Fake Britain

[rohrl]

All that jazz said:

rohrl said:

I followed an unladen flatbed artic along the M4 and down the A34 at speeds approaching 90mph about five years ago. I called it in in to the police at the time because the driver was going hell for leather and it obviously wasn't safe because no-one expects a lorry to be doing those kind of speeds.

What's so funny?

I was following the lorry at a constant distance and my speedometer was showing 90mph. I know it'll over-read by a certain amount but even so it was the fastest I've ever seen an artic travelling by an enormous margin.

I've worked for a large haulage firm in the past and I know it's a trivial matter to disable a speed limiter with a couple of wires and crocodile clips.

[cat with a hat]

All that jazz said:

Nickyboy said:

Most fleet trucks will be limited by gearing to 80-85mph but the big boys if unreigned can top 100.

Explain please. "Unreigned" how?

Different gear ratios or a truck designed for another market

[All that jazz]

I think the programme is full of st and your typical scare-mongering overly sensationalist crap, which is about right for the BBC.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b042v5zn/fake...

He claims that the following police car has just clocked him at 100mph yet the rev counter is only reading 1400rpm . The rev counter is still working with the speedometer INOP as you can see it reading different amounts in other clips. The scenery was going past way too slowly for 100mph too, looked more like about 70mph.

[battered]

Cooperman said:

Now one might wonder whether the speed rating of truck tyres covers speeds of 100 mph sustained on a dry road and whether it was, in fact, quite dangerous. Would you like to do 100 mph in a truck on standard truck tyres, or even be overtaken by one? It appeared very irresponsible really, unless there is going to be a truck tyre expert along to tell us what the max. sustained speed rating of a truck tyre is.

I'm confident that the BBC employed a competent person to carry out a risk assessment before they employed someone to drive the truck at whatever speed. I'm equally confident that the Police driver either side had a RA signed by his manager also. In the current compensation age and "Elf an' Pastry gorn mad" do you think it could possibly be otherwise? Does anyone think that the BBC just took a punt and said "ah sod it, we'll be right"?

If they did it, and the Police were quite rightly in attendance, on a public road, then nobody was put in danger. If they had been and there had been an accident and someone killed, then the HSE are going to be sending a senior police officer to prison. If you were Chief Constable of whatever county, would you expose yourself to that? No, I don't think I would either.

[f1rob]

Was it the ERF,s a few years ago that were electronically limited an some tricky trucker found out that if you got to 55 an turned the ignition off an then on again it reset again as if it was doing 0mph
Seem to remember it was very popular with a certain firm doing trips from welsh ports with good from Ireland for delivery to London up the m4
Some drivers were doing that round trip twice a day !

[ging84]

Oh no! now it turns out the bbc might have deceived us and used artistic licence on a consumer affairs program. Where will it end? TV presenters blowing up caravans in risky looking stunts and pretending to race cars through the streets of various cities throughout the world against various other modes of transport and always with a finish which goes right down to the wire. We must put a stop to this now.

[grkify]

Been passed a few times by lorries going ridiculous speeds normally foreign registered. didnt the lorry on fake Britain have a magnet placed somewhere on the gearbox disabling or making the speedo and tacho inaccurate which is what disabled the limiter?. Didnt a ton of warning lights and things pop up after that run?

[Nickyboy]

All that jazz said:

Explain please. "Unreigned" how?

As in no speed limiter

The only thing that holds them back other than the limiter is the gearing and wind resistance.

Remember the Top Gear truckers challenge? The top speed run had them Clarkson doing 80 and Hammond doing 90mph and they were measly 250-350bhp

[xjsdriver]

Cooperman said:

Did anyone see the episode of 'Fake Britain' on BBC1 recently when truck tachos were being discussed.
To show how tacho records were being 'faked' they drove a large truck without a trailer at 100 mph with a police driver and a marked car on 'blues & twos' in front. The dual carriageway was not sealed and other vehicles were being overtaken at those speeds.
Now one might wonder whether the speed rating of truck tyres covers speeds of 100 mph sustained on a dry road and whether it was, in fact, quite dangerous. Would you like to do 100 mph in a truck on standard truck tyres, or even be overtaken by one? It appeared very irresponsible really, unless there is going to be a truck tyre expert along to tell us what the max. sustained speed rating of a truck tyre is.

I saw a documentary on racing trucks once - I discovered that they use regular truck tyres, as racing tyres for thrucks just don't exist, or at least they didn't when I saw the documentary about 7 or 8 years ago.......so if racing trucks with 1500 bhp are fine with regular tyres, then I would imagine that a standard road going version should be fine at 100 mph.

[Bigyoke]

All that jazz said:

I think the programme is full of st and your typical scare-mongering overly sensationalist crap, which is about right for the BBC.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b042v5zn/fake...

He claims that the following police car has just clocked him at 100mph yet the rev counter is only reading 1400rpm . The rev counter is still working with the speedometer INOP as you can see it reading different amounts in other clips. The scenery was going past way too slowly for 100mph too, looked more like about 70mph.

The run wasn't done for the benefit of the BBC, the tractor unit was one of a number seized from a haulier for tacho offences & I believe disabling the tacho also bypasses the speed limiter and it was done to see what effect that had. The driver was from the PSNI RPU and they had RPU cars as an escort. The speed reading came from the RPU chase car. AFAIK they didn't intend to hit 100mph & when they did they backed off immediately.

[michael243]

Recently I was overtaken by 2 lorries and a coach whilst I was doing 75 according to the speedo

[Magic919]

Nickyboy said:

All that jazz said:

Explain please. "Unreigned" how?

As in no speed limiter

The only thing that holds them back other than the limiter is the gearing and wind resistance.

Remember the Top Gear truckers challenge? The top speed run had them Clarkson doing 80 and Hammond doing 90mph and they were measly 250-350bhp

Unreign - as in no King or Queen?

[ruggedscotty]

as said speeds approaching and exceeding 100 mph are pretty routine where thee is money to be made - returning empty weight is considerably less on an empty trailer and these trucks can build up speed pretty quickly

[Nickyboy]

xjsdriver said:

I saw a documentary on racing trucks once - I discovered that they use regular truck tyres, as racing tyres for thrucks just don't exist, or at least they didn't when I saw the documentary about 7 or 8 years ago.......so if racing trucks with 1500 bhp are fine with regular tyres, then I would imagine that a standard road going version should be fine at 100 mph.

Indeed

They used to use normal road tyres shaved down to minimal tread but now specialist race tyres are fitted

[Red Devil]

Bigyoke said:

All that jazz said:

I think the programme is full of st and your typical scare-mongering overly sensationalist crap, which is about right for the BBC.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b042v5zn/fake...

He claims that the following police car has just clocked him at 100mph yet the rev counter is only reading 1400rpm. The rev counter is still working with the speedometer INOP as you can see it reading different amounts in other clips. The scenery was going past way too slowly for 100mph too, looked more like about 70mph.

The run wasn't done for the benefit of the BBC, the tractor unit was one of a number seized from a haulier for tacho offences & I believe disabling the tacho also bypasses the speed limiter and it was done to see what effect that had. The driver was from the PSNI RPU and they had RPU cars as an escort. The speed reading came from the RPU chase car. AFAIK they didn't intend to hit 100mph & when they did they backed off immediately.

I concur. The statement in bold is incorrect. Furthermore the footage is discontinuous and heavily edited/intercut.

It was filmed on the M1. At 24:04 the truck is approaching the 1 mile exit sign for J12 (A4 to Portadown/B196 to Maghery).
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@54.479859,-6.50474,...

At 24:26 the transmission from the follow car states "Speed eight zero".
At 24:31 the follow car updates with "Speed eight five" at which point the rev counter is registering 2k.
At 24:49 the rev counter is reading well over that (~2.5k). That will be the point at which 100mph was achieved.

As with many BBC 'factual' programmes you have to pay very close attention. Otherwise it's all too easy to draw false conclusions.

[Jim1556]

Roo said:

Errrm.
Try again.

It was a tongue in cheek statement, hence the wink!

Still, in all my years doing 20-30k miles a year, I've yet to see an HGV doing more than 60 - usually they sit at 56-60, biding their time to cause maximum pissed offness to the cars behind when they pull out very quickly to overtake the wking HGV in front, only to sit there for several miles inching past! It's fking infuriating and bd selfish!

I'd love it if they could at least speed up to 70+ for a minute or so, cos that would stop the above overnight!

[Roo]

As mentioned, try driving in the US as per the quote you hilariously EFA'd.

It's very common to be driving on an interstate at 70mph+ and be overtaken by an HGV.

[PAULJ5555]

Good old bib again, putting peoples lives at risk to make a no emergency TV program.

How happy would you be if your family all got killed in an accident from this, I'm sure they could have used a test facility or air strip.

[Bigyoke]

PAULJ5555 said:

Good old bib again, putting peoples lives at risk to make a no emergency TV program.

How happy would you be if your family all got killed in an accident from this, I'm sure they could have used a test facility or air strip.

Not at all happy. How happy would you be if they were killed in accident resulting from an actual emergency? I would imagine equally unhappy.

Test tracks and airfields are not always available or a practical alternative. Activity taking place on public roads will be risk assessed and measures taken to mitigate the risk, as was done in this instance.

[PAULJ5555]

Bigyoke said:

PAULJ5555 said:

Good old bib again, putting peoples lives at risk to make a no emergency TV program.

How happy would you be if your family all got killed in an accident from this, I'm sure they could have used a test facility or air strip.

Not at all happy. How happy would you be if they were killed in accident resulting from an actual emergency? I would imagine equally unhappy.

Test tracks and airfields are not always available or a practical alternative. Activity taking place on public roads will be risk assessed and measures taken to mitigate the risk, as was done in this instance.

Lividly unhappy if the deaths were from a consumer tv show rather than a real emergency.

If no track is available then don't film it, you cant replace lives. Imagine telling traffic plod you had bald tyres because none were available or the shops were shut.

Risk assessed or not there is still risk here that can be avoided by not doing it, do we really have to endanger people just to film a consumer tv show.