well as combination stability.
An aframe has no ball download and this should be considered.
Also an aframe needs to have its pivot point at close to the same height off of the ground as the tow vehicles ball....usually 400-450mm high...If not then when brakeing download or more commonly UPLOAD can be applied to the towing vehicle and this can be dangerous.
I have attached many a Suzuki to a Grey nomad vehicle.

Pretty much all correct - apart from the unbraked rating. This isn't a manufacturer's thing, its ADR requirements from Aussie. We ratified the ADR requirements as a as/NZS joint standards type thing, so it came in here as well by default. So while the trailer brake weight levels say one thing, now the towing vehicle requirements say something different and the two obviously say two different things which is rather less than ideal. At this stage I'm not aware of anyone getting pulled up while towing and being tapped for exceeding the unbraked weighting, but going over the max combined weight and getting told to unload or park up is something that happens fairly regularly.

Originally Posted by No.3

Pretty much all correct - apart from the unbraked rating. This isn't a manufacturer's thing, its ADR requirements from Aussie. We ratified the ADR requirements as a as/NZS joint standards type thing, so it came in here as well by default. So while the trailer brake weight levels say one thing, now the towing vehicle requirements say something different and the two obviously say two different things which is rather less than ideal. At this stage I'm not aware of anyone getting pulled up while towing and being tapped for exceeding the unbraked weighting, but going over the max combined weight and getting told to unload or park up is something that happens fairly regularly.

I can't find any mention of it in the rules?...not saying it isn't so tho.
When did we adopt the ADRs?
It would make pretty much every 5m boat illegal to tow because why would you have brakes on one.

That's exactly the issue, there's been a paper in nzta for a while looking to sort it apparently but nothing has come yet. As I said I've never heard of anyone being pulled up for exceeding the unbaked rating of a tow vehicle but I have seen them parked for overloading...

I had one tandem braked trailer that was registered as a single axle unbraked garden trailer effectively. That was less than ideal... But didn't get any undue attention, it was the fact it failed the new electronic wof system that showed it up!

The ADR is the specification that manufacturers must comply with to be certified in Aus, and as most of our gear comes out according to Aus specs...

As to when, well when we signed up to cross portability with standards in Aus I guess?