A timely reminder

[surveyor]

Watch the hills folks. Oh and the nose weight....

http://www.cornwalllive.com/out-of-control-caravan...

[AlexC1981]

The HGV drivers grumpy face photo He certainly didn't have an ounce of sympathy for the caravanner.

[stewy68]

His point about training (or lack of it) is valid though IMO

[GlenMH]

AlexC1981 said:

The HGV drivers grumpy face photo He certainly didn't have an ounce of sympathy for the caravanner.

Probably seen it too many times before. I only commuted from Bristol to Swindon for just over 2 years and in the summer would see the after effects of a caravan incident at least twice/week in the summer.

[caelite]

GlenMH said:

AlexC1981 said:

The HGV drivers grumpy face photo He certainly didn't have an ounce of sympathy for the caravanner.

Probably seen it too many times before. I only commuted from Bristol to Swindon for just over 2 years and in the summer would see the after effects of a caravan incident at least twice/week in the summer.

Used to tow a lot of trailers for a living (mainly 3.5ton, occasionally ~12ton on a rigid flatbed) up and down the A9. Pretty much my reaction, I'm sitting at 55mph and see someone come flying past, single axle caravan in tow, doing at least 65, possibly 70. I'd struggle to summon an ounce of sympathy if they went rolling off the road in front of me. The fact I passed in '10 and had to go through weeks & a couple of thousand £s of training to drive the same as they can on grandfather rights probably doesn't help my opinion of them.

I've never been witness to a caravan tip on the motorway though, came across one on the A811 who seemed to have jacknifed into a bush, pretty much identical setup to the one in the video, brand spanking new Shogun towing brand spanking new single axle caravan with an old boy behind the wheel with his rather pissed off missus, I wasn't on the clock that day so decided to be the good samaritan and tow him out with my own Shogun, 16 years the senior of his! To be fair to him he at least had all the kit necessary to facilitate his own recovery in the back of his 4x4, which is a good thing since I doubt my tow strap would've worked. Looked like a case of coming into a corner too hot rather than miss-loading or blatant negligence, the ones crashing on straight motorways should have there +E removed though in my opinion.

He had taken a rather nasty chunk out of the front corner of his van & the shogun was rather scuffed up but they seemed happy to travel on and assess the damage when they got to their campsite.

It really isn't hard to hussle a heavy trailer along the road with a bit of tuition on how to load it correctly and how to react when hauling the weight. But aforementioned tuition REALLY is needed in a lot of cases.

[MattS5]

Does ATC not help in a situation like this ? (It would seem not)

[Chrisgr31]

MattS5 said:

Does ATC not help in a situation like this ? (It would seem not)

He was quite lucky to get away with the incident in the way he did. In theory you dont want to brake if it does start weaving, the only problem is that he was going downhill and you really dont want to go faster and faster!

Passing a lorry is going to be a big danger point partly due to the airwave a lorry creates and partly because it may be protecting you from the wind as you pass it and its there to catch you as you emerge.

Fairly sure that on one of those police programmes they said they get one caravan go over a day in the West Country in the Summer.