The Highway Code is a necessarily abridged summary of legislation and advice. If it described every single nuance of the various regulations enshrined in legislation, it would be many times the size ;-)
You all seem to be hung up on the weight exemption for goods vehicles, but a motorhome is not a goods vehicle, even if it is based on a van originally manufactured as such (as long as it has been properly converted and type approved).
Is your van shown on the V5C as a motor caravan. If so, it is a
"special purpose M category vehicle constructed to include living accommodation which contains at least the following equipment:
- seats and table,
- sleeping accommodation which may be converted from the seats,
- cooking facilities, and
- storage facilities.
This equipment shall be rigidly fixed to the living compartment; however, the table may be designed to be easily removable."
(EEC 2007/46/EC para 5.1)
A category M vehicle is a motor vehicles with at least four wheels designed and constructed for the carriage of passengers.
These are further sub-divided into category M1, M2 and M3 depending on the number of passenger seats and MAM. A motor caravan will be category M1 irrespective of its MAM unless it has more than 8 passenger seats in addition to the driver's seat.
Regulation 24 of the Road Vehicles Lighting Regulations 1989 sets out the requirements to display front and rear position lamps on any vehicle allowed to remain at rest on a road between sunset and sunrise, subject to exempted circumstances defined in Regulation 24 paras (5) and (8), and provided the vehicle is of a type listed in para (7).
These are:
(a)a motor vehicle being a goods vehicle the unladen weight of which does not exceed 1525 kg;
(b)a passenger vehicle other than a bus;
(c)an invalid carriage; and
(d)a motor cycle or a pedal cycle in either case with or without a sidecar;
not being–
(i)a vehicle to which a trailer is attached;
(ii)a vehicle which is required to be fitted with lamps by regulation 21; or (Vehicles carrying overhanging or projecting loads or equipment)
(iii)a vehicle carrying a load, if the load is required to be fitted with lamps by regulation 21.
(8) The circumstances referred to in paragraph (5)(c) are that–
(a)the vehicle is parked on a road on which the driving of vehicles otherwise than in one direction is prohibited at all times and its left or near side is as close as may be and parallel to the left-hand edge of the carriageway or its right or off side is as close as may be and parallel to the right-hand edge of the carriageway; or
(b)the vehicle is parked on a road on which such a prohibition does not exist and its left or near side is as close as may be and parallel to the edge of the carriageway.
A motor caravan, being a category M special purpose vehicle is a passenger vehicle and not a goods vehicle, therefore it falls within definition (b) above, not (a). Not being a bus, it is exempt from the requirement to display lights when parked in the circumstances defined in paragraph 8 above, irreseective of its unladen weight or MAM.
That is what the legislation says. However, having had personal experience of numerous incidents in my career where occupants of vehicles parked on carriageways at night have been killed or seriously injured as a result of being hit by other vehicles, I would personally question the wisdom of sleeping in particular whilst parked on a road or even in a layby at the side of a "fast" main road, or where the layby is not separated from the carriageway by a kerbed and preferably barriered island, whether you have lights displayed or not. Night time is when the drink and drug impaired, possibly also showing off to friends, type idiots are about and I have known parked vehicles to be hit by other vehicle travelling in excess of 70 mph in 30 mph residential areas. Personally, I discount on road parking for overnight stops for those reasons, but the law is as above.
