Home Built Trailer - Rules?

[SeanF1]

Afternoon all,

I have been looking at motorcycle trailers to tow my bike behind the van on trips. There are lots of different options and prices, but this got me to thinking about building my own, or even converting an existing general trailer to a bike carrier.

I then discovered that since 2012, all trailers built in the UK are required to have IVA or "Type" approval whether home built or not. This seems to not be terribly well enforced, as a quick look at trailers for sale on ebay produces many examples of home made constructions for sale which seem to be very unlikely to have had any IVA approval.

Does anyone have practical experience of this field and how this works in practice please? For example if I were to purchase an old trailer on ebay to do up, do I have to ensure it has IVA approval before using it on the road? If I build my own, how difficult is the IVA approval process and is it even enforcable in practice as how can it be proven when a trailer was built?

Many thanks in advance for any pertinent information.

Kind regards

 

[The Coops]

First question is how do you tell? Officer, I have had it for the past 20 years (pre 2012), it lives in my garage and I have changed the tyres and suspension due to wear and tear and safety due to tyres being over 5 years old. The bottom line is only you would know !

 

[StillGoing]

First question is how do you tell? Officer, I have had it for the past 20 years (pre 2012), it lives in my garage and I have changed the tyres and suspension due to wear and tear and safety due to tyres being over 5 years old. The bottom line is only you would know !

Trigger’s broom

 

[The Coops]

Trigger’s broom

Exactly

 

[Stoosal]

Might not be the most up to date doc but this is the process if you haven’t seen it.

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[Brains]

A DIY trailer won't be an issue until it detaches at 60mph and ploughs into a bus queue.
At which point people will be asking questions and the insurance company has a guaranteed exit.

I saw some very nice folding bike trailers at LNB last year.
I think the cost is change from £3k new, but one assumes they must come up second hand from time to time.