Holiday Towing Safety and Police Checks

During holiday times, Queenslanders love to get out and about. A big part of that is hitching up the caravan or camper trailer and hitting the road to your favourite zen location. 

That means a lot more people will be towing on the road. 

The police will be out in force, and for your safety and compliance sake, you don’t want them to find anything wrong with your setup. This is important for many reasons – but most importantly we want you to get where you are going and back without any hiccups. 

So before you roll out of your driveway on your big adventure, please make sure everything is in order and within the regulations. 

That’s your Speedy Towbars reminder for this week! 

What Police Check For

Police will target vehicles towing over their legal limits or running setups that don’t meet safety requirements. The main focus areas include your vehicle’s Gross Vehicle Mass, your trailer’s Aggregate Trailer Mass and tow ball mass.

Now, for most people that terminology makes their eyes glaze over. It’s not common knowledge, but if you’re towing a lot you want to have a basic understanding of what it is. We’ve put together an explainer video to help with that: 

Police will also check your caravan’s roadworthiness if they stop you. This will include: 

• Checking the tyres and rims. 
• Making sure the trailer lights and indicators are working. 
• Ensuring the coupling is secure and safety chains are attached. 

It should be standard practice to double-check the functionality of all the above. Your setup will be safer for it and you will be confident if the police do check your rig. 

What Happens if Your Towing Setup is Non-Compliant? 

The biggest negative outcome if your trailer is found to be non-compliant is your holiday comes to a grinding halt. Kids in the back seat, camping site booked – and you’re not allowed to drive on until you sort out the safety issues on your trailer. Not a fun way to start any holiday. 

You could also face a fine and a defect notice, depending on what they find wrong with your trailer. There’s also the insurance angle to think about – if you’re involved in an accident and your towing setup is non-compliant, that’s an easy out for the insurance company to not pay your claim. 

Checking Your Towing Setup

Here’s the good news – it’s not hard to get this stuff right. You just need to be aware of the rules and prepare accordingly. It’s better to do that before setting off than on the side of the road with an officer of the law. 

Know your vehicle’s tow rating. This is the maximum load your vehicle can pull. You’ll find it in your owner’s manual and on the compliance plate inside the driver’s door jamb. Don’t rely on what a mate told you or what you vaguely remember from when you bought it.

Weigh your van loaded. The tare weight listed on your caravan’s compliance plate is what it weighs empty from the factory. When you fill it up with food, bikes, water and so on it gets much heavier. You can weigh it on a weighbridge at a caravan park or service centre 

Check your tow ball mass. A general guide is that tow ball mass should sit around 10% of your loaded trailer’s ATM. Some vehicle manufacturers specify a lower limit. Check yours using a tow ball scale placed under the coupling. 

Check your lights and wiring. If your brake lights or indicators aren’t working properly it frustrates other drivers, can lead to an accident and could get you pulled over too. It’s easy to check them – take a couple of minutes before you head off to make sure everything is in working order. 

Electric brake controllers. If you’re towing a trailer with electric brakes, your brake controller needs to be working. If it’s uncalibrated or faulty it could turn out badly. 

Is Your Towbar Up to The Job?

This is the part that catches people out. A towbar that wasn’t installed correctly or one that doesn’t meet Australian Design Rule 62 (ADR62) isn’t compliant. This is more than a paperwork problem. It affects your insurance, your safety and how you’ll look at a roadside inspection.

Every towbar we install at Speedy Towbars meets ADR62 and comes with a lifetime warranty. If you’re not sure about your current setup, or if you’ve bought a vehicle with a towbar already fitted and don’t know its history, get in touch and we’ll make sure you’re safe to tow. 

Have a Great Holiday!

We’re hitching up our caravan and hitting the road! We hope you are too – the above information isn’t meant to put a dampener on things. We just want you to have the safest and most enjoyable time possible. 

If you’ve got questions about your towing setup, get in touch here or drop into our Everton Hills or Slacks Creek workshops. 

Travel safely out there!