Should a right to tow, be a seperate licence rating ?

[Signature035 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Signature035]

YES .....Absolutley...... There are far to many fools out there with absolutley no idea.

.....PS: and I'm also an advocate of a separate 4WD licence..... They are not shopping trolleys and need to be respected as such !

[Prado BB Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Prado BB]

Re: Should a right to tow, be a seperate licence rating ?

I agree with you Rob on both fronts. The 4WD training I did was invaluable and in my opinion P-Platers especially should not be allowed to drive them if they haven't been trained.

[MDS69 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close MDS69]

Re: Should a right to tow, be a seperate licence rating ?

Without a doubt the answer is yes. Towing a 7x5 box trailer is easy in my opinion but I can't imagine towing with no experience a caravan or a Jayco Outback Eagle which is what friends of ours has and it is nearly as big as their 100 series and this is where the training would pay off.

Also I am with Rob on the seperate 4Wd license. I would have no qualms in having to go for one as the 4Wd is a different beast to your Hyundi Getz.

And whilst we are talking about licenses how about one for humans to have kids :evil:

[tinkera Member Find all posts View Profile Close tinkera]

Re: Should a right to tow, be a seperate licence rating ?

[quote="pradogxlv6"]After seeing some complete dickheads towing and cutting off people, braking late and just being hostile;
HI pradogxlv6 Mate that,s just a normal Easter break everyone trying to cram as much into 4 days as they can with no regard to anyone around them.Another reason I do not go away at Easter anymore .I don,t know about 4x4 training because once he has obtained licence are dickheads really going to change,don,t forget he,s already got a car licence.But I agree with the towing coarse. These towers are on the road all year round YOUNG AND OLD causing havoc.And yes Iam a tower. :twisted: CHEERS TINKERA

[Prado BB Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Prado BB]

Re: Should a right to tow, be a seperate licence rating ?

Yeah good point tinkera, I guess there are just too many inconsiderate fools around today. Another licence aint going to mean a thing.

[fishfinder Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close fishfinder]

Re: Should a right to tow, be a seperate licence rating ?

I also agree that a towing licence is not going to give any fool common sense , towing plenty of times my self there are people out there with just there vehicle cutting me off whilst I have the Jayco behind me so an extra licence would not remove the dick head factor ...

[Signature035 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Signature035]

Re: Should a right to tow, be a seperate licence rating ?

I also agree that a towing licence is not going to give any fool common sense , towing plenty of times my self there are people out there with just there vehicle cutting me off whilst I have the Jayco behind me so an extra licence would not remove the dick head factor ...

Do you think though, that if they had to attend a 'Tow Ed' course of some sort....... it just might make it too hard for some..... and others just may not pass?

Watching an elderly neighbour hook up a 21' Jayco behind his ford and head up the coast a few weeks ago...... having never towed in his life was a scary thing to wach. He is a bad enough driver without the van.

[ozwapet2 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close ozwapet2]

Re: Should a right to tow, be a seperate licence rating ?

Maybe for caravans over a certain length or weight perhaps.
I've seen plenty of people with these huge vans, no idea how to back them, so they park where they don't have to reverse, which is normally in the way of everyone else. :x
It's amazing that people can take a rig almost as long as a semi-trailer onto the road with no mandatory training.

[bgreeni Member Find all posts View Profile Close bgreeni]

Re: Should a right to tow, be a seperate licence rating ?

I don't think it would make much difference. As said below, it wont change D..H...'s and just be an extra pain (and no doubt opportunity to revenue raise) for the considerate driver.

With the number who drive without any lisence now they would not bother.

[xlr8_87 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close xlr8_87]

Re: Should a right to tow, be a seperate licence rating ?

They give away driving licenses like they're in the bottom of chip packets these days, so any restriction I would definitely support!

I also believe getting your license shouldn't be as simple as a 10 minute driving test, a full days course would be a lot better.

[FlyingBushPig Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close FlyingBushPig]

Re: Should a right to tow, be a seperate licence rating ?

I think the issue is more about teaching people to drive correctly in the first place. If you understand to drive according to the conditions (allow more time if you are towing, if it's raining etc), the other towing things which are less likely to cause bad accidents will sort themselves out due to experience. I'm thinking of things like swinging out a bit wider etc.
I absolutely agree there should be some driver training available for people towing. I'd love a day with a beat up car and a trailer/van on a skidpan, simply to practice pulling out of slides when towing. It rarely happens to me, but if it does, it's a scary thing no matter how much you know.

I think there's plenty of idiots who cause problems just driving a normal car to bother worrying about those towing. Some of the mistakes are just people learning - and we all need to do that!

[WBY 1 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close WBY 1]

Re: Should a right to tow, be a seperate licence rating ?

They give away driving licenses like they're in the bottom of chip packets these days, so any restriction I would definitely support!

I also believe getting your license shouldn't be as simple as a 10 minute driving test, a full days course would be a lot better.

dont know about that. these days its 150hrs on your L's, 2 or 3 RTA tests, P's for 3 years, and the rest. It may not be perfect but Im pretty sure it was much easier in the past...

I think proper education (not tv commercials) is the key for all drivers covering all conditions and scenarios e.g. towing, rain, 4wds, freeways, etc. I dont think a practical test is neccessary but at least a day in the classroom to educate people. You might say revenue raising or a waste of time but how else could you get the message across to everyone? i also think there should be classes of licences for towing similar to trucks e.g. anyone can tow up to X kgs, further training/RTA test for up to Y kgs, etc etc. this could be linked to vehicle rego's to help the police or rta monitor on the roads. I agree with the previous posts that licences dont mean much but they must mean something otherwise none of us would bother getting them.

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

Re: Should a right to tow, be a seperate licence rating ?

Hi, at the very least if you are going to tow a trailer you should be able to reverse it, i load a lot of trailers and you would not believe the number of people who have absolutely no idea how to reverse. Also they should know the GTM for their trailer, as the person doing the loading i am expected to know the trailers GTM, the cars towing capacity, the rating of the tow bar (gross and Max ball weight) yet most people reckon the trailers limit is just before the gaurds start to scrape on the wheels.

Cheers Andrew

[chester Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close chester]

Re: Should a right to tow, be a seperate licence rating ?

Yes i do but there needs to be some work done first or it will be just a chinese whispers story. The towing laws in Aus need to be overhauled first they and there enforcement is utter rubbish. The is so much mis information and poor interpretation even by so called experts around towing weights, vehicle capabilities, hitch requirements, speed limits, mirror reqiurements etc etc
After just going through this myself i was totally confused at the end.

While yes a towing course or seperate licensing would give practical knowledge the theory interpretation behind it must be sound to get the full benefit

[waltec Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close waltec]

Re: Should a right to tow, be a seperate licence rating ?

Funny how Licenses work, to drive a vehicle 4.5t and over you need a Heavy Vehicle license (old C Class), but on a standard car licence you can drive a car and a trailer easily adding upto over 5 or 6t. I've driven both, and a 6t truck is a lot easier to drive than a 6t trailer combo. As for truck licenses once your trailer has a RGM over 9t you need an Articulated Licence (even if the trailer is empty at the time), so they understand that you need a different skill set for truck trailers, but not for large car trailers. Unfortunately the licensing system doesn't test this but relies on the driver having common sense, that will never work. I know I have towed some items that would be classed as illegal, but I used common sense with both the loading and driving and it was fine and at no time was anyone in danger, but I've also seen some driving trailers that are well within the realms of legal, but far from safe!!!

Unfortunately there is always a few that always wreck it for all.

Matt