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Anyone know any places in the South west where I can teach my kids some experience on driving. I've heard that you can use abandoned airefields etc but I don't know any in this area.
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Do you know a Farmer with a twenty acre flat grass field?
Should assist with rudiments.
DVD
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I would probably rather drive on tarmac. With the type of car we have, 'call out the tow truck'
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Rover,
Try looking at www.iam.org.uk - locate your local Group and phone the contact number and have a chat about your intentions.
Otherwise - contact your County Police Traffic Department and ask for advice.
I would be surprised if you do not get some help!
Matt35.
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West Point in Exeter. It's privately owned so you're kids are legal to drive around the roads. Same place they hold the Devon County Show.
You also find some driving instructors giving 16 year olds lessons there.
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If you do find somewhere, it may still be a good idea to use L plates and leave your headlights on, just in case others have the same idea, or are out and about too.
I was told that private land to which the public has access (eg B&Q car park when closed) is still covered by the Highway laws 9whatever they are)
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You could buy an old tractor and drive legally on the road at 16.
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there is a requirement to sit a driving test to drive a tractor on the road at 16 ,and also fairly sure it is limited to agricultural use only but it was too long ago to remember. also careful with insurance if 16 year old driving even off road it could be costly ,agree though its good to let them grow in to driving before they are on the road
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Check your insurance. I very much doubt whether your insurance will cover an under age driver even on private property. What happens if he/she runs into someone else, damages property or your car?
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My tractor insurance says any legal age on or off road (ie 16 or 13), any purpose, any trade other than tree-felling, and costs £26 pa. There is no road tax and no MOT.
Interesting about the test requirement though - couldn't someone be a learner tractor driver? And how would the candidate get to the test centre on his one-seater tractor? And where would the examiner sit - on the mudguard?
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>>Interesting about the test requirement though - couldn't >>someone be a learner tractor driver? And how would the >>candidate get to the test centre on his one-seater tractor? >>And where would the examiner sit - on the mudguard?
The rule used to be that if a vehicle is so designed as to only have one seat then a vehicle used for agricultural purposes could be driven by a person 16 years or older on "L" plates unacompanied. I took a test in a track laying vehicle and a tractor at the age of 16 and the examiner came out to the farm,
the examiner stood by and watched.
rustbucket (the original)
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This is interesting. Going back to cars rather than tractors for a moment, my ex has for a while felt it 'cool' to give my now 14 year old (but at the start of this maybe just 12 or 13) son driving lessons in a public carpark. The ex, when this started, had only just passed his own test!
I had suspected this was illegal, and of course son is extremely impressed. But I take it from here that I would be within my rights to have a word to say that this simply isn't on? Ex has no extra insurance to cover a minor, I know that much.
HF
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tractor driving on the road at 16 is limited to driving yourself to a test with L plates untill test is passed .tractors most definately have to be taxed or sorned the same as anything else although the disc is at the moment supplied f.o.c. the taxation class is agricultural therefore limits use to this ,there are a lot of rules and regs about size,impliments and no of trailers etc .at 17 you put L plates on and go unacompanied .tracklayers might have been moved to 21 but not certain on that one
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I was not aware that a licence was required in the UK ,the police do not bother ,the courts give carte blanche by issueing reprimands and stupid low fines which nobody collects.
Seriously ,I do not thing your insurance company would be very happy.
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Andy makes an interesting point here. The Brits are obsessed with legality, stupid rules and the \'what if\'? factor. In this country there is an extraordinary obsession with upholding the law and upholding rules whether the laws or the rules make sense or not. That\'s how we lost our fishing industry. There was a programme about rules covering TV advertising on the box about a week ago and an obsessive little man repeatedly made the point that if a rule is made then the rule must be enforced. How did the Brits become so anal? In other countries, if a law is plain daft then everyone ignores it and if a law isn\'t strictly 100% necessary then it isn\'t strictly enforced.
HJ
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Simple HJ - in this country there is a sizeable contingent who define pleasure as a zero sum game. Thus, if they can deny pleasure to others, they must surely be gaining satisfaction themselves.
Equally, if someone else is enjoying themself in a way that they cannot, they would sooner stop the other person than find a way to enjoy themselves.
Start there, and it is an easy step to the obsessive enforcement of laws regardless of whether any benefit is obtained from doing so.
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To answer the original question, I can recommend the Under 17 Car Club. It\'s an organisation that allows teenagers to drive their parents\' cars at organised events. It\'s a long time since I was a member (I\'m now 33)and I\'d almost forgotten about it until this morning.
Anyway, I\'ve just done a quick search and it still seems to be running. Take a look.
www.under17-carclub.co.uk
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If you work with a large friendly company (not common granted) then you may be able to use thier car park whilst empty at the weekend if you speak very nicely to them.
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Hmm... I was under the impression that road tax is not required for tractors, though I think there's an exception if they do a huge amount of miles on road or something.
As for the tractor test - I drove to it at 16 without L plates - the examiner told me to circle the village square a few times, asked me to identify a few road signs and then handed me a certificate.
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Would that tractor test permit you to drive one of those so-called 'high speed' tractors that go too quickly to overtake, but not quickly enough to stop traffic jams?
(Patently would this be sufficient for driving in 'no-car' lanes?)
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(Patently would this be sufficient for driving in 'no-car' lanes?)
No idea - but would you stand in the way and ask it to stop?
I'm just watching the thread in case someone shows me how to become under-age again.
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patently,
Keep clear of Essex - driving here puts years on you.
Matt35.
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I think there is a width restriction on driving tractors at 16. There is a higher limit for the monster versions. It was, and may still be true, that the low-rated "agrigultural vehicle" class only applies to vehicles with a top speed of less than 20 mph
Tractors have to have tax disks like cars, but the rate is zero. There is a total exemption if they only use a small section of public road between specific field or farm entrances. I think that has to be registered with the local DVLO - it least it did 20 years ago.In theory they still need insurance.
"Agricultural" use I think includes horticultural and small-holding, and also apparently going to vintage rallies and shows.
Or there is "Historic vehicle" if old enough.
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Odd you should say that. I used to drive regularly from Kent to Herts via the M25/Dartford tunnel. The Essex stretch was always noticeably worse. Then, you reached the "Hertfordshire" sign and everyone calmed down.
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I agree with HJ about Brits obsession with obeying rules no matter how daft they are. Stick a 1mph speed limit on a motorway and some people will be determined to stick to it. Its one reason why a lot of Brits are always whinging about the new rules and laws made by the EU. Its because we're daft enough to obey them, the other countries in Europe just ignore the pointless ones. I think the Euro-beauraucrats in Brussels just make these rules to wind up the British as they know they'll be silly enough to follow them.
Back to the original topic, I would be quite keen to find a big empty space like an old airfield to give SWMBO a spin out in my car, so she can learn the basics of car control before she is let out on the roads in proper lessons. She does has a prov. license, so is reasonably legal. It'll be nice for her to get the looking-at-pedals-and-gearstick side of early learning out of her system before she has to tackle the London streets with an instructor.
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HJ,
Other countries use something that we used to have shed loads of, but seem to have lost recently...
(not so) Common Sense.
John R
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Some of the activity holiday companies offer driving courses for under 17\'s.
www.pgl.co.uk springs to mind, but I\'m sure there are others.
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Silverstone definitely run courses for the U17s. Have a look on the website.
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The only tractor I ever drove / drive is an old Zetor with a top speed of 20kph, and I was always polite enough to pull over if I had a car or two behind me.
The new tractors go like a bat out of hell but get stuck easily - I spent two hours yesterday trying to tow one out of one of our fields. Buried up to the axles - both front wheels were underground. I'm going back this afternoon with two more tractors and we'll try the brute force approach, unless anyone has an ingenious idea which only involves the one tractor!
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Usual approach for those of us without 3 more tractors is to put sticks under the wheels to give something firmer for more purchase? Dig out in front of the wheels so that axles no longer buried.
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Oh - and you'll be needing a powerful helicopter as well.
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