Overtaken by an HGV doing 75/80MPH
Discussion
On Sunday my good lady and I joined the M4 heading London bound at Junction 16, and I was mildly surprised to join beside an HGV type Horse Box type thing (Oakley Supreme Body work), I was surprised because I joined at 70MPH and expected to have to drop back and move out to the outside lane (he was in the Middle Lane) to overtake him.
Except that I didn't because he was tooling along at 75-80.
I was to say the least gob smacked. So were a few other road users because they evidently didn't expect to be over taken by a HGV and infact twice he had to jump into the outside lane of the motor way (where I know he's no allowed) to avoid other cars which had pulled out from the inside lane to the middle lane to overtake slower traffic and obviously either didn't see him (large and silver or didn't appreciate the rate of closure).
Now whilst it was interesting to watch and see him running past slower HGVs (and not causing tailbacks up the hills) , I am right in thinking that in travelling at 70MPH NSL (never mind being over 70MPH) in an HGV is a no no? as they should be restricted to 56MPH. The Truck was Right Hand drive and had a UK plate on (albeit an illegal plate in terms of spacing and using black tape to make up words......)
Just curious
Mike
Except that I didn't because he was tooling along at 75-80.
I was to say the least gob smacked. So were a few other road users because they evidently didn't expect to be over taken by a HGV and infact twice he had to jump into the outside lane of the motor way (where I know he's no allowed) to avoid other cars which had pulled out from the inside lane to the middle lane to overtake slower traffic and obviously either didn't see him (large and silver or didn't appreciate the rate of closure).
Now whilst it was interesting to watch and see him running past slower HGVs (and not causing tailbacks up the hills) , I am right in thinking that in travelling at 70MPH NSL (never mind being over 70MPH) in an HGV is a no no? as they should be restricted to 56MPH. The Truck was Right Hand drive and had a UK plate on (albeit an illegal plate in terms of spacing and using black tape to make up words......)
Just curious
Mike
michaeljclark said:
Now whilst it was interesting to watch and see him running past slower HGVs (and not causing tailbacks up the hills) , I am right in thinking that in travelling at 70MPH NSL (never mind being over 70MPH) in an HGV is a no no? as they should be restricted to 56MPH. The Truck was Right Hand drive and had a UK plate on (albeit an illegal plate in terms of spacing and using black tape to make up words......)
This makes me think that it's been deliberately delimited. Are HGVs tested for this at regular intervals (MOT?). It would seem that this person has sought to evade capture / reporting by altering their plate, in advance of committing a crime. Get on the phone to BiB and have a word, see what they think.This *will* eventually cause an accident - as you witnessed, people just don't expect a lorry (rightly, but wrongly!) to be diong in excess of 60mph.
How do you know it's a Heavy goods vehicle? you said it was a "horse box thingy", just because it is heavy and a vehicle doesn't mean its a goods vehicle, If it is privately owned then it is probably privately registered.
I beleive bin wagons are heavy but they don't run with a tacho in.
I beleive bin wagons are heavy but they don't run with a tacho in.
Yung Man said:
I beleive bin wagons are heavy but they don't run with a tacho in.
Bin lorries are hgvs , you need a lgv c licence to drive them , they require an operators licence to operate and they are charged the same road tax as normal goods vehiclesTacho law is a different thing, not all hgv's need tachos and some vehicles which arent hgv's do need tachos
liner33 said:
Yung Man said:
I beleive bin wagons are heavy but they don't run with a tacho in.
Bin lorries are hgvs , you need a lgv c licence to drive them , they require an operators licence to operate and they are charged the same road tax as normal goods vehiclesTacho law is a different thing, not all hgv's need tachos and some vehicles which arent hgv's do need tachos
I've used a couple of the older Bedfords, they weren't restricted but simply hopelessly underpowered and unable to speed,
A newer truck which sees a test annually, then stands about for days/Weeks on end in a stable yard
easilly be tampered with, and probably never get pulled up for a roadside check by VOSA.
more often than not, the driver will be some jodphur clad lovely, with a head full of ponies and not a clue about driving a vehicle this size.
Some months back a truck swung straight out in path from a gateway,
the small access door on the o/s swinging gaily out into oncoming traffic, off she drove apparently oblivious to the flashing lights of oncoming cars,
I blame the parents,
they buy them some old truck off Parceline or such, get it converted,
place an amusing bumper sticker that says SPONSORED BY MUM & DAD on the back,
and send them off with a horse they can't control in a truck they cant' manage
I digress,
notify the police,
an accident, especially involving Horses in transit is most definitely to be avoided
A newer truck which sees a test annually, then stands about for days/Weeks on end in a stable yard
easilly be tampered with, and probably never get pulled up for a roadside check by VOSA.
more often than not, the driver will be some jodphur clad lovely, with a head full of ponies and not a clue about driving a vehicle this size.
Some months back a truck swung straight out in path from a gateway,
the small access door on the o/s swinging gaily out into oncoming traffic, off she drove apparently oblivious to the flashing lights of oncoming cars,
I blame the parents,
they buy them some old truck off Parceline or such, get it converted,
place an amusing bumper sticker that says SPONSORED BY MUM & DAD on the back,
and send them off with a horse they can't control in a truck they cant' manage
I digress,
notify the police,
an accident, especially involving Horses in transit is most definitely to be avoided
michaeljclark said:
What I was passed by was one of these (albiet in Silver)
Surely that's HGV - a 7.5 tonner it isnt?!?
That's based on a 17.5t chassis. Way over 7.5t.Surely that's HGV - a 7.5 tonner it isnt?!?
Edited by michaeljclark on Monday 22 October 21:17
As stated up there ^^^^^^ probably been de-restricted.
Scania have made some pretty quick animals
My parents owned the same model as the aforementioned, and it's a slightly illegal way about things, completely unladen, with Feck all diesel in it, by virtue of an all aluminium body it came to 7KG under the plating limit for the size that needed a limiter.
So once you fill the diesel tank and water tank, put a 250kg horse on board and all the cack that goes with it, it's over the limit. The problem lies with VOSA who when they stopped us weren't sure if the horse counted towards the weight. So the time we were stopped they did a lot of rule book reading and then did nothing.
So once you fill the diesel tank and water tank, put a 250kg horse on board and all the cack that goes with it, it's over the limit. The problem lies with VOSA who when they stopped us weren't sure if the horse counted towards the weight. So the time we were stopped they did a lot of rule book reading and then did nothing.
I recall coming back from Monaco after the Grand Prix one year, when we were overtaken by the Arrows transorter which was doing significantly more than the limit especially as we were on a single carriageway road. The odd thing was shortly after overtaking us it shot off down a narrow lane. We went round the corner and found another transporter stopped by the police! Wasn;t an Arrows one but he'd obviously warned his friends!
Horse boxes are a real gray area.
The wife has an Old Beford TK horse box which just comes in under the 7.5 t mark and as such she can drive it on a car license. Not that its capable of 70MPH mind you. I've seen plenty of adverts where a truck has been advertised as being rated at 7.5 tons, and as said this is mainly down to the very light Aluminium bodies and plastic panelling. You would not beleive the size of some of these vehciles that claim tobe 7.5 tons, or less and as such they are not restricted. I often see lots of small goods vehciles on the M6 and M1 close to where I live in the outside lane doing 75-80 MPH overtaking the larger articulated and obviously restricted HGV's.
Its quite interesting to see how much the price of a horse box is effected by its weight grading, anything of 12 - 17 tons can actually be a lot cheaper than a 7.5 ton rig. Of course what most of the users forget (and a lot of them are women) is that by the time you've squeezed 1 or 2 horses on board most will be well overweight, but not many of these ladies have the neccerssary HGV licenses to drive anything bigger. My wife is doing her HGV tests next year, partly subsidised by the government and NHA in order to counter exactly this issue.
The wife has an Old Beford TK horse box which just comes in under the 7.5 t mark and as such she can drive it on a car license. Not that its capable of 70MPH mind you. I've seen plenty of adverts where a truck has been advertised as being rated at 7.5 tons, and as said this is mainly down to the very light Aluminium bodies and plastic panelling. You would not beleive the size of some of these vehciles that claim tobe 7.5 tons, or less and as such they are not restricted. I often see lots of small goods vehciles on the M6 and M1 close to where I live in the outside lane doing 75-80 MPH overtaking the larger articulated and obviously restricted HGV's.
Its quite interesting to see how much the price of a horse box is effected by its weight grading, anything of 12 - 17 tons can actually be a lot cheaper than a 7.5 ton rig. Of course what most of the users forget (and a lot of them are women) is that by the time you've squeezed 1 or 2 horses on board most will be well overweight, but not many of these ladies have the neccerssary HGV licenses to drive anything bigger. My wife is doing her HGV tests next year, partly subsidised by the government and NHA in order to counter exactly this issue.
With regard to bin wagons and cranes, my mate drives a cherry picker it has a tacho in it but they are not obliged to use them, you need an HGV licence to drive the big ones but they are classed as "Plant" and as such they can run on red diesel.
I asked him if that meant driving to London, then using the picker then driving back and he said yes, red diesel all day, they did get pulled by VOSA a few years back and where told to use white diesel but 18 months later they had to back track and repay all the duty for the full 18 months.
I asked him if that meant driving to London, then using the picker then driving back and he said yes, red diesel all day, they did get pulled by VOSA a few years back and where told to use white diesel but 18 months later they had to back track and repay all the duty for the full 18 months.
I don't know about the weights and whether the horsebox was limited or tachographed or not. All I know is that an 'HGV' doing 70+ has got to be a liability in one sense, and a blessing in another! Up where I live (in the Scottish Borders) horseboxes seem to be built on the oldest larry chassis possible, fitted with engines running very rich on maybe 4 out of 6 cylinders, leaning to one side, and flat out at under 30mph - even the tractors are faster round here!!! Then, put in a gormless woman driver who pays no heed to other traffic and doesn't use mirrors or indicators and you have a real mobile roadblock. Interestingly, the local plod fined a tractor driver £200 this summer for holding up traffic and not pulling over, so there is hope still......
The thing is that tacho's are very accurate when it comes to reading speed , far more accurate than a cars speedo and whether the vehicle is an hgv or not and whether it has to use a tacho or not it will almost certainly have one fitted
So a bit like the Sat Nav discrepancy a 7.5 ton vehicle could quite easily be driving along at a steady 70mph actual speed and it appear to other car drivers to be doing 75mph or even 80mph.
It is shocking but only because we arent used to it , i've driven coaches fully laden at quite a bit over 70mph (special permission) and they were very stable and often been overtaken overseas by trucks travelling at what most of us consider to be normal motorway speeds
Speed limiters have been a road safety disaster imo and now that 7.5 ton vehicles are restricted to 56mph despite legally being allowed to do 70mph on uk roads its even more of a nonsense
So a bit like the Sat Nav discrepancy a 7.5 ton vehicle could quite easily be driving along at a steady 70mph actual speed and it appear to other car drivers to be doing 75mph or even 80mph.
It is shocking but only because we arent used to it , i've driven coaches fully laden at quite a bit over 70mph (special permission) and they were very stable and often been overtaken overseas by trucks travelling at what most of us consider to be normal motorway speeds
Speed limiters have been a road safety disaster imo and now that 7.5 ton vehicles are restricted to 56mph despite legally being allowed to do 70mph on uk roads its even more of a nonsense
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