SLROC Forum

I fancy a sankey style trailer for my landy. Now somethings I have read say they are illegal to use on the road. Can anyone tell me if this is true as I'd like to buy one sometime soonish.

Youre fine to use them on the road so long as youve got lights and legal tyres. The only issue could be your licence as the weight of the trailer doesnt leave much scope for carrying stuff. So it all down to your licence really

There are some technical bits - like they do not have a break-away cable. Easily retro- fitted though to keep Plod happy. They do not have an "auto-reverse" brake, on the modern ones you have to get out and operate a locking push-button to stop the brakes coming on if you reverse any thing other than gently. On the oldder ones the same effect is achieved by dropping a metal u shaped sleeve onto the brake piston. These issues mean that they would not pass the Regs if made now. The later construction requirements are not retrospective so they are OK to use, just like an older Landrover would not meet modern construction regs - airbags etc. I read some nonsense on one forum about how they were illegal because they were all 24v. Utter rubbish. If you find one marked up as 24v ( as towed behind an FFR radio vehicle) all you need to do is change the bulbs to 12v, hardly rocket-science.

Note there are two main types, the older "narrow track" version with four solid walls and the later "wide-track" version which has a drop-down tailgate and is bigger/heavier  - but more plentiful as MOD only finished selling off its stock last year. A "narrow track" will look good behind an ex MOD Series vehicle. 

The License thing may be the stumbling block for the younger generation. My license means I can tow a loaded Sankey - others may find they are limited to 750kg Gross weight trailers, which with a wide-track Sankey would only allow you load of just under 250Kg.   

^^^^ and I suspect "Stirky" may well be able to help with Trailer Tests if the repeated pictures of smiling first time passes on his Facebook page are anything to go by....

 

Thanks for the info there, fantastic.

You know what the internet's like for conflicting information (love the 24v's being illegal story - that makes sense.)

I'll just need to find the dimensions for both styles, I fancy making a camping trailer from a landy back body you see...

cheers

Which Land Rover model is used to tow the trailer causes furter complications since all "towing attachments" used with a vehicle first registered after a certain date require to be type approved.  So NATO hitch bolted to chassis on a Series I is apparently OK yet one used on a latest style Range Rover is not.

Hi
 I removed the original body from a Sankey, then extended the chassis rearwards by approx. 100mm, I also extended the out-riggers  slightly. this allowed the fitting of a 109/110 hi-cap body straight on to the Sankey chassis & allowed the retention of the standard tail gate on the hi-cap body. The only problem of consequence was that the larger body could accommodate a greater load than might have been wise so a degree of common-sense was required when loading the trailer.
 Regards
 Allan

So there's not too much fab involved, sounds good. Did you take any pics of the build you wouldn't mind sharing?

If you would like to see the aqms987 trailer it now resides in Fife, pm me if you wish.

Which Land Rover model is used to tow the trailer causes furter complications since all "towing attachments" used with a vehicle first registered after a certain date require to be type approved.  So NATO hitch bolted to chassis on a Series I is apparently OK yet one used on a latest style Range Rover is not.

Vehicles constructed after 1st August 1998 require a type approved towbar if they are towing.

One wonders why Dixon Bate have not bothered to get approval. Probably the small numbers sold into civilian markets mean its not cost effective, the vast majority will be sold to the military. Its also odd the MOD have not required them to be approved, usually MOD want everything to be "legal" and then some.

If you are planning on building something that could be considered a "new" trailer you better check out where it stands legally, you could be heading into a type-approval & inspection nightmare.  I've not read too deep into it but the days of home-brew trailers seem numbered.