Caravan types by weight: registration plate, insurance, MOT and licence

1One figure decides almost everything: 750 kg

Two caravans that look alike at a glance can carry very different obligations. The difference is not the length or the price but a number on the registration document: the maximum authorised mass, or MMA in Spanish, which is the most that caravan may weigh when loaded. If it does not exceed 750 kg, it is a light caravan. If it does, it is a heavy one.

Note what is being measured: the authorised limit, not what it weighs today on your pitch. A caravan that weighs 600 kg empty but is rated for 1,000 is a heavy caravan for every purpose. And the other way round: travelling very light does not turn yours into a light one.

For anyone doing a season it matters twice. When choosing a caravan, because it decides which papers and which licence you need. And when choosing a campsite, because the weight and size of what you tow shape the pitch and the car you bring it and take it away with.

2How to find what your caravan weighs (and what your car can pull)

It is all in two documents: the caravan's technical data sheet and the one for the car towing it. You do not need to be a mechanic, only to know which box to look at.

On the caravan's sheet the key figure is the MMA (box F.2). It is the limit you must not exceed once it is loaded for the trip. Beside it you will see the tare, which is what the caravan weighs empty from the factory, with no water, gas or luggage. Between the tare and the MMA lies the margin for everything you put inside.

On the car's sheet, in the weights and towing part, two figures rule:

• MMR with brakes (O.1 MMR c/f): the maximum mass the manufacturer authorises it to tow. Your caravan's MMA must never be higher than this number.
• MMC (maximum mass of the combination): the most the car and caravan may weigh together on the road.

3Light caravans: up to 750 kg MMA

These are the small, compact ones, the ones you take on a road trip without thinking too hard. Their legal treatment is the simplest of all:

• Plate: they have none of their own. They carry the registration plate of the car towing them on the back.
• Insurance: they need no policy of their own, because the law leaves trailers of up to 750 kg outside compulsory insurance. It is prudent to tell your insurer that you tow a trailer, and check what it covers.
• Inspection: they do not appear in the table of periodic inspections. What does go through the inspection is the tow bar you fit to the car, which must be noted on its card.
• Licence: the ordinary B car licence is enough, as long as the car does not exceed 3,500 kg MMA.

4Heavy caravans: more than 750 kg MMA

Nearly every medium and large family caravan falls here, including the ones you can live in comfortably for a whole season. Beyond 750 kg, the law treats them as a vehicle in their own right:

• Plate of its own: Spain's General Vehicle Regulations require trailers over 750 kg to be registered. The plate has a red background with black characters and the format R 0000 BBB, and it goes on the back together with a plate carrying the towing car's registration.
• Insurance of its own: compulsory. The motor liability law exempts only trailers not exceeding 750 kg, so above that figure the caravan needs its own third-party liability policy. Breakdown, theft or own-damage cover is optional.
• Periodic inspection: caravans are exempt up to six years and, from then on, are inspected every two years.
• Overrun brake: trailers over 750 kg carry one by their weight, and in practice that is what tells them apart at a glance from a light one.
• Licence: depends on what the car and caravan weigh together. We look at it in the next section.

5Summary: light versus heavy

6Which licence you need: B, B96 or B+E

The sum is simple, and uses two numbers from the data sheets: add the MMA of your car to the MMA of your caravan. That gives the maximum mass of the combination, and that figure decides the licence.

• Up to 3,500 kg for the outfit: the ordinary B licence will do.
• Between 3,501 and 4,250 kg, with a heavy caravan: you need the B96 authorisation. It is not a separate licence but a note on your B. You get it by passing a manoeuvres test: parallel parking and pulling out, and coupling and uncoupling the trailer.
• Above 4,250 kg: you need the B+E licence, the full trailer one, which lets a class B car tow a trailer of up to 3,500 kg MMA.

Three made-up examples, to see how it works. A car of 1,700 kg MMA and a caravan of 1,300 kg add up to 3,000: B is enough. An SUV of 2,100 kg and a caravan of 1,600 kg add up to 3,700: B96. A 4x4 of 2,400 kg and a caravan of 2,200 kg add up to 4,600: B+E.

7Big twin-axle caravans: are they towed with B+E?

These are the long, twin-axle caravans that look like a house, the most comfortable for living many months on a pitch and also the hardest to move. At those weights the car towing them has to be powerful —a large SUV, a 4x4 or a van— and the sum of the two MMAs nearly always goes above 4,250 kg.

So in practice the answer is usually yes: they are towed with the B+E licence, provided the car is one you can drive with a B (up to 3,500 kg MMA) and the caravan does not exceed 3,500 kg MMA. As a sum: 3,500 for the car plus 3,500 for the caravan makes 7,000 kg for the outfit, which is the most the B+E gives in that combination.

A practical question that bears on seasons: a caravan that size needs a big pitch and room to manoeuvre. Before buying one, check the maximum dimensions the campsite where you plan to leave it accepts, and how you get into the pitch.

8Size matters too: pitch and price

Weight decides the papers, but what decides whether you fit in a campsite is size. And it is not a matter of taste: a long caravan, with its awning and the car beside it, may not fit just any pitch, and not every campsite has large pitches.

• Fit: the pitches of one campsite are not all the same. Some are small, meant for a short caravan, and others much roomier. A long or twin-axle caravan needs the big ones, which tend to be fewer.
• Measurements that count: the caravan's length including the drawbar (the hitch section), its width with the awning or porch out, and room for the car. The length a manufacturer advertises rarely includes the drawbar.
• Access: not only the pitch matters but also the lanes. Narrow streets, tight bends or low branches can make it hard to get a big caravan in, even if the pitch itself is generous.
• Price: at some campsites the season price changes with the pitch's square metres, and a big caravan usually needs one of the dearest. Others charge by caravan size or add a surcharge, and others have a single price. Each campsite does it its own way.

So before choosing a campsite, measure your caravan for real (length with drawbar, width and height) and ask which pitch it would get and at what price. On the campingsdetemporada.es listings, the pitch's square metres appear on each rate when the campsite gave them to us, and any conditions that limit size, when there are some, in the small print.

9What to check before you buy, or before you leave it at a campsite

• What is the caravan's MMA? Does it exceed 750 kg? Look at box F.2 of its data sheet.
• What is my car's MMR with brakes? The caravan's MMA cannot exceed it.
• What do the car's MMA and the caravan's add up to? That tells you whether B is enough or you need B96 or B+E.
• If it is heavy: does it have its own plate, valid insurance and an up-to-date inspection? If second-hand, ask for all three before paying.
• Does the car have the tow bar approved at the inspection station and noted on its card?
• What does it really weigh, loaded? One trip over a weighbridge settles it.
• If you plan a season: does the campsite accept this caravan's size on its pitch? Does it ask for any paperwork —insurance or inspection— to keep it there?