Caravan towing speed

It's a $50 fine to drive 20km below the speed limit. The speed limit for caravans is 100km/h. The police are always cracking down on other inconsiderate road users so why not the grey nomads?

There is simply no excuse not to drive at the legal speed limit. They are the jet ski's of the road and unfortunately the majority continue to ruin it for the minority.

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firiebob said..
Sorry guys I got to get back to the Caravaners forum, there's a debate going on about the best toilet chemicals to use

The best toilet chemical for a caravaner's caravan is a caravaner.

Clearly the majority of responders are less than middle aged, given the age-ist bigotry expressed.

I don't like **** drivers more than most, and certainly don't like being held up unreasonably, but bagging people who out there giving life a go despite the **** pensions or superannuations they live on surely is narrow minded.

As for driving below the speed limit, or driving with a tail wind, they both reduce fuel consumption up to about 20%. A lot when your total income is no better than a piss freaks pocket money.

Now drivers who have no consideration or courtesy for other drivers, such as owning the road that their forebears paid for with taxes from lower wages, and worse working (and living) conditions, they get me going.

Everyone on this forum has a great life. We are all living it up.

We love all water sports. Water is life.

But to hear people whinging about s**t like this is really pathetic.

Just pathetic.

My gripe is with those that are driving slow and without any courtesy. The two aren't mutually exclusive.

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theDoctor said..


That package you have to hotshot to the mine site owned by the company that goes out of its way to pay zero tax in this country, was more than likely ordered by some fat moron who was too lazy to get out of his air con office to realise he'd ordered the wrong part.
Suck it up and enjoy the view

DOC' SCORES A BULLSEYE!!!

All the below were "super urgent panic station hotshot jobs",

Arrive on site with urgently required pump - to see 6 identical pumps still in packing cases in the yard, and I delivered all them too...

Drill rods to a mine site - as some sleep deprived mug had ordered a batch using the wrong part number - and the ones on my truck were also wrong....

A BHP site making sure they used up the budget allocation for the month, so the budget didn't get cut next year....

Arrive in South Hedland at 3am Sunday morning, to find we have the wrong delivery address, wrong company name and wrong telephone number......

Arrive in Karratha with a truck loaded to the limit with concrete pipes - and being told to go back as there is a cyclone warning and no one will unload us...


I didn't mind the driving - and if those "fat morons in the a/c office" were happy to pay my boss more than 8.5K for me to take a 35kg hydraulic ram to Dampier, I wasn't going to complain - it put food on the table and paid the mortgage.
[the hydraulic ram was to for a machine in a quarry with a damaged ram - stripped thread blamed on the apprentice]

and yep - enjoyed the view as much as I could, although I am still a bit peeved that I have driven all over this great country of ours, but rarely had time to "stop and smell the roses"

They do it for the economy.

Express your displeasure with the horn. The most under utilised item on a car.

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sn said..

Chris6791 said..
^^ In WA I think the minimum speed limits only apply to the freeways these days but there is a ticket for driving unreasonably slow. Unfortunately 'unreasonably slow' is probably so vague that it rarely gets issued, unreasonable to who?

Unreasonable to the line of traffic stuck behind the wobbly??

What about "obstructing traffic"?
I've heard obstructing traffic is "on the books", but rarely used.
It is pretty hard to catch up with offenders - due to the police car being stuck at the back of the line

Reminded me of an instance just south of Karratha. Large loaded prime mover asked his escort who and what was behind him. We were back in the queue a bit.
Escort came back on radio, saying two flat bed trucks, couple of 4x4's (us) and a wobbly.
Ol girl driving the wobbly came back in a flash, "careful who you are calling an effing wobbly mate You keep that up, and I will pull you over and sort you right out!!!
I couldn't see from laughing. Prime mover driver came back on, with laughter. Escort said zilch.

There is new era coming of self driving or autonomous cars.
Even nowadays I can imagine how magnificent it could be if every car had cruise control actively reading max speeds from Google maps.So once setup on cruise our car will drive with max allowed speed unless brake is pressed or accelerator to the max to indicate that we want to overtake something .
I can't wait for cars driving by themselves so I don't need to worry about anything that happen on the road.
Computers will not be much interested in constant jumping quee on motorway, changing unnecessary lines or flashing lights and horns to others.
Computerized truckie could go without the need to rest /sleep from Cairns to Perth.
Automatic cars will keep the safe distance between them - or vice verse - can tailgate closely to save on electric fuel.
Suddenly also all speed control cameras and radars becomes completely obsolete and cops need to find another job to fill the time and government coffers,

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Macroscien said..
There is new era coming of self driving or autonomous cars.
Even nowadays I can imagine how magnificent it could be if every car had cruise control actively reading max speeds from Google maps.So once setup on cruise our car will drive with max allowed speed unless brake is pressed or accelerator to the max to indicate that we want to overtake something .
I can't wait for cars driving by themselves so I don't need to worry about anything that happen on the road.
Computers will not be much interested in constant jumping quee on motorway, changing unnecessary lines or flashing lights and horns to others.
Computerized truckie could go without the need to rest /sleep from Cairns to Perth.
Automatic cars will keep the safe distance between them - or vice verse - can tailgate closely to save on electric fuel.
Suddenly also all speed control cameras and radars becomes completely obsolete and cops need to find another job to fill the time and government coffers,

Google owns Waze which is a pretty damn good app for navigation/mapping. It relies a lot on user data input and they've not long updated it with speed zones. They must be building a huge dataset on roads, traffic and driving ready to feed into their self-drive program.

I've tried to outsmart it's directions but i've never beaten it as far as estimated time of arrival. It's not overly popular in WA but in Asia it is. It's always thinking, if it detects a slow down in traffic it re-routes you on the fly if it finds a better option. The more people that use it, the more data it gets and the better it picks a route for you.

I saw the other day that the road authorities in some cities in the US are getting their data and reports of road hazards and traffic jams direct from Waze as the live data beats anything they can do.

I drive a ten year old turbo diesel 4x4 with two SUP's on the roof and tow a 21 foot 2.3 tonne caravan. Under decent conditions I can safely, economically and easily tow at 100 kph. If I encounter a stiff headwind then I have no issues of pulling up for a couple of days and wait it out, spending a few extra days on the water or in the bush really does not bother me greatly as I am "semi retired" and not on a tight schedule. A couple of years ago heading west I copped a massive head wind and fuel economy went from about 14 ltrs per 100 k's up to around 24 and it was very hard to maintain a decent speed, spent two lovely peaceful nights out on the plain waiting for it to die down.

When I am "on the road" I am on channel 40, what really does "get up my nose" with 'fellow caravanners' is when you have 3 or 4 travelling in convoy at 20 kph below the speed limit and failing to leave a decent separation between rigs, effectively creating a 200 mtr or so rolling road block. I encountered one of these 'caterpillars' on my last trip across the plain, just over the border in SA.

I called them up and got no reply even though I could hear them chatting amongst themselves. As I passed the rear rig the radio came alive, I was described as a "reckless cowboy" and the other three (in between making disparaging comments)made like an old "wagon train" and closed up ranks. Thanks to the terrain and great visibility I was able to pull out and pass the rest but the comments directed at me were far from complimentary. Once passed I got back on the radio and "thanked them for their cooperation in allowing me to pass" and asked if the lead driver was having issues seeing as his late model 4x4 was having issues maintaining 80 kph?

If you come up behind me please do not tuck in right behind the van, even with good extended mirrors I cant see you when you are tight up against my bumper and you cant see the road ahead. If you hang back about 20 mtrs or so I can see you and will give you a quick flick of the right hand blinker to let you know you're good to pass, when I see you pull out I will lift off the throttle and you can slingshot past. I do this for trucks all the time and the truckies (who are earning a living and driving to a schedule often appreciate it). If I am holding up traffic I WILL pull over at first opportunity (when safe to do so) and let you all come past, but I cant just veer off onto the gravel at will, I need to be a bit cautious.

I'm no angel but I really don't want to p1zz off other road users and actually try to do the right thing, so please don't tar all of us "wobblies" with the same brush.

It's always intensely ironic that the proposed solution for drivers being arseholes (driving at 80kph with a caravan in a 100/110 zone), is for the grumpy drivers to be even bigger arseholes (tailgating, pushing in, harassment).

The safety argument is also extremely amusing. (Because they were driving slower than I wanted to they forced me to do something stupid and made me have an accident!)

I find I get more personal satisfaction in almost all areas of life by being aggressively courteous and responsible. It feels so good and powerful to do the right and safe thing instead of raging and trying to get one over the other person. It applies equally on the road, on the water (ride away from crowds, kooks and dickheads) and just general life. I don't always succeed, but it's a good thing to aim for.

While we're at it, driving at 80kph while towing is sometimes the only possible option. Hills and headwinds and heavy traffic (lots of starts and stops) spring to mind. The difference in fuel consumption between doing 110 and 80 up a hill while towing a load is more like 50%. Apart from costing more, it can mean the difference between comfortably making the next fuel stop and running the tank near dry. When you add in wear and tear on the vehicle and tyres then the cost escalates rapidly.

Counting the cost in simple dollar terms is possibly the smallest part of the argument. You have one group who feel entitled to drive as fast as they want, no matter what the cost. And another group trying to move efficiently and safely. Perhaps the real solution is a little consideration, from both sides.

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Cord said..
Head over to caravaners forum to check the mentality of some of these tards. One old bloke states that he will not drive anyhere unless he has a tail wind...........ffs its not a sailing boat.

I might as well be driving a sailing boat then. I can do 100 with a tail wind but hit a head wind and I can be down to under 60 with my foot flat to the floor.

... and here we have Caravan & Motorhome magazine actively encouraging caravanners to break the law and not sit in the left hand lane. (2)

Point 4 showing they should be sitting at 90-95kph.

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rod_bunny said..

... and here we have Caravan & Motorhome magazine actively encouraging caravanners to break the law and not sit in the left hand lane. (2)

Point 4 showing they should be sitting at 90-95kph.

Written by 70 year olds, for 70 year olds