Croatia
Cap in the app: 90 km/h.
Speed
90 km/h on other roads outside built-up areas, 130 on the motorway. The reduction to 80 in čl. 55 applies only to trailers without brakes — a braked caravan is not caught.
Source. Narodne novine 67/2008, ZSPC, čl. 54 st. 1 t. 3 and čl. 55 st. 1 t. 1
Dimensions — vučnog vozila s prikolicom, without a commercial reservation
Croatia is the third country after Latvia and Ireland where the outfit row catches a car with a caravan by its own wording, without having to argue for it. Point 5 of the length table reads vučnog vozila s prikolicom — "towing vehicle with trailer". No goods, no lorry, no category enumeration. Compare Belgium's camion et remorque and Slovenia's motorno tovorno vozilo, both of which mean a goods vehicle and therefore miss the private outfit entirely.
Čl. 7(1), in the wording in force since it entered into force:
(1) Najveće dopuštene duljine vozila iznose:
1) motornog vozila, osim autobusa — 12,00 m
2) priključnog vozila s rudom — 12,00 m …
5) vučnog vozila s prikolicom — 18,75 m …
9) vučnog vozila i prikolice, za prijevoz automobila — 21,00 m
The width and the height are written the same way, as a residual entry catching everything not enumerated:
Čl. 8(1) Najveća dopuštena širina vozila kategorije L1e je 1,00 m, ostalih vozila kategorije L 2,00 m, a ostalih kategorija vozila 2,55 m.
Čl. 9(1) Najveća dopuštena visina vozila kategorije L je 2,50 m, a ostalih vozila 4,00 m.
"Ostalih kategorija vozila" — other categories of vehicle. The enumeration before the residual entry covers only mopeds and motorcycles. The car and the caravan both lie in the residual entry.
Source: Pravilnik o tehničkim uvjetima vozila u prometu na cestama, NN 85/2016, čl. 7–12, in force on the thirtieth day after promulgation on 23 September 2016.
Two layers, the same figures — and that is what makes the answer certain. Čl. 6(1) says after the 2017 amendment that vehicle dimensions and masses must meet annex I of EU regulation 1230/2012 for categories M, N and O. That regulation is a type-approval regulation, and its annex I sets for M1 (part A) length 12.00 m, width 2.55 m and height 4.00 m, and for category O (part D) the same three figures. Those are exactly the figures čl. 7–9 set. Whichever layer you read, you land on the same figures for the car and for the caravan separately. For the outfit there is only one layer: 1230/2012 sets nothing at all for a combination, since type approval concerns individual vehicles. The 18.75 metres come solely from čl. 7(1)5) — the category-neutral row.
The same amendment, NN 24/2017 čl. 4, deleted čl. 6(3). The deleted provision said that vehicles in traffic within the EU must meet directive 96/53, except vehicles in traffic on Croatian territory, which must meet this Pravilnik. It was the only text that could have been read as meaning that 96/53 — which under art. 1(1)(a) does not cover M1 with an O trailer — would displace the Croatian figures on a journey abroad. It no longer exists. After 2017 there is no text in the instrument distinguishing Croatian from foreign traffic.
And the drawbar is settled in plain words. Čl. 3(4) defines the maximum length as the distance between the vehicle's most projecting front and rear parts, which in itself puts the drawbar inside the twelve metres. Annex I part D point 1.1.1(a) of 1230/2012 says it outright — "Trailer: 12,00 m including drawbar" — and point 1.3 adds that an adjustable drawbar is to be measured horizontal and in its most extended position. Croatia is thereby the first country in the section where the question does not have to be interpreted out: a twelve-metre caravan with a long drawbar is too long, and it says so in two mutually independent texts.
A follow-up check on the second layer, since the EU act has been replaced. 1230/2012 "ceases to apply on 6 July 2022" and was replaced by the Commission's implementing regulation (EU) 2021/535. That does not affect the reading above, for two reasons. Croatian law points at 1230/2012 by number, a static reference that does not follow to the successor by itself — and were it nevertheless read dynamically, 2021/535 says the same thing: annex XIII part 2 section E point 1.1.1 a) reads "Trailer: 12.00 m including the drawbar", and point 1.3 repeats the requirement of a horizontal and fully extended position. Which of the two acts applies therefore makes no difference to the figure, and čl. 3(4) remains an independent basis regardless.
| Dimension | Croatia | Article |
|---|---|---|
| Width, car | 2.55 m | Čl. 8(1) |
| Width, trailer | 2.55 m | Čl. 8(1) |
| Width, insulated ≥ 45 mm | 2.60 m | Čl. 8(2) |
| Height | 4.00 m | Čl. 9(1) |
| Length, caravan | 12.00 m (drawbar included) | Čl. 7(1)2), 3(4) |
| Length, outfit | 18.75 m | Čl. 7(1)5) |
The measuring method. Čl. 10 is short and decisive: "Propisane dimenzije vozila odnose se i na dopuštenu duljinu, širinu i visinu vozila zajedno s teretom" — the prescribed dimensions also apply to the vehicle together with its load. The definitions in čl. 3(4)–(6) measure the vehicle bez tereta, without load, but čl. 10 puts the load back for traffic on the road. A roof box and bicycles therefore count in, as in Czechia and Slovakia and contrary to Switzerland, which measures the length without load. Čl. 8(3) leaves out mirrors, tyre bulge at ground level, side marker lamps, direction indicators, position lamps, customs seals, elastic mudflaps, retractable steps — and snow chains, which no other country in the section mentions. Two further rules catch an outfit without standing in the dimensions list: čl. 11(1) requires skupovi vozila, vehicle combinations, also to fit between an outer circle of 25.00 m and an inner one of 10.60 m, and čl. 12(1) sets the rear overhang at no more than 60 % of the wheelbase where the manufacturer has not said otherwise.
Method note: the whole chain of amendments was read, there is no consolidated text. The Pravilnik has been amended five times: NN 24/17, 70/19, 60/20, 79/23 and 6/25. Narodne novine publishes no consolidated versions, so each of the five was retrieved and read through article by article. The result: only 24/17 touches the range čl. 6–12, and it touches only čl. 6 — a new wording of paragraph 1, deletion of paragraph 3. Čl. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 stand in the original 2016 wording. The amendments 70/19 (čl. 38, 78, 109, 111, 115, 118, 119, 121, 123, 124, 125, 131, 136), 60/20 (čl. 97, 104, 136), 79/23 (čl. 3, 72, 78, 83, 104, 166.a, 169, 170) and 6/25 (new čl. 105.a–105.e on automated vehicles) all lie outside it. The issuing of permits for transport exceeding the dimensions — izvanredni prijevoz — is not governed here but in the roads act, and that has not been retrieved.