Advice from a truckie

NeilandRaine · Guru

Advice from a truckie

Phil C · Guru

Cheers for that guys, my nephew is a B double driver and has always given the same advice to us. Its clear to me that if you respect the truckies most times they will respect you back.

At the end of the day, we all have to share the roads. Why not do that safely?

Travel safe

deverall11 · Guru

Quote:
"A tip from John is to use your electric brakes manually to keep your van towing nice and straight. When were being overtaken by a truck, I wind the electric brakes right down, and get my wife to slowly apply the electric brakes manually, John says. This is a good way to avoid unwanted sway in the van. The driver focuses on driving while passenger applies electric brakes manually. Not enough to pull it up, but enough to provide a bit of drag.

That might work fine for older tugs, but tug with RWB throttle, applying the brakes will cause the tug to stop accelerating. This is because the programming of the ECU prevents you from accelerating with the brakes on. A real pain when trying to get a base line on your van brakes.
Larry

03_Troopy · Guru

And having someoene else fiddle with the brakes while you drive is bl@@dy ridiculous. You're driving the vehicle, you're in charge of it. No-one else should be interfering.

hako · Guru

The other bit I found confusing is the advice given when being overtaken by a heavy vehicle:

Every truckie you meet will say maintain your speed the last thing you want to do is force them to overtake.

Other sources say to back off when the HV is fully in the overtaking lane.

It's no wonder people get confused.

Thanks NeilandRaine for posting.

jab160 · Senior Member

Generally .......we get nice and close to you, then back away a tad......then when we see our opertunity to pass coming up, we wind up..........YOU then back off 5..10k's and hug the fog line....

easy as, and we're gone.

The antics of some travellers ........you just want to run em off the road, they just don't give a rats.........Grrrrrrrr

dogbox · Guru

hako wrote:
The other bit I found confusing is the advice given when being overtaken by a heavy vehicle:

Every truckie you meet will say maintain your speed the last thing you want to do is force them to overtake.

Other sources say to back off when the HV is fully in the overtaking lane.

It's no wonder people get confused.

Thanks NeilandRaine for posting.

do not back off until the truck is committed to the overtaking move if you back off to soon the truck may have to back off an loose momentum

Woody n Sue · Guru

There will always be an exception, however most truck drivers are courteous if the caravan driver is also, personally I have never been overtaken by a caravan as trucks are speed limited to 100 kph and want to maintain it and most have the power to maintain it,where as most caravan drivers are happier doing around 85-95, and that's ok, but when a truck pulls out to pass you never back off till the truck is entirely on the other side of the road then either maintain your speed if the road ahead is still clear or slow down a bit if another car suddenly appears over a rise ect coming at you, yes flick your lights when the trailer is clear of your car it is appreciated especially if there is another car coming at him and remember it's coming at you too .
End of advise

One of the things that get up my nose mostly when in my truck is car drivers who think there doing 100 kph by there speedo when in fact they are only doing 95 kph then play funny buggers by speeding up on the straights to stop you getting past how the heck do they think the truck caught up to them if they were doing 100 kph we would never catch them, another trick that gets up the truck driver is cars that pass them then slow down below 100 kph just because they don't like trucks and don't like following a truck, some of you may think this wouldn't happen but believe me it does.

End rant
Woody

Felicia · Guru

Woody,

Just doesn't happen to truck drivers also happens to car drivers. My nearest reasonable sized town is 100 kms away. The ones that drive me crazy are those who can't drive around a bend at more than 80 kms sometimes 70 kms and 95 percent cent of the bends are capable of 100 kms. Then they hit the straight and back up to the 100 kms or even higher. IT'S A BEND not a corner.

Lynda

Woody n Sue · Guru

Lynda What can I say but

I hear you.

Phil C · Guru

Felicia wrote:
Woody,

Just doesn't happen to truck drivers also happens to car drivers. My nearest reasonable sized town is 100 kms away. The ones that drive me crazy are those who can't drive around a bend at more than 80 kms sometimes 70 kms and 95 percent cent of the bends are capable of 100 kms. Then they hit the straight and back up to the 100 kms or even higher. IT'S A BEND not a corner.

Lynda

Yeah we get that here as well. One thing I think is very dangerous they hit the brakes half way around the bend. I have a reasonable sized ute and it will do most corners at the posted speed, a bit less of course when I'm towing. I just can't understand why people do this. Rant over

cheers

hako · Guru

So the article "Advice from a truckie" regarding being overtaken is incorrect?.....sorry fellas but when the article supposedly written by a truckie contradicts what GN's on this thread say is correct procedure then is it any wonder people get confused.
By the way, I know the correct procedure so I don't need to be told, but lots of newcomers are not aware. Misinformation just keeps the ball rolling.

Regards

jab160 · Senior Member

What's confusing ????........truck in your mirrors, he's got more road speed than you..........right time, back off.......he's passing you.......he's gone. Nothing confusing there. ( but.......i pull triples and quads........now things get interesting........for both parties in the overtaking scinareo.........again......back off, don't hug the centre line area, ease left, hope and pray i don't have to drop my nearside wheels onto or real close to the bitumen edge, you will surely get stone damaged.....40+ wheels just on my one side, can disturb debris, big time.

Radio chit chat..........you / me, works a treat.

exa41 · Guru

Well I doubt if anyone on this forum has driven from Pt Headland to Perth as we have just done , circumstances dictated that we traveled at 75kph all the way from basically Broome to Perth with mechanical problems. I must say that notifying the road trains of our predicament and helping them past was no problem at all and most inquired about our problem, pity that a few of the others on the road were that good .

Ontos45 · Guru

03_Troopy wrote:
And having someoene else fiddle with the brakes while you drive is bl@@dy ridiculous. You're driving the vehicle, you're in charge of it. No-one else should be interfering.

Be an interesting conversation with their insurance company......."Who was in charge of the vehicle Sir?"..... " My Misses and I were, I was steering she was braking"

The Hats · Senior Member

dogbox wrote:
hako wrote:
The other bit I found confusing is the advice given when being overtaken by a heavy vehicle:

Every truckie you meet will say maintain your speed the last thing you want to do is force them to overtake.

Other sources say to back off when the HV is fully in the overtaking lane.

It's no wonder people get confused.

Thanks NeilandRaine for posting.
do not back off until the truck is committed to the overtaking move if you back off to soon the truck may have to back off an loose momentum

Hey mate I was a road train drice for more than 30 years here is a post I put up a while ago

http://thegreynomads.activeboard.com/t58286028/sharing-the-road-caravans-verses-tucksroad-trains-as-request/

Cheers

The Hats

Hylda&Jon · Guru

Not sure I'd take this piece of advice given in the article either "A tip from John is to use your electric brakes manually to keep your van towing nice and straight. When were being overtaken by a truck, I wind the electric brakes right down, and get my wife to slowly apply the electric brakes manually, John says. This is a good way to avoid unwanted sway in the van. The driver focuses on driving while passenger applies electric brakes manually. Not enough to pull it up, but enough to provide a bit of drag..

I have used the electric brakes to get me out of trouble before but to have your partner use them pre-emtively may not be the best move in my opinion.

Also I believe it's best, when being overtaken by a truck, to maintain the same speed all throughout the overtaking process that you were doing when he began overtaking. When he starts to overtake he is well aware of what speed you are doing so, if something suddenly happens (like an animal comes onto the road), he knows how much breaking it will take him to drop back behind you again instead of having to contend with another unknown factor like a suddenly slowed down vehicle.

Cheers.

Jon.