Speed limits set at 20mph for rigid axle tractors and gross weight limits of 24t seem archaic.

 How many tractor drivers do you think break the law on a regular basis?And are British police too soft on it?

 for the sake of legality i have a "friend" who has 50k tractors and drives them at such and tugs an 18 ton grain trailer behind grossing in at about 32 ton. everybody speeds and everybody runs overweight. i think the police are too soft on it whats the point in having law if its not upheld??? but also i dont think we should be prosecuted for it because with rising diesel prices etc its not econimical to do 2 loads with a small trailer instead of 1 big load. so yes it does need updating, most tractors have airbrakes now and can stop faster than a car at 30 mph. possibly a cause for either the nfu or fw to take up????

farmerdavid:

so yes it does need updating, most tractors have airbrakes now and can stop faster than a car at 30 mph. possibly a cause for either the nfu or fw to take up????

I'm a firm believer in letting sleeping dogs lay. We do a fair bit of road work, hauling livestock and silage between farms. The local police don't take much notice and that's fine by me.

If the law is updated you can bet your bottom dollar that it'll involve a special driving license, HGV spec brakes and lighting, tacho's and possibly even using derv instead of red. I think the longer we can avoid this the better. The way forward is for farmers to act responsibly by having adequate braking, lights that work and drivers that can handle the task.

Absolutely agree with WnW. I have one 40k tractor, the others only do 20mph flat out, and most of the time the road conditions aren't good enough to travel at top speed, even with just the tractor. Even the Fastracs round here rarely go that quickly. As for weight, with 14 tons of grain I gross about 22 tons. The price of fuel arguement doesn't wash with me when I see grain trailers being dragged by fully ballasted 300hp tractors weighing in at half of our legal limit before they put a trailer behind it!

If new rules are brought in, they need to be strictly two tier, and stay that way. I'll bet there are an awful lot more of us that are largely within the law on weights and speeds than there are heros claiming to need to pull half the farm up the road at light speed!

Did the NFU not want GVW limit for tractors put up to 31t  plus the max speed ? 

 I think the NFU and AEA are looking into changing things.

 The best bet would probably be two-tier... An MOT style test for the trailer's brakes for those that want to travel faster. BAGMA reckon even trailers with air brakes fail to meet the British Standard 85% of the time.

 Maybe we need some German police, i'm sure they'd be a bit quicker to clamp down on it

welshnwilling:

I'm a firm believer in letting sleeping dogs lay

well said

Im sure they will get round to it at some point but i wish they wouldnt it will just be another cost and will be another chip in the small farmer with the old kitt. When i was younger i was put on trailer dutys with a trailer with no brakes i even had a time using a small tractor which would be pushed across the beet pad when tipping. It wasnt the way foward after now upgrading my grain, dump, flatbed,car,lowloader and lorry trailers since i left colege at least im ready but i bet they would still fail. Plus it doesent stop my brother backing into mercs....

I stand by what I said above, but if you insist on new rules and regulations then IMHO the first thing that needs looking at is 4x4's towing 3.5 ton trailers with inadequate braking systems. I wouldn't object too much to these trailers being subject to annual MOT testing. I'm sure far more accidents are caused by 4x4 + trailer combinations travelling at 50 mph, than there are by tractors doing 50 kmh with trailers that have air brakes and commercial axles, even if they are breaking the law by doing more than 20 mph and overweight.

every time the nfu try and improve something, they usually make it worse, better leave it alone.

 ^^^ Amen, Glasshouse!

 I'd also like to see a two tier system, for instance the current rules with maybe a slightly lower weight limit (18 tonnes?) for farmers going about their daily business, and more of a HGV style system for the contractors tearing around on monster machines.

And perhaps they could also look at the possibility of allowing specially registered trucks to use red diesel, they are very popular on the continent.

robexel:

And perhaps they could also look at the possibility of allowing specially registered trucks to use red diesel, they are very popular on the continent.

 Now that sounds like a good idea ! In fact I agree with your whole post. Don't think we'll get away with the trucks though.

I agree with glasshouse, we do need to update the laws on the road , I also wouldn't be against some sort of MOT but keep the weak NFU out of it they will make things worse with their mealy mouthed cowtowing to the goverment.

robexel:

look at the possibility of allowing specially registered trucks to use red diesel

You can do that now

Just imagine what it is like when you have two farms 20 miles apart and the police come along and put up a 'no tractors' sign on the only road between the two!

henarar:

robexel:

look at the possibility of allowing specially registered trucks to use red diesel

You can do that now

Anyone know what the rules are regarding trucks and red diesel ? Come to think of it, someone locally has an artic unit towing a farm trailer on red. Clumbsy old thing though.

IF GVW for tractor was put up would it mean a HGV licence would need to drive tractors ? 

stuart, s that a hint that you have to slip the plod a  tenner to take it down?

Trouble is with two combines holding 8 tons each make a big load, then haul it 10 miles back to store and get back, you need a decent sized tractor to be safe and actually get there but then you are pushing the weight limit. The law is the law but it needs changing, Iv been forced to use enough unsafe trailers with little or no braking capacity so maybe a test would be no bad thing, I took part in a voluntary one when I was on my placement, all the large tractors and trailers passed, ones owned by large farming companies failed, to the extent the tester did not want them to be taken home. Probably best not leave it to the NFU though.

simon1988:

Probably best not leave it to the NFU though

Bit of a theme developing here ? None of us seem to have much faith in them !

Is this not going to become an even bigger issue if we end up with larger livestock units where everything has to be move to and fro? They are going to be hauling massive material quantities over longer distances. Is that not going to create a greater focus on agricultural road rules. If so you can bet everyone will have to adhere to them, however, small they may be.

You're right Stuart. Makes you wonder how these big units are viable when they need to carry silage and slurry / muck over vast distances. Surely smaller units scattered around where the grass grows would be more profitable.

There's no doubt that rules regarding tractors and trailers on the road will be looked at, but the longer we can avoid this the better IMO.

In my opinion its best left alone, as soon as they change the law even the local plod get word passed down to them & then if you get a new one who's eager to score brownie points for promotion etc he'll pull owt that moves. I had a bit of a disagreement with one outside the chip shop one night a few years ago about my spot lamps with the angel eye blue halo around them. I argued that they were legal (which they were when i bought them) but they had changed the law which then said that they were only legal if they had a separate switch to be able to turn them off & not wired directly to the side lights.

Only a silly little thing i know & some would say my own fault for drawing attention to myself but the same would apply to more serious issues like weight limits & braking. The local plod generally leave us alone as long as you dunt do owt daft but there are only a couple of the old originals left now & we dunt know the rest. Not like the old days when i was nearly 16 & one of them was talking to my dad & said "tell your young un he's getting 2 ambitious now & going 2 far from home" "He must be getting near his test now & i'd hate to have to do him if summat went wrong" I didn't know they knew i was on the road but you wouldn't dare do it nowadays. 

WnW, I am afraid that too little work is beig done on evaluating all of the costs.

It is a little akin to the 1kg limit for packages in the UK. If I remember rightly it used to be the Royal Mail's preserve. Now vast numbers of courier vans traverse the countryside endlessly. Finanically profitable maybe, environmentally costly, definately. Last week we had a Shropshire sheep deliverd by courier to my home in Suffolk, individually wrapped and sent by courier complete with on-line tracking!

Here's a piece on FWi - a rural policeman outlining some of the tractor and farm vehicle problems that are most likely to get farmers in trouble.