'Car Transporters Prohibited'

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Ruperts Trooper
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Re: 'Car Transporters Prohibited'

Post by Ruperts Trooper »

B1040 wrote:I guess car transporters were shorter and not extended over the tractor pre-war.
Cars were delivered individually from factory to distributor (main dealer) into the 1960's so car transporters would have been rare before that.

The car delivery drivers held a major strike at BMC in 1963.
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JohnnyMo
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Re: 'Car Transporters Prohibited'

Post by JohnnyMo »

urbanfox wrote:
Debaser wrote:
urbanfox wrote: Are there any other examples of places where certain specific types of vehicle (i.e., not just blanket bans on >7.5 tonners, or whatever) are banned?
I refer you to the lower of the two blue signs (also here).
There can't be many vehicles less than a ton, much less those that the military use! That is an odd one.
Motor cycles ? Even a hatchback is about 1.2 tonnes
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urbanfox
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Re: 'Car Transporters Prohibited'

Post by urbanfox »

Motor cycles ? Even a hatchback is about 1.2 tonnes
I drive a Peugeot 107, its empty weight is 860, I think (maximum is 1100ish).
Be a struggle to find anything lighter than that (with 4 wheels, anyway). Have the MOD invested in a fleet of Smart cars lately? :laugh:
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Ruperts Trooper
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Re: 'Car Transporters Prohibited'

Post by Ruperts Trooper »

JohnnyMo wrote:
urbanfox wrote:There can't be many vehicles less than a ton, much less those that the military use! That is an odd one.
Motor cycles ? Even a hatchback is about 1.2 tonnes
Older vehicles were much lighter - many municipal car parks still have weight limits of 30 cwt (1524 kg) maximum weight - but thankfully no longer enforced!
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JohnnyMo
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Re: 'Car Transporters Prohibited'

Post by JohnnyMo »

urbanfox wrote:I drive a Peugeot 107, its empty weight is 860, I think (maximum is 1100ish).
Be a struggle to find anything lighter than that (with 4 wheels, anyway). Have the MOD invested in a fleet of Smart cars lately? :laugh:
By the time you have added a squaddie or two that would still be pushing a tonne.
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rhyds
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Re: 'Car Transporters Prohibited'

Post by rhyds »

Lightweight land rovers might squeeze it
Built for comfort, not speed.
t1(M)
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Re: 'Car Transporters Prohibited'

Post by t1(M) »

It's the no "wheeled" military vehicles that puzzles me - does that mean tanks are permitted? What other non-wheeled vehicle are there? Hovercraft? Spacehoppers? Toboggans?

Car transporters certainly did exist before the 1960s - here is a screen grab from a film made in 1953
http://www.imcdb.org/i098972.jpg
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Re: 'Car Transporters Prohibited'

Post by Ruperts Trooper »

rhyds wrote:Lightweight land rovers might squeeze it
I'm told the "lightweight" Land Rovers were heavier than ordinary civilian ones.
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Debaser
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Re: 'Car Transporters Prohibited'

Post by Debaser »

urbanfox wrote:
Debaser wrote:
urbanfox wrote: Are there any other examples of places where certain specific types of vehicle (i.e., not just blanket bans on >7.5 tonners, or whatever) are banned?
I refer you to the lower of the two blue signs (also here).
There can't be many vehicles less than a ton, much less those that the military use! That is an odd one.
It's one of the villages near Catterick Garrison, on a minor road that has sometimes been used as a rat-run by, erm, errant military personnel. I don't know if any villages near Aldershot or Salisbury Plain have similar?
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Re: 'Car Transporters Prohibited'

Post by SteveA30 »

Genevieve I presume.
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Re: 'Car Transporters Prohibited'

Post by DEANO3528 »

Ruperts Trooper wrote:
rhyds wrote:Lightweight land rovers might squeeze it
I'm told the "lightweight" Land Rovers were heavier than ordinary civilian ones.
Correct. The 'Lightweight' came about because of the way they could be stripped down and in civilian circles they were known also as 'Air-Portable' because they were designed to fit in the Argosy transport
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Re: 'Car Transporters Prohibited'

Post by WHBM »

Ruperts Trooper wrote:Cars were delivered individually from factory to distributor (main dealer) into the 1960's so car transporters would have been rare before that.
There were extensive car transporter fleets long before this. Much of the output of the industry was for export, and they were commonly transported from Midlands factories. The most used ports in the 1960s were down the A34 to Southampton for other continents, like Africa, and along the A45 to Harwich for European markets (hence the Kimbolton issue). On the ship from Harwich, where they formed about 50% of the cars carried, they were individually driven on/off, and known as "trade cars", as opposed to regular motorists who were known as "accompanied cars". They were transported from the Continental end as well, of course. Not a lot of cars came the other way at the time, but early Volkswagen Beetles and Mercedes came the other way through Harwich, and were of course then distributed across the country in this way.
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Re: 'Car Transporters Prohibited'

Post by Comstock »

I do wonder how legally enforceable this is.

It sounds silly but do we have a legal definition of a 'car transporter'?
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JohnnyMo
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Re: 'Car Transporters Prohibited'

Post by JohnnyMo »

Comstock wrote:I do wonder how legally enforceable this is.

It sounds silly but do we have a legal definition of a 'car transporter'?
Back when the restrictions were implemented probably "Any vehicle, over 7.5 Tons, driven by a member of the TGWU ( Car transporter Branch)" :coat:

More to the point would modern (high capacity) car transported cause a problem as these don't have a overhang at the front.
Image

But still I would not like to get one round those bends.
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Re: 'Car Transporters Prohibited'

Post by rhyds »

I assume it's the same as a 7.5T restriction "except for access" in that it's not illegal to pass it but if anything happens it can be counted against you.
Built for comfort, not speed.
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Re: 'Car Transporters Prohibited'

Post by Ruperts Trooper »

rhyds wrote:I assume it's the same as a 7.5T restriction "except for access" in that it's not illegal to pass it but if anything happens it can be counted against you.
Oh, it's an offence alright - if stopped they need to detail the premises being accessed - problem is lack of policing, as in many other aspects of legislation.
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Re: 'Car Transporters Prohibited'

Post by urbanfox »

Ruperts Trooper wrote:
rhyds wrote:I assume it's the same as a 7.5T restriction "except for access" in that it's not illegal to pass it but if anything happens it can be counted against you.
Oh, it's an offence alright - if stopped they need to detail the premises being accessed - problem is lack of policing, as in many other aspects of legislation.
In all fairness, a lot of those types of restriction (As well as those mysterious >6'6"< restrictions on roads that are perfectly normal, and 'cul de sac' signs on through roads, etc) are surely there simply because the locals have had a moan about their street/village being used as a rat run, rather than any 'real' reason (weak bridges, etc)
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Re: 'Car Transporters Prohibited'

Post by DEANO3528 »

JohnnyMo wrote:
More to the point would modern (high capacity) car transported cause a problem as these don't have a overhang at the front.
The overhang is still there, but because they aren't artic' but 'wagon and drag' the turning characteristic is rather different.
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Re: 'Car Transporters Prohibited'

Post by Trebeck »

Are / where there a lot of car dealers, (or car factories?) in that area, such that car transporters are a specific problem?
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Re: 'Car Transporters Prohibited'

Post by rhyds »

Trebeck wrote:Are / where there a lot of car dealers, (or car factories?) in that area, such that car transporters are a specific problem?
The A45 used to pass through Kimbolton and was the direct link from the big car factories of the Midlands to Harwich
Built for comfort, not speed.
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