Legal BOX Dimensions

[Gokhan Ertan]

Dear All Hi,

I hope you are all doing fine. I hope to start my Roof Lift Box project soon. I need your know how on Legal Dimensions for the box. As far as I know the max width can be 2500mm and total truck height can be 4000mm.. however when I watch some videos like Action Mobil and a few others.. 2470mm..2460mm width I hear a lot and now I question myself why not 2500mm but they make 2470!! Am I safe to build a box width of 2500mm edge to edge?
Will be glad to hear your comments.
Cheers and enjoy your weekend.

 

[Cloud 9]

I might be wrong , but I believe that the maximum width is 2500mm if the vehicle is registered as a motor caravan.

Which sadly is almost impossible to get for truck conversions these days.

I might be wrong, but that was my understanding.

I am making an assumption that this is a UK registration

Neil

 

[Gokhan Ertan]

I might be wrong , but I believe that the maximum width is 2500mm if the vehicle is registered as a motor caravan.

Which sadly is almost impossible to get for truck conversions these days.

I might be wrong, but that was my understanding.

I am making an assumption that this is a UK registration

Neil

Thank you Neil..maybe I should stick with 2480..just to be safe

 

[crinklystarfish]

Legal dimensions depend on the vehicle's classification and also vary across different countries.

I'd advise that you consider whether you really need to go as wide as 2.5m, especially if the truck is quite tall, too. I built ours intentionally narrow (for a 12-ton truck-based overlander @ 2.34m). Big trucks don't fit in small spaces so if there's any plan to squeeze through small villages / tunnels / mountain passes with encroaching rock faces etc, or even simply drive down narrow roads / tracks then every centimetre matters.

 

[Gokhan Ertan]

Legal dimensions depend on the vehicle's classification and also vary across different countries.

I'd advise that you consider whether you really need to go as wide as 2.5m, especially if the truck is quite tall, too. I built ours intentionally narrow (for a 12-ton truck-based overlander @ 2.34m). Big trucks don't fit in small spaces so if there's any plan to squeeze through small villages / tunnels / mountain passes with encroaching rock faces etc, or even simply drive down narrow roads / tracks then every centimetre matters.

Thank you for your kind reply. In Turkey seems to be max 2500mm for my truck. The old rear bed is also 2500mm in width, I believe Turkish Registration office also complies with EU rules. Already scary to drive even empty without any box.

 

[Tacr2man]

Standard vehicle dimensions (no special movement requirements) Height is in EU 4mtrs in UK Higher
but this shows more details

Vehicle Dimensions: In-depth | Croner-i

The normally permitted dimensions for vehicles in the UK are controlled by the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 (SI 1986 No. 1078) as amended. The Regulations also refer to other legislation including EU Directives.

app.croneri.co.uk

 

[Gokhan Ertan]

Standard vehicle dimensions (no special movement requirements) Height is in EU 4mtrs in UK Higher
but this shows more details

Vehicle Dimensions: In-depth | Croner-i

The normally permitted dimensions for vehicles in the UK are controlled by the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 (SI 1986 No. 1078) as amended. The Regulations also refer to other legislation including EU Directives.

app.croneri.co.uk

thank you

 

[Sitec]

Over here in Oz the max width for a vehicle is 2.5m too (with exception of some city bendy busses which run at 2.7m)... This '2.5m' figure is the max overall width, but does have allowances for small things like hinges, mirrors, door handles etc that can be slightly outside that 2.5m. I went just under 2.5m as I knew I was adding cappings, handles etc, and wanted to be sure I was within what's allowed. I'm glad I've used almost the max available width, as it's allowed me to comfortably have seperate shower and toilet rooms either side of the hab box, have two single mattress running fore and aft with enough room between them to have stepped access, and have a decent galley within the kitchen. Our truck axles/wheels are 2.5m wide so it also seemed logical to keep everything pretty close to that width.

On the flip side though you'd think everywhere here in Oz would be laid out to suit large vehicles... It's not! All main roads, junctions etc are very good, but all town car parks, junctions and roundabouts are the other way. They are very narrow and disjointed, and make the UK supermarket car parks look fantastic! I've seen many a damaged curb, flower bed or street sign where trucks are trying to get in to make deliverys and have cleaned up stuff on the way. We have a double cab pickup/ute as our car, and it's hard work parking. Anything bigger than a normal car is hard work in most town centers and retail areas. This is the reason we plan to carry two push bikes with us. The truck will be parked up outside town somewhere, and we'll pedal into town.

 

[WWFoster]

The width of a vehicle varies from country to country, around the world. In Canada and the U.S., the maximum width is 102" or 2590mm. But this is the exception from what I've looked at. To be sure you will meet the requirements, just do a search online for "maximum vehicle width in _____" and fill in the country. Do it for every country you think you might ever want to travel in. They're usually displayed in the top few returns of any search. Most countries, even Japan which has very tiny cars and narrow roads in the villages, seem to be 2500mm. I think that's why many of the larger trucks built by Action Mobil etc. build theirs a little bit undersize just to give the necessary wiggle room. The large trucks are very intimidating to the rule checkers, and the easiest dimension to measure is the width of the box at the back. So if you are under the required dimension by 10 or 20mm there, this will been seen first and may well end any other measuring. Even though we live in Canada with the very wide standard, we still built our box so it was under the 2500mm mark. We settled for 2480mm so we'd pretty much be legal anywhere in the world. But like was mentioned above, the terrain you travel my require a width considerably more narrow than the legal width. It's why some of the big builds taper in the top half of the box sides so they will be less likely to impact any overhanging cliff face. Only you will know how you want to use your vehicle.

Just so you know, from a "living in it" perspective, you will not notice the centimetre or two undersize width when you use your finished vehicle. We moved from a North American Class A motorhome which was 2590mm wide and 13.7m long, with 4 slideouts, to our truck that's 2480mm wide and 10.6m long (including the cab) with no slideouts. Despite the downsize, we feel completely comfortable in it, and two of us can work in the kitchen at the same time, on opposite sides of the truck, and not bump into each other. (We have a 600mm deep counter on one side, and a 700mm deep counter on the other)

 

[davelondon]

In the UK the IVA says:

cars / motor caravans (M1)
=======================

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/930247/individual-vehicle-approval-inspection-manual-passenger-vehicles.pdf

pg 243

2500mm for cars
2600mm for motor caravans

modified goods vehicles (N1 / N2)
==============================

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/930254/individual-vehicle-approval-inspection-manual-lorries.pdf

pg 201

2550mm for N2/N3 lorries

 

[Gokhan Ertan]

Over here in Oz the max width for a vehicle is 2.5m too (with exception of some city bendy busses which run at 2.7m)... This '2.5m' figure is the max overall width, but does have allowances for small things like hinges, mirrors, door handles etc that can be slightly outside that 2.5m. I went just under 2.5m as I knew I was adding cappings, handles etc, and wanted to be sure I was within what's allowed. I'm glad I've used almost the max available width, as it's allowed me to comfortably have seperate shower and toilet rooms either side of the hab box, have two single mattress running fore and aft with enough room between them to have stepped access, and have a decent galley within the kitchen. Our truck axles/wheels are 2.5m wide so it also seemed logical to keep everything pretty close to that width.

On the flip side though you'd think everywhere here in Oz would be laid out to suit large vehicles... It's not! All main roads, junctions etc are very good, but all town car parks, junctions and roundabouts are the other way. They are very narrow and disjointed, and make the UK supermarket car parks look fantastic! I've seen many a damaged curb, flower bed or street sign where trucks are trying to get in to make deliverys and have cleaned up stuff on the way. We have a double cab pickup/ute as our car, and it's hard work parking. Anything bigger than a normal car is hard work in most town centers and retail areas. This is the reason we plan to carry two push bikes with us. The truck will be parked up outside town somewhere, and we'll pedal into town.

Dear Sitec, thank you for the great info..also after the new oil prices I think we all need push bikdes and pedal all around

 

[Gokhan Ertan]

The width of a vehicle varies from country to country, around the world. In Canada and the U.S., the maximum width is 102" or 2590mm. But this is the exception from what I've looked at. To be sure you will meet the requirements, just do a search online for "maximum vehicle width in _____" and fill in the country. Do it for every country you think you might ever want to travel in. They're usually displayed in the top few returns of any search. Most countries, even Japan which has very tiny cars and narrow roads in the villages, seem to be 2500mm. I think that's why many of the larger trucks built by Action Mobil etc. build theirs a little bit undersize just to give the necessary wiggle room. The large trucks are very intimidating to the rule checkers, and the easiest dimension to measure is the width of the box at the back. So if you are under the required dimension by 10 or 20mm there, this will been seen first and may well end any other measuring. Even though we live in Canada with the very wide standard, we still built our box so it was under the 2500mm mark. We settled for 2480mm so we'd pretty much be legal anywhere in the world. But like was mentioned above, the terrain you travel my require a width considerably more narrow than the legal width. It's why some of the big builds taper in the top half of the box sides so they will be less likely to impact any overhanging cliff face. Only you will know how you want to use your vehicle.

Just so you know, from a "living in it" perspective, you will not notice the centimetre or two undersize width when you use your finished vehicle. We moved from a North American Class A motorhome which was 2590mm wide and 13.7m long, with 4 slideouts, to our truck that's 2480mm wide and 10.6m long (including the cab) with no slideouts. Despite the downsize, we feel completely comfortable in it, and two of us can work in the kitchen at the same time, on opposite sides of the truck, and not bump into each other. (We have a 600mm deep counter on one side, and a 700mm deep counter on the other)

Dear WWFoster, thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge. In Turkey I also found data as 2500mm width for the truck beds. I have also replanned everything based on 2480mm width. My Total box lenght will be limited with 5200 mm, leaving around 5000 net inner lenght. The exhaust, brake system and step tire being located behind the cab, causing me to loose around 900mm box size and not allowing me to have a pass through the cabin. Thus, I decided to have a lifting top box..making things much more complicated in the design. But when we have the King size bed on the top will have a good enough inner space.

 

[WWFoster]

Lifting box design habitats are quite popular with the expensive builders, and they do have many advantages. We considered this when we were researching the type of body we wanted to build. Several things put us off of it, though. One, being more complicated and needing a mechanism to lift the roof section up, it was a point of mechanical failure that was beyond our comfort threshold. We were coming from a North American Class A motorhome with 4 large slideouts. In the 5 years we owned it, all four slide mechanisms failed. And they always fail in the out position. So if you can't fix it you are screwed until a repair person with the right tools and parts arrive. That's why there are no slides in our current truck. We've never missed them!

Another issue was the added weight up high because of the thicker walls and 2nd floor with bedding. But mostly, the reason we rejected the design, as spectacular as some units can be, was the issue of night time visits to the lavatory. When you get to be our age, it's almost a given that one or both of us will need to get up in the middle of the night for a call of nature. That means climbing down a set of goofy shaped stairs, or ladder rungs when half asleep, and then navigating to the appropriate room downstairs. Since one of us will be 70 next January, it looked too much like a disaster in the making by means of a nasty fall. And then the embarrassment of peeing our pants because we were now injured and couldn't take care of business.

That's why we went with a longer truck, instead of a two story one. The other thing you have to worry about is where you are going to use the truck. If you live in a region where it's mostly short scrub or desert, and there are no real trees to deal with, then lifting roof rigs are great. But if you plan to visit places like western Canada where there are more trees than anywhere else, finding a place to camp where there are no overhead branches can be a challenge. We've actually seen someone with a very nice lifting box truck raising the roof right into a 120mm diameter branch above their rig. Crunch. With a fixed height one, if you can drive in and not hit a branch, then you are done.

The thing I'm envious of with the lifting roof habitats is just how short front to back you can make the box. Ours, admittedly, is too long for really tight windy trails. But we make do.

Cheers,
Warren

 

[Warren Cloete]

This is a age old debate. My theory is make a list of the wildest and craziest places you dream of traveling then research the local laws in those countries I have come across many a European truck impounded at a weigh bridge in Africa as a result of different axel weight restrictions. Dimensions your more Lilly to get away with but having to apply for and abnormal load permit can damper your trip we had a British truck that was 30mm over the limit. Once in 5 years we got caught but the rest of the time we got away with it but it’s the last thing you want on any journey

 

[davelondon]

Dear WWFoster, thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge. In Turkey I also found data as 2500mm width for the truck beds. I have also replanned everything based on 2480mm width. My Total box lenght will be limited with 5200 mm, leaving around 5000 net inner lenght. The exhaust, brake system and step tire being located behind the cab, causing me to loose around 900mm box size and not allowing me to have a pass through the cabin. Thus, I decided to have a lifting top box..making things much more complicated in the design. But when we have the King size bed on the top will have a good enough inner space.

Who is building your box? How much does the lifting roof add to the cost of the build?

 

[Gokhan Ertan]

And the project starts..

 

[Gokhan Ertan]

Some.more photos