The rules that catch visitors out are not the exotic ones. They are the ordinary ones that differ by 30 kilometers of road: what must be in the vehicle, who has priority at a junction with no markings, and what changes the moment your gross weight passes 3.5 tonnes.
France, Germany and Austria are below, with the official text and the article numbers. For every other country on your route, check that country’s own road safety or transport authority a few weeks before you leave. Carry a high visibility vest and a warning triangle regardless: they cost a few euros, they are required in both France and Germany, and no country is going to fine you for having them.
Required equipment, country by country
France: vest and triangle, no breathalyzer
Service-Public, the French government’s own public information service, states that a high visibility vest and an approved warning triangle must be carried, and that the vest must be stored at hand so it can be presented immediately at a roadside check (service-public.gouv.fr, checked July 20, 2026).
The penalties come in two tiers on that page:
- Failure to present the vest and triangle at a check: a fine of up to 38 euros.
- Failure to wear the vest or set out the triangle when your stopped vehicle creates a hazard: a fine of up to 750 euros, generally issued as a lump sum of 135 euros.
The same page states that carrying a breathalyzer is not mandatory. The drink drive limit is 0.5 g of alcohol per liter of blood. That matters because a short-lived requirement to carry an éthylotest generated a lot of advice that is still in circulation. It is out of date.
That page is written for drivers in France and does not deal with foreign-registered vehicles separately. Carry the vest and the triangle anyway, and keep the vest inside the cab rather than in a locker you would have to walk into traffic to open. That is what “at hand” means, and it is the part that gets checked.
Germany: triangle always, lamp over 3.5 tonnes, vest in the vehicle
Paragraph 53a of the Straßenverkehrs-Zulassungs-Ordnung sets the warning equipment (gesetze-im-internet.de, checked July 20, 2026):
| Vehicle | Must carry |
|---|---|
| Up to 3.5 tonnes | A warning triangle |
| Over 3.5 tonnes | A warning triangle and, separately, a warning lamp |
| Cars, trucks, tractor units and buses | A high visibility vest |
The warning lamp for heavier vehicles is the one people miss, because a triangle alone is what they packed for everywhere else. If your motorhome is plated over 3.5 tonnes, that is a second item.
Pack a first aid kit as well. The German requirement for one sits in a different paragraph of the StVZO, so check the current specification there before you rely on the kit that came with the vehicle.
Austria: winter tires, and the date range is long
Austria’s Federal Ministry publishes the winter equipment obligation (bmimi.gv.at, checked July 20, 2026), and it runs from 1 November to 15 April.
What applies depends on your weight, and this is the clearest case on the site of 3.5 tonnes changing your legal position:
- Cars and goods vehicles up to 3.5 tonnes. A situational requirement. Winter tires are needed when the road is covered in snow, slush or ice. On a clear dry road in that window, they are not.
- Goods vehicles over 3.5 tonnes and buses. Winter tires are mandatory throughout the prescribed period regardless of whether there is snow on the road.
The technical thresholds from the same source:
| Vehicle | Minimum tread, radial | Minimum tread, cross-ply |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 3.5 tonnes | 4mm | 5mm |
| Over 3.5 tonnes | 5mm | 6mm |
Tires count as winter tires in Austrian law if they carry a M+S, M.S. or M&S marking. The oesterreich.gv.at portal adds that a snowflake symbol is also accepted and that snow chains must be fitted to at least two driven wheels where they are used as the alternative (oesterreich.gv.at, checked July 20, 2026). Chains are permitted as a substitute for vehicles up to 3.5 tonnes only where the road is continually or almost always under snow or ice, so they are not a general alternative to fitting proper tires.
Penalty: 35 euros for driving in winter road conditions without winter tires or chains, rising to as much as 5,000 euros where other road users are endangered as a result (bmimi.gv.at, same check date).
Note the dates against the seasonal picture in when to go. A late October trip that runs a week long crosses into the obligation.
Everywhere else: ask the national authority
Warning triangles, reflective vests, spare bulbs, headlamp beam deflectors, national identifier plates, first aid kits, fire extinguishers and winter tire dates all vary by country, and they change.
Check the road safety or transport authority for each country on your route, and do it a few weeks out so anything you have to buy arrives in time. Where the local rule and this page disagree, the local rule is correct. A vest and a triangle in the cab cover the two countries above and cost almost nothing, so start there and add whatever each authority tells you.
Priorité à droite
At an intersection with no signs, no markings and no lights, the vehicle coming from your right has priority. Article R415-5 of the Code de la route puts it the other way round, from the perspective of the driver who has to yield:
Lorsque deux conducteurs abordent une intersection par des routes différentes, le conducteur venant par la gauche est tenu de céder le passage à l’autre conducteur, sauf dispositions différentes prévues au présent livre.
Where two drivers approach an intersection by different roads, the driver coming from the left must give way to the other, unless different provisions apply (legifrance.gouv.fr, checked July 20, 2026). Breaching it is a fourth class contravention and carries a deduction of 4 points from a French license.
Three practical points:
- It is a default, not a universal. A stop sign, a give way sign, traffic lights or a priority road marking all override it. On main roads you will normally see a yellow diamond sign telling you that you have priority, and the same sign with a bar through it telling you that you no longer do.
- It survives mostly at minor urban and rural junctions, which is exactly where a visitor is least expecting it. A side road that looks like a driveway may not be one.
- Some roundabouts historically worked this way. The modern default is that traffic on the roundabout has priority, signed as such. Read the signs on approach rather than assuming either version.
Variants of the same principle exist elsewhere on the continent, with different exceptions attached. Do not carry the French article across a border as if it were the local law. Check the priority rule for each country you drive in, and until you have, treat every unmarked junction as one where you give way. Nobody has ever been fined for yielding.
Driving on the right, in a vehicle built for the left
This is not a rule, it is a set of mechanical consequences, and it causes more near misses than any statute.
- Your overtaking sightline is wrong. In a right-hand-drive vehicle on the right-hand side of the road, the driver sits on the curb side and cannot see past the vehicle ahead. In a large motorhome with no rear window, you cannot see past it at all. Treat overtaking as something you do only with a clear, long, straight view, or not at all.
- Toll booths and parking machines are on your passenger side. With a passenger, that is a job. Alone in a tall vehicle it is a climb out into a live lane. Plan for it, and use the widest lane marked for larger vehicles.
- The fuel filler may be on the traffic side at a pump island laid out for local vehicles.
- Junctions punish habit. The dangerous moment is not the first hour. It is hour six, or the pull-out from a quiet aire at 7am when nothing is coming and you turn into the lane you have used your whole life.
What changes at 3.5 tonnes
Gross weight is the single number with the most legal consequences attached to it, and plenty of coachbuilt motorhomes sit just above or just below the line.
Tolls. VINCI Autoroutes moves a vehicle above 3.5 tonnes PTAC, or 3m or more in total height, from classe 2 to classe 3, the truck and coach band. That is covered with the source in motorhome travel in Europe.
Vignettes. Switzerland puts vehicles above 3.5 tonnes on the lump-sum heavy vehicle charge rather than the motorway vignette, and Austria moves them to distance-based GO tolling. Both are sourced on the same page.
Winter equipment. Austria’s situational rule becomes an unconditional one for goods vehicles and buses over 3.5 tonnes, as above.
Speed limits in France. French maximum speeds are set by vehicle category and weight, not by a single national limit. From the Code de la route (legifrance.gouv.fr, checked July 20, 2026):
| Vehicle | Autoroute | Dual carriageway | Other roads |
|---|---|---|---|
| Over 3.5 t and up to 12 t, carrying people (R413-8-1) | 110 km/h | 100 km/h | 80 km/h |
| Over 12 t (R413-8) | 90 km/h | 80 km/h | 80 km/h, 60 km/h if articulated or towing |
What that means for a motorhome. Above 3.5 tonnes you are off the car limits, so the 130 km/h autoroute figure a friend quotes you is not yours. Neither article names a camping-car in terms, so drive to the lower of the two sets of numbers and you are inside both, and inside every speed camera between them.
License categories. In several countries a vehicle over 3.5 tonnes requires a license category that an ordinary car license does not automatically include, and in some it depends on when the driver passed their test. Check with the authority that issued your license before you buy or rent anything over 3.5 tonnes. It is a question about the driver rather than the vehicle, no rental desk will fix it for you, and finding out at the counter means finding out with the holiday already booked.
Before you drive
- Check the equipment rules with each country’s own authority, and carry a vest and a triangle regardless because they are cheap and universally sensible.
- Know your gross weight, your total height and your total length as numbers, and write them where the driver can see them.
- If you are over 3.5 tonnes, check your license category, your toll class and your winter obligations separately. They are three different rules.
- Assume priority at unmarked junctions goes to the right in France, and read the signs everywhere else.
The posted sign and the local authority’s current guidance beat this page, every time.
Sources
- Compulsory car equipment: safety vest, warning triangle, Service-Public
- Code de la route, article R415-5, Légifrance
- Code de la route, section 1: Vitesses maximales autorisées (R413-1 to R413-16), Légifrance
- StVZO Paragraph 53a: Warndreieck, Warnleuchte, Warnblinkanlage, Warnweste, Gesetze im Internet
- Winter tyres and snow chains, Austrian Federal Ministry (BMIMI)
- Compulsory use of winter tyres, oesterreich.gv.at
Where the original is not in English, the summary above is ours and the linked text is the authority.