i have to my dismay just read a story on this grey nomad site regarding road trains and what to do when we come across one somewhere or large trucks for that matter,, having been and still am an interstate truck driver for some 20 odd years it has been my experience that many of us who are on a traveling holiday panic at the sight of a large truck,, the story quoted that the road trains in the out bback travel at 100kph, while this is true for single and B double trucks on our main highways it is certain not true for a road train,,, depending on the number of trailers the "train" has the speed limit is 95, 90 or 85 kph... over the years driving many times have i came across a holiday maker who see me coming either from behind or ahead and the first thing they'll do is pull over half on the road and half off the road, this is not only frustrating for the truck driver but is dangerous as well because it throws stones up all over the place and more over than that the car has 1 wheel with traction on the road and 1 wheel without off the road, asking for trouble,, not only do they do this but slow down to boot, the best advice i can offer is to stay on the road keep a constant speed, slow down a little if you must but only 5 k's an hour or so,, you may know that you want to slow down to let the truck past but the truck driver may not know what you are doing and will ajust his speed accordingly then has to wait to build up speed again i order to pass if possible and it could take an extra 5 or so k's to regain that passing speed.. also in the article titled road trains is said that many of them travel in long lines again i think this may be misrepresented a bit,, sure o many of our major highways between capitol cities many truck do indeed "convoy" i have been guilty of this myself, but i have seen very few if any road trains convoying, they just take to long to stop if something should happen and most drivers leave plenty of room between truck something which i can't say for many caravaners traveling togetaher,, now i'm not having a go at anyone here but sometimes mis information is worse than no information at all
happy traveling
bb

Thanks for story from a truck driver seat.

Well done and welcome, Beachball. We have a really informative tuck driver "consultant" who, like you, gives us this sort of information to keep us all on the same page. I think we all should have UHF radios so we can chat to let each other know what we're doing. unfortunately we don't live in an ideal world, so this advice from you is certainly valuable. I find it's the city travellers who really seem to have the biggest problems with the big rigs. Now, don't jump all over me, it's not every city driver, but on average the city drivers seem to have the biggest issues with trucks out on the open road, and they also seem to have problems with traffic flow outside 80km zones. It's a big country with a lot of long k's, and if we share them with respect for each other we should all be good. See out out there sometime. Stay upright.

Beachball!!   Well put....I myself are a former Inter stater....(.Retired) I do exactly as you say...Fellow Nomads.......Listen to him

welcome to the site, after driving a motor home i have lots of respect for trucks! but, (not having a go but need to know why?) why do trucks crawl up hills and your stuck at ssnails pace and eventually pass them onlt to have them overtaking like a bullet well over the posted speed limit on the back? only to repeat later on. drives you nuts, but i do respect you guys, dont gety me wrong ok!

ok well to answer you question i'll put it like this,, put a back pack on and load it up with as many house bricks as you can, no try walking up a flight of stairs, ain't easy going up real easy coming down,, most trucks would gross about 45 tons, that is the weight of the truck and trailer and the load it carrys, try puling that load up a hill, most trucks would have either an 18 speed or 12 speed gear box, most cars might have a 4 or 5 speed gear box,,,, depending on the size of the hill there isn't a truck alive that can maintain road speed of say 100 k's or even 80 k's it's just impossible, most truck driver would start changing down within the first 3rd of the hill to a gear that will maintain the revs to enable the truck to get over the hill without stalling half way up,, see this is something that motorist don't understand, they can fly over the hills and bearly loose speed even if towing a 'van or trailer but the truck has 45 or so tons to drag up that hill,,, as for leting go down the other side, well i guess i'm as guilty as the next guy for doing that, who knows i guess it's an individual thing,, although with the speed restrictors fitted to trucks these days and the gps units that the big companys have in their fleet "throwing it off the top" as it's sometimes know is more and more frowned upon and the bottom of a hill is a good place for the law to "hide" to nab that speeding truck..
bb

Hi Milo, Long time trucker myself in the past. I'm not trying to conjure up excuses for the truckers here but there are many reasons why it can happen as you describe, but a couple of examples are - momentum and economy, maintaining momentum helps keep fuel costs down. Time allowed for drivers to continue driving. They need to cover as many K's as possible in the alloted time frame. From my point of view they can pass me as many times as they like, as long as they do it in a safe manner. As for going slow up hills there's not much they can do about that. I can assure you they would love to go up them as fast as they can, legally of course... If I was in the situation you describe, I would drop back and give him the lead over the hill, follow them to the top and let him/her get away down the other side, for the simple reason he would not get stuck behind me while waiting for a safe place to pass me again. Hope this gives you some idea why this happens sometimes. Cheers & beers PS. Yes there are some cowboys out there, unfortunately, and they give others a bad name. The same goes for some people in RV's or caravans, there's good and bad on both sides.

Gee, I hope I have to follow or allow you to pass me on the road some time. Can you blokes tell all the other truckies about your practices. It sure would make life more relaxed. Most truck drivers are very courteous, but I can imagine their frustration at times trying to work out what the caravan tower is going to do. If they looked in their mirrors from time to time they'd get a better idea of what actually follows them.

wasnt haviung a go , thanks for answering..

Hi there, Ive recently been from SA to the Mudge meet & back again, since my rig is only an XF falcon panelvan & a 12Ft caravan i was able to travel at about 100KmsHr. Mostly this rig will keep up to a semi & slows on large hills as the trucks do, so no problem there, only had a couple of semis pass me with no dramas as I just let them know with the CB that I would backoff when they pulled out to pass, which they did quite easily. What did bug me tho was cars that insist on passing then slowdown infront of me & just like the trucks kill the momentum I had builtup.  Daryl

there's good and bad in us all i think bb

It's good to have an open and informative discussion like this and as you can see there's quite a few retired (and yet to retire) truckies who are also GNs. There's always bound to be tensions when we are sharing a limited resource, in this case the roads. I too find it annoying when I'm overtaken by a car only to have the overtaker slow up in front of me. This is particularly noticeable if using cruise control, also when travelling at the (GPS determined) speed limit anyway. Another annoyance with me is being held up for many ks in a queue behind an old clapped out converted bus getting along at 70 ks or so in a 100 or 110 zone on a busy highway without any consideration to their fellow road users. (Not uncommon on the Bruce Highway). Yes I know there a some drivers of slower vehicles who will pull over to let others pass. Like DeBe I back off when trucks have moved out to overtake (but not before, so that the truck can maintain its momentum) to ensure the truck can get passed quicker and back into the line of traffic sooner. Perhaps (?) a good idea to be ready with the trailer brake just in case the slipstream sways the van, but that's not a problem with my little rig. A few years back I had a truck with a wide load behind me who wished to pass. I was talking to him on the CB to indicate I was aware of this and when he was about to pass he called me and told me not to move off the road as there was room to pass, that the load would go close to my rig but he'd be watching. It was quite a wide load, it did go close, but I maintained my line and the whole procedure was quite safe as we knew each others intentions.

Well done forum here we have a discussion taking place without people ripping the guts out of one and other, and we are all learning well done, lets keep that this forum a reel learning experience

Hear! Hear! That's why I use this forum and not some others

i'm sorry if i sounded a bit harsh i wasn't having a go at anyone,, apart from a fishing forum this is the only forum i've been on,, i was just hopeing to explain the reason behind why truck do what they do when in hilly country,, sure there are some bad truck drivers out there, i hope i'm not one of them, that make it look bad for the rest of us as it's the bad deeds that get noticed as much if not more than the good
bb

beachball57 wrote:

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i'm sorry if i sounded a bit harsh i wasn't having a go at anyone,, apart from a fishing forum this is the only forum i've been on,, i was just hopeing to explain the reason behind why truck do what they do when in hilly country,, sure there are some bad truck drivers out there, i hope i'm not one of them, that make it look bad for the rest of us as it's the bad deeds that get noticed as much if not more than the good
bb

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I don't think you sounded harsh in the least, in fact I feel you got your point across in a polite and informative manner, please keep up the good work.

Now my gripe is the this:-  When I have left sufficient room between my rig and the vehicle in front some smart ass just has to overtake and slot into the space.  Happened to me in Adelaide on a dual carriagway and now I have a dent in my right hand wheel arch.

 

Beachball57 I think your post was terrific and well put. Trucks, caravans and motorhomes are a fact of life and if we can understand the working of all and why we are on the road it would make it better for everyone. I have like you a relationship with all of the above like you , when I am on the road in the caravan I am always aware of heavy vehicle and increase speed not to hold them up and pull over into parking area , has we have all time in the world but truck diver are trying to make a living . we must remember truck diver are professionals the rig that they are in charge of are worth a lot of money and they don't let cowboys lose with that sort of money. I have always found truck drivers ready to thank you for being helpful and always signal by flashing light after they pass you . Beachball57 I commend you for starting this post

Beachball57..Are you at liberty to give your call sign ?    I'm Magpies1 on 12 UHF Travelling up the Coast (East) July 17th..With a Toyota Coaster......At last fixed

Very interesting Question Tony, cant say that Ive ever seen any.  Daryl

Yes there were a couple in the Scarborough QLD caravan village just recently ,they seem to do the same has everybody else in the park

Thank you all for your civil, courtious and informative discussion.

If only more folk could do the same on other fora.
As tonyd mentioned (and I know where he's coming from) there are altogether too many people who take a great joy at 'having a go' and blustering on in their inane, but comprehensive, ignorance.

Beachball, thank you for being direct and informative.
We can only gain from your input.
Please keep on keeping on

i know what you mean i go land sailing and kite flying when i can to relax after work and i made the mistake of getting onto a couple of forums dealing both with land sailing and kiting but all it seemed to be was one giant s##t fight ove who was better, tried to bring some sense to it all but sometime you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink, i don't use those forums anymore which is a little sad as land sailing isn't a real popular sport here in australia and finding people of a simmilar interest in this case is a bit hard,, stilll i'd rather be out of it than put up with that sort of "crap"

Good..I'll be a listening...! Maybe I can you a wave some time......I'm due to head North in July (Slowly)   End up in Cains one day and beyond...At the moment I am having Vic Roads trouble with awnings....Hope your Medical problems are tiny

Hi bb, loved you story on road trains we have been on the road now for almost 4 years abd have never had any problems with  trucks of any size. We have 2way and always let the truckie know that we will pull over as soon as it is safe to do so they always reply and  let us know what they want us to do especially if its a huge road train, a we were coming to millmerran from cambooya  a couple of weeks ago and told the truckie we would pull over asap he said not to worry about it as he was pulling in a couple of kls up the road, he said he wishes all van people would drive like us stay on 80kls we were doing when he got near us and let them know what we are doing. 

same here Colsa.  Let them know what's going on and what you are going to do and there aren't any problems.