The saga still continues, but it is now looking much better than it did a couple of months ago.
DREAL, the French government agency responsible for testing HGVs, has sent me a examplar dossier showing the required information. The main requirement is that the manufacturer supplies on headed notepaper a list of the components and their CE numbers.
After some discussion, Towability provided this and I took it to DREAL last week. I have the stamp to prove that this has been accepted so yet another bridge crossed. However, this did create another requirement; the weight of the trailer when empty and the weight on the tow hook.
So, hitch up the trailer and head off to the gravel and tarmac works at Tours where they have a weighbridge. I now have what I hope is the last piece of the puzzle; now it's just a case of taking the complete dossier, including photographs of the trailer, into DREAL and waiting for them to invite me for a test.
Assuming that I pass, it's then down to the prefecture to queue for three hours to get its registration number.
It's a bit late for us, but this process won't be required in the future as regulations are being harmonised across Europe by 2013, so all trailers sold in the UK by then will be legal across all of the EU countries ...... perhaps we should have waited!
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