Ground clearance of a vehicle is the minimum distance between the ground and the vehicle’s underside, other than its tyres, wheels, wheel hubs, brake backing plates, flexible mudguards and mudflaps.
A heavy vehicle must have a ground clearance of at least:
- at a point within 1m of an axle - 100mm; and
- at the midpoint between adjacent axles - one-thirtieth of the distance between the centre-line of each axle; and
- at any other point - the distance that allows the vehicle to pass over a peak in the road if the gradient on either side of the peak is 1:15.
