When driving on a public road, can you carry in a trailer pulled by an agricultural tractor a cargo exceeding its permissible loading capacity?
Show the correct answer
Correct answer
B. No.
Explanation
In the photo there is an inscription on the side of a trailer: at a tyre pressure of 5 at, the load capacity is 4000 kG and the speed up to 60 km/h, and at 2.8 at, the load capacity is 4500 kG and the speed up to 25 km/h. Carrying a load that exceeds the permissible load capacity of the trailer is not allowed - answer B.
The Road Traffic Act states that the load must not cause the maximum permissible mass or the permissible load capacity of the vehicle to be exceeded. The inscription in the photo shows that the load capacity is not a rough guess - the manufacturer set it for specific working conditions of the tyres, axles and brakes. An overloaded trailer brakes worse, its leaf spring or axle may break, and its mass pushes against the tractor on a downhill slope and on a bend. A 40% tolerance (answer A) does not exist - 40% appears in the rules in a different context, for the mass of a trailer pulled by a lorry. A short route of up to 5 km (answer C) also does not justify overloading, because an accident can happen at the first bend. You can find the load capacity in the vehicle registration certificate and on the rating plate.
Legal basis: Art. 61 para. 1 of the Road Traffic Act (Prawo o ruchu drogowym)