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Certificate of conformance


machra

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Just wondering how many received a certificate of conformance (coc) when they bought their new motorhome? I have had 3x new vans on the last 5 years and only ever received 1x certificate. Not really taken any notice but looking at a thread on another forum about ULEZ and just wondered if I ought to pester dealer as to what happened to CoC for my van?
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For Type-Approved motorhomes it should be expected that there will be two Certificates of Conformity if the vehicle has a ‘standard' chassis (one certificate issued by the base-vehicle’s manufacturer and another issued by the motorhome converter) or three Certificates of Conformity if the motorhome has an AL-KO chassis (one certificate issued by the base-vehicle’s manufacturer, one certificate issued by AL-KO, and a third certificate issued by the motorhome converter.

 

My 2015 Rapido is built on a Fiat Ducato ‘standard’ chassis and, consequently, has two Certificates of Conformity - one issued by Fiat and the other by Rapido. I have both certificates.

 

The buyer of a new Type-Approved motorhome should be provided with all the Certificates of Conformity appropriate to the vehicle and, if that doesn’t happen, it can cause problems (and expense) later. So get pestering...

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Go and pester your dealer. They sound inefficient because the certificates should be part of the handover documentation.

 

I was stopped in Portugal earlier this year and had a vehicle documentation check, amongst which they asked for the certificates of conformity. Fortunately I had followed advice to always take these with me tucked into the V5.

 

Regards,

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Motorhome Type Approval is explained here:

 

https://www.outandaboutlive.co.uk/motorhomes/articles/practical-advice/vehicle-type-approval-explained

 

The Certificate(s) of Conformity (CofC) of a motorhome with ECWVTA will be important when that vehicle is first UK-registered (particularly the presence or not of a CO2 value on the motorhome’s final CofC) and if the motorhome is exported later and registered abroad.

 

To the best of my knowledge there is no legal requirement for the driver of a UK-registered vehicle to carry with him/her that vehicle’s CofC(s) while driving abroad. The sole reason I can think of why the Portuguese police should have asked to see Laurence’s motorhome’s CofC is that this may be standard police procedure in Portugal for Portuguese-registered vehicles (the CofC is mentioned here)

 

https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/vehicles/registration/formalities/portugal/index_en.htm

 

The only CofCs I’ve had have been for my last two motorhomes and I don’t recall a CofC ever being part of the documentation given me when I’ve bought new cars. So, if the Portuguese police habiitually ask to see a CofC when they inspect the documentation of UK-registered cars being driven in Portugal, they are going to be out of luck most of the time.

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Derek Uzzell - 2018-11-22 8:20 AM

 

The sole reason I can think of why the Portuguese police should have asked to see Laurence’s motorhome’s CofC is that this may be standard police procedure in Portugal for Portuguese-registered vehicles .

 

Maybe you are right, but in my case I just think that the police were being awkward. My neighbour is Portuguese and he warned me before the trip that the police can be unpredictable and frequently just jump out from behind advertising billboards or trees to stop you. Part of the police budget comes from fines and they are sometimes under pressure to find income. One site owner told me that this was so badly affecting tourism that the police had been told to lay off tourists, although that message clearly hadn't reached my ones! They checked everything - lights, toll cards, certificates etc. I'm sure I carried mine following advice on a UK website - one of the clubs I think, but I will have to check.

 

Having said all that, Portugal is a great holiday - don't let any of this put you off.

 

Regards,

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It’s not easy to see what benefit the police (Portuguese or otherwise) would gain from having sight of a motorhome’s CofCs. They don’t show who owns the vehicle and information that might be relevant (VIN-number and weight maxima) will be elsewhere on the motorhome or on the vehicle’s registration document. Also the CofCs won’t necessarily be up-to-date as (at least in the UK) motorhome weight uprating/downrating does not result in changes to the original data on the CofCs (though such changes should be reflected on the motorhome’s V5C if they have resulted in the vehicle’s VED status altering).

 

It will be interesting to know where you found the advice about carrying CofCs. I can understand the Portuguese police demanding to see a motorhome’s V5C - in fact I’d expect them to do this - but demanding to see CofCs seems very odd.

 

I note that carrying a CofC while driving abroad was discussed here

 

https://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/forum/threads/certificate-of-conformity.156509/

 

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I think they just saw us as an easy target and got frustrated when the lights dipped correctly and everything else was in order. Maybe just a one-off, but we did meet a Dutch couple later on who had also had a run-in with the Portuguese police and had to produce paperwork - although we didn't go into detail.

 

As I said, the subject of police and tourists became such an issue that a Government Ministry had to put a stop to it as it was having an impact on tourism.

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Derek Uzzell - 2018-11-23 8:59 AM...………………...It will be interesting to know where you found the advice about carrying CofCs. I can understand the Portuguese police demanding to see a motorhome’s V5C - in fact I’d expect them to do this - but demanding to see CofCs seems very odd...…………...

The CoC only records the technical basis on which the vehicle was type approved. As Derek says, some countries require the CoC to be brought up to date if modifications are made that affect the CoC data, others, like the UK, do not, treating it as a "one off" verification that the vehicle conformed with its Type Approval at the time it was first registered. It is also the case that there are numerous (especially UK made) motorhomes legally in circulation that were not Type Approved. What then?

 

My unkind suspicion is that the police in question were either livening up an otherwise boring day, on a fishing expedition, or possibly looking for anything that would allow them to issue an on the spot fine to boost either their departmental income, or prove how busy they'd been!

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Type Approval’s impact on motohomes is summarised here

 

https://www.ukmotorhomes.net/motorhome-faqs/type-approval

 

Some motorcaravan converters began to market Type Approved motorhomes years before the critical 29 April 2012 date - my 2005-built Hobby was Type Approved and the German dealer from whom I bought the vehicle gave me the CofC and highlighted its potential importance, while Swift said in 2012 that (in 2003) they had been the first UK motorhome manufacturer to gain ECWVTA for their motorhomes.

 

https://www.swiftgroup.co.uk/news/time-is-ticking-away-for-non-eu-approved-motorhomes

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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest jonse06
There no good for re register in France, Must be French same with gas need to pay for compleate re test, so beware those who want to re register in Europe It Will cost you
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jonse06 - 2018-12-05 1:02 PM

 

There no good for re register in France, Must be French same with gas need to pay for compleate re test, so beware those who want to re register in Europe It Will cost you

All you need is to obtain a Certificate of Conformity in French, which should be available from the motorhome manufacturer. Then the registration authority will be able to understand it. The gas installation will probably have to be tested and certified before it will be accepted. At least one forum member (AGD) has done this with a previously UK registered van. Why not PM him for his advice? I'm sure he wouldn't mind.

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Jones06 That's news to me! A European CoC is just that - a certificate of conformity for all European countries. Without it it's necessary to get the equivalent of the UK's single vehicle approval and that's not too difficult if you can get partial certificates for chassis and coachwork. I've registered a German Hymer, Spanish Picasso, English BMW bike, English Suzuki and MG cars and even a 38 year old British MGB as a Voiture de Collection. Just jump through the official hoops in the right order.
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Well I think that each department must have a differant systym this is since2002 , I have regestead 3 M/H a few cars the first car was a pain but then they changed the paper work at the prefecture and the others were not as difficult, Now the first van was a pain due to the gas, We had to go to Qualigaz in Toulouse for a inspection for a fee which included a re test yes it needed a retest, plus other paper work , The 2 van again back toThe Qualigaze Toulouse plus the Dreal down in Perpignan fine after filling in lots of papers, After 9yrs we have upgraded to a new to us van 2014 reg our second swift after the first old Tranny This was again Qualigaz but this time they would visit you not before ringeing the toulouse number that is still on there webb page it turns out that changed 9yrs ago so now we had a vist and again if it faild you had to pay more money for a retest Now we had all the paper work with theVan so we went to the prefecture thinking we would get it passed NO sorry,so apply to the Dreal for papers RTI 03.5.1-code LRI:V SClook these up, Great NO you have to make up your own statistics as if you follow the instuctions on the info sheets half of It cannot work when you add up the figurs, After Three trys including input from a police officer B/S his words,we had an apointmant to make a visit for an Inspectionwell all went untill we went in the office then he said it was still not right but he would helpafter he kept the papers they arrived in the post with a postscipt saying it was still wrong but he had alterd the wieght by 1 kg Pass Now as you know its all online for the immertriculation no way were we doin it, so with all the paper work we paid our 30 euros for a garage to finely finish every thing He Ho One more English van now with French Plates, These vans were al R/H UK so witth all the English paper work with EU on them they were a waste of time the COC had to com from FCA Paris Gas needed Qualigaz pass , Swift from the Drial , plus Swift still do not fit gas lockers to take EUGas bottles on some of there vans so gaslow or EQ if you use lots of gas , we used 65ltrs on our last long trip using aires nearly all the time.So thats our experiance folks
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You will have your own reasons for wanting to register RHD British registered vehicles in France, but in both cases (can + van) it does seem to me that buying "standard" LHD vehicle would have removed almost all the problems.

 

Having said that, as far as I am aware, Swift are not present on the French market, so presumably could not produce a French language version of the CoC, which I suspect would have eased the process.

 

The gas test does not, AFAIK, relate to the CoC at all, but is a separate requirement for proof that the vehicle to be registered complied with French law at the point of first registration.

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I believe Swift has marketed Kon-Tiki models in Continental Europe (including France) but that was a long time ago.

 

There are no EU standards for the physical dimensions of gas-bottles and, when designing gas-lockers, motothome converters will give priority to the size(s) of the bottles generally available in the home-market country.

 

Some Swift motorhome models have a gas-locker that can accommodate UK Calor 13kg bottles and, consequently, French 13kg and German 11kg bottles will also fit easily in that locker. Other Swift models have a locker designed to accommodate UK Calor 6kg bottles and such motorhomes can present a potential problem if driven in, or exported to, countries where the dimensions of the gas-bottles generally available there are much larger. Fortunately (as jones06 says) bottles that can be user-refilled with ‘autogas’ (eg. Gaslow canisters) are widely marketed throughout Europe nowadays, allowing gas-locker size limitations to be side-stepped.

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But when you live in France, There are many good reasons to have right hand drive cars & vans

at least down here, (AUDE) apart from the vans are more user friendly, and are cheaper second hand evan with the agro, Gas bottles you have no choice to go refill if you have a small locker which will only take uk bott pain if you want to wild camp in Europe, But tell that to the the van Makers, not that they will take note, Not every one has pots of money to spend on camp sites for months on end , Dont any one say you shouldnt do It then ,Its better than spending half your life watching TV at home or as some M/H do in there vans but that is there choice, But not ours.

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