Thursday, Mar 13, 2008 at 21:14
The ADR rules allow some le-way for
suspension (and wheel) mods, but if you stray from the allowable, they come down on you like a ton of bricks, your stability control comment may not be as silly as it sounds in the eyes of big brother. Ever tried to get an engineers cert. on a motor mod? Nightmare.
Maybe the hydraulic to mechanical on a boat trailer is considered a same/same mod, dunno. The last brake mod I did on a boat trailer over 2 tonne was a 4 wheel electric with breakaway, vicroads didn't bat an eyelid.
When you read the ADR rules for trailers it becomes obvious that many of the regs can be interpreted, they are not always black and white. I'm my business I do RWC's, I ring vicroads regularly to get clarification on various regs (car windscreens are a classic example). Often THEY don't know, it always comes down to safety, they always rule in favour of whatever they say it should mean, not what the words actually say.
A friend of
mine in Queensland imports secondhand trailer/sailers, before he can hitch them up from the docks he is forced to modify the hitches to comply with ADR even though there is nothing wrong with the yankee hitches, in fact they are far superior to ours.
My point is, common sense plays no part when dealing with these authorities, they would just as soon drag you to court rather than listen to a logical argument. I would not like to
test your brake modification in a court of law with the type of mentality that vicroads possess.
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