How To Ace Your B+E Test

Passing your trailer test isn’t as unachievable as you might think, as Bryony Symes discovered when she teamed up for some training with driving instructor Felicity (Fliss) Spink

- Bryony Symes

I’M SORRY TO have to break this to you, but if you passed your driving test after 1997, your total outfit weight is limited to 3500kg. Thought you were done with nerve-racking driving tests? Think again, my friend.

If you want the flexibility to choose your perfect caravan and car combination, you’ll have to take another test to get your ‘E’ entitlement, which will allow you to drive an outfit of up to 7500kg.

Working on Practical Caravan, I am privileged to be able to use a variety of caravans and cars from our test fleets, but I was limited to towing light caravans with light cars, and for every trip had to ensure that the weight of the outfit did not exceed 3500kg.

So I teamed up with driver training instructor Fliss Spink for some towing instruction to maximise my chances of passing. I have towed a fair bit, but have never had any formal training, so this was to iron out the kinks and get comfortable with how the trailer behaves when you are reversing. After only a couple of days of intense training, I was about ready to face the examiner with all of Fliss’s sage advice ringing in my ears.

Rules of the road As drivers, we must all be aware of what other road users are doing, but with a caravan in tow you have two vehicles to think about. One of Fliss’s phrases that now sticks in my mind as I tow is “anticipate idiots”. You never know what other road users are going to do, and chances are that the thought of driving behind a caravan may prompt some to speed out of a junction in front of you, or to make any number of unsafe manoeuvres. In preparation for this, make sure that you leave plenty of space between your car and the vehicle in front at all times.