Before you drive a motorhome in the UK, it is important to know whether or not you are legally entitled to – even if you are simply taking a motor home out for a short test drive before deciding on making a purchase. This means that you will need to make sure that you have the right type of UK driving licence for your motorhome or you will be breaking the law.
According to the official government website, the licence you will require to drive a motorhome in the UK depends on your age and the weight of the vehicle, or its Maximum Authorised Mass – which is the weight of your motorhome and the maximum recommended load that it is allowed to carry.
If you have a category C1 licence, or you passed your test before 1st January 1997, then you are legally entitled to drive any motorhome with a Maximum Authorised Mass of up to 7.5 tonnes.
If you passed your test after 1st January 1997 then you will only be allowed to drive a motorhome up to a Maximum Allowable Mass of 3,500kg with a trailer weighing up to 750kg.
For large American style motorhomes with a Maximum Authorised Mass over 7.5 tonnes, a category C licence is required to be road legal in the UK and this requires a separate test to be taken.
Rules on importing a motorhome from abroad
If you are thinking about importing a motorhome from another country, which you are planning to drive in the UK, then there are a number of additional restrictions that you will need to adhere to.
For a start, you will need to ensure that you register your new motorhome so that it is legal to drive in the first place – and in order to do this you will need to make sure that the vehicle falls within the allowed measurement requirements.
To register a motorhome in the UK, the maximum length cannot exceed 12 metres and the maximum width is 2.55 metres.
However, any extras that your motorhome is fitted with such as headlamps, bumpers and driving mirrors are not included when measuring its length or width.
Although there are no height restrictions for campervans, if a motorhome is more than 3 metres tall then this will need to be displayed on a clearly visible notice.
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