Angles Morts

Wooie1958

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Just been talking to an English guy ( only 3rd one i've seen in 3 weeks ) who commented on my Angles Morts stickers.
He asked why i had them on because they do not apply to us now that we've come out of the EU and anyway they are only for French vehicles.

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I have to confess that although I have a set and should have them displayed on the van they are in a cupboard! I have seen hardly any French vans with them on (only the tag axles) and my van in base form is 3.5t but it is uprated to 4.2 (so looks like a 3.5t).
I reckon your Brit pal is wrong Graham and if we have vans over 3.5t we should wear the stickers but I have decided to take the risk and not display them.
 
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I just want an easy life Tony especially over here and my philosophy of being legal seemes to be working.
2 days back on the way to an aire there was 2 roadside checkpoints ( one on either side ) run by Gendarmes, we got waved in.
He spoke English and was surprised that i had Angles Morts stickers, Crit-Air sticker, beam benders and hi-viz all at hand.
I asked if he needed to see my documents including passports as well ?
He said no and apologised for disturbing our holiday and waved us out.
 
Far too late to prevent a serious accident. :LOL:
I fully accept that legally my van should wear them but I cannot understand why, when the only difference between my van and the identical van in every respect and every dimension but not uprated so carries a different plate sticker, I have to put on ugly stickers and the other van doesn’t and this will prevent a serious accident.
In all probability the non-uprated van is probably overweight as well!

However you are correct in that I should obey the law even if I don’t understand the reasoning behind it.
 
I just want an easy life Tony especially over here and my philosophy of being legal seemes to be working.
2 days back on the way to an aire there was 2 roadside checkpoints ( one on either side ) run by Gendarmes, we got waved in.
He spoke English and was surprised that i had Angles Morts stickers, Crit-Air sticker, beam benders and hi-viz all at hand.
I asked if he needed to see my documents including passports as well ?
He said no and apologised for disturbing our holiday and waved us out.
We are really lucky, Graham, in that we lived and I worked in France a long while back. Sue and I both kept up the language so we can chat away with the Frenchies in their own tongue (which is why we love it over here). We had a real laugh earlier on in our trip with a member of the local Police Municipal. It was all about Macron, then ****** but never once did he query us about our documents or various stickers even though he was actually inside our van!
 
Me and Shirley can read better than we can speak French but Shirley is much better than me speaking it.
These were mirrored sunglassres, gun toting Gendarmes but were very good with us and wished us a good holiday.
 
I just want an easy life Tony especially over here and my philosophy of being legal seemes to be working.
2 days back on the way to an aire there was 2 roadside checkpoints ( one on either side ) run by Gendarmes, we got waved in.
He spoke English and was surprised that i had Angles Morts stickers, Crit-Air sticker, beam benders and hi-viz all at hand.
I asked if he needed to see my documents including passports as well ?
He said no and apologised for disturbing our holiday and waved us out.
Like you I have the full set. I believe that, apart from the legalities, it is polite to comply with the host country's requirements.

When in Rome etc ...

I have been stopped once so far this trip near the Italian border and my motorhome was checked internally. The gendarme was polite and spoke to me in English without my requesting him to do so. I believe he may well have acted thus in order to return the courtesy.
 
It was only the second time we've actually been pulled into a roadside checkpoint despite seeing plenty over the years.
Previously they've waved us past.
 
They are for all vehicles including foreign ones, if over 3500kg. We are in our 3rd month in the EU now and every lorry I have seen here has them as well as many, many MHs (the odd one that looks under 3500kg as well which is strange)

Watch out for the magnetic ones as I lost one in high winds in Spain in January so I carry a spare now just in case.

It's not worth giving the police an excuse to pull you over I reckon.
 
They are for all vehicles including foreign ones, if over 3500kg. We are in our 3rd month in the EU now and every lorry I have seen here has them as well as many, many MHs (the odd one that looks under 3500kg as well which is strange)

Watch out for the magnetic ones as I lost one in high winds in Spain in January so I carry a spare now just in case.

It's not worth giving the police an excuse to pull you over I reckon.
I have secured the leading edge of my magnetic stickers with a length of 3M Magic Tape.
 
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It was only the second time we've actually been pulled into a roadside checkpoint despite seeing plenty over the years.
Previously they've waved us past.
Years ago we would get gendarmes with semi-automatic weapons jumping out of bushes to stop a stream of bikers, mainly enrout to bike races. After the first time we put small GB stickers on the front then always got waved on while those without were pulled and checked. There was no way to tell what country a bike is from by looking at the front usually though so not like cars and vans etc. 😁👍
 
we’ve been stopped at roadside checks a few times, all they seemed interested in was breath testing me. ( I passed! 😇)
 
Instead of sticking the one on the rear panel I'm just making a panel and bracket, then I will drill and tap the rear bumper bar so I can remove it when we are back in the UK, It may be a bit on the low side as it should start a 900mm high, but will be clearly visible. I'll post a picture when finished.
 
Before starting our current six month European trip (Schengen rules don’t apply), I was quite worried about payload because six months is quite a long time away and needs become a little more weighty. 3-4 week jollies - fine we can manage the woefully inadequate 3.5 all up weight limit and avoid the need to slap angle morts stickers/magnets on our van. We’ve spend quite a lot of time in France over the years and as previously mentioned here, when these stickers were made compulsory for vehicles over 3.5 tons, many of our favourite Aires became technically inaccessible because of the coincidently introduced road signs excluding traffic over 3.5 tons. We’ve seen dozens of motorhomes obviously over 3.5 tons proudly displaying their angles morts stickers (some even displayed in the right places on their vehicles!), but wondered when the locals/local gendarmerie will cotton on to the fact that overweight motorhomes are using roads which invalidate any insurance should a collision occur?

Luckily our friendly municipal tip has friendly staff who helped me not only with all up weight but front and back axle allowances as well. Our Chausson 630 typically had a woefully inadequate and exaggerated payload. I suspect many other manufacturers play the same game. SvTech up plated us to 4 tons at a reasonable price because someone ahead of us had done the same thing on our particular choice of vehicle so the number crunching had already been done. Like many people here I suspect C1 licences abound so weight up plating isn’t an issue. Very simple to down plate should health issues dictate.

I don’t display angle morts stickers for the following reasons.

1. We have a Mororhome with a footprint no larger than all others plated at 3.5 tons. They are deemed safe to be allowed on the roads without any warning sign requirement. Since March we have recently crossed our 20th European border and have been searched once leaving Turkey to the island of Chios (Greece), token search. Chios to Piraeus was just like the Mersey ferry (ok a 9 hour Mersey Ferry 😉). We were stopped about 20 miles into Sweden near Mo I Rana by border police, politely questioned, lovely guys nice conversation then waved on. No questions about angle morts and no search.

2. I’d sooner worry about insurance validity whilst in running order than a European directives dictating a sticker requirement that may or may not actually apply. I proudly display my GBM sticker on the back of our van in the knowledge that we have never belonged to Europe, we don’t need to change to a U.K. sticker just because some spiteful EU directive considered GB offensive to people from N.I. Were you offended Trev? I thought you were from the U.K. anyway? 🤣.

By the by we met an English couple who put their motorhome in storage in Bulgaria so they could go visit family. When they returned the owner of the storage facility refused to take money from them because he thought their new U.K. sticker meant they were Ukrainian. Not the first time Europeans on this trip have mentioned this to us - perhaps a great time for U.K. travelers?

3. I’d sooner pay a fine for not displaying the angles morts sticker/magnetic encumbrance than have our insurance company renege on cover because of weight infringement either by being overweight on a road leading to a desired location, or being stopped and weighed only to find that the lovely salesman who sold us a machine capable of travelling to the moon and back was a little bit of a fibber.

4. It’s easy and not outrageously expensive to down plate again, could even be a selling point depending on prospective buyers needs.

In Greece right now, I’ll keep you posted should any officious border person question why we aren’t displaying angle morts stickers/magnetic plates in entirely the exact places according to the specific EU directive. 😉👍🇮🇲
 
I display them as we are over 3500kg and its easier to do so rather than give any French gendarme any reason to stop me nor indeed, if stopped for any reason, to give them anything extra to book me on.
 

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