ROVER, ADR62 and Drawbar Testing Explained!

With the launch of the ROVER system for light trailers, manufacturing or building your own trailer has become a bit more complicated. We get a lot of questions from customers asking what their obligations are for drawbar testing under ADR62 and the ROVER system. In this post we'll cover what is required for manufacturers and home builders to comply with ADR62.

ADR62 requires light trailers with an aggregate trailer mass under 4,500kg to have both their drawbar and safety chain attachment points certified. In the case of drawbars these can be certified by either the physical test method, or by using approved calculations, but for safety chain attachment points only physical testing is accepted. While not mentioned in the ADR, additional information provided by the department clarifies that this certification must be done by a ROVER certified test facility. As a ROVER certified test facility Carbon Equipment can provide physical or FEA certification of your drawbars. Physical testing doesn't require a CAD model, is lower cost and more accurate than FEA, however we do require a physical sample to be provided to our workshop. FEA is more conservative and costly, but can be done off a CAD model before starting fabrication. 

Low volume trailers submitted through the concessional vehicle type approval pathway are still required to meet all ADRs. However, while drawbar certification under ADR62 is required, and you must make a legal declaration that your trailer complies with ADR62, the test report is not assessed as part of the application and approval. Therefore it is possible to gain approval without meeting the requirements of ADR62, but serious penalties may apply if your approval is audited and you are unable to produce documentation demonstrating compliance.

Higher volume trailers approved through the vehicle type approval pathway have a greater level of reporting requirements, but again the drawbar certification is not actually assessed as part of the application and does not need to be provided at that time. But again, you are making a legal declaration that your trailers do comply, and are expected to supply documentation to validate this if requested and non-compliance may be penalised.

The third approval stream for drawbars is a component type approval, in this case the drawbar certification is assessed and the drawbar is given a CTA number. Once approved, trailers built using these drawbars can demonstrate compliance with ADR62 by simply referencing that CTA number. Purchasing a pre-approved drawbar is a great alternative to drawbar testing for low volume or custom trailers, to avoid the cost and hassle of drawbar testing, however the cost of testing is quickly recouped on higher volume trailers.

Hopefully this post has helped to clear any confusion! If not feel free to reach out to Carbon Equipment if you have more questions, or require testing of your drawbars and safety chain attachment points to ensure your trailers are ADR62 compliant.