I drive to conditions and not to a schedule ..

David and Donna wrote:

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I did a night time trip from South Australia to Mackay QLD recently to collect a boat and trailer and return. There is almost no fencing on the Barrier Highway.  I was met with Kangaroos quietly grazing at the side of the road, facing away from the setting sun. They start to lope along the road edge, and when you are close, they suddenly accelerate and change direction 90 degrees towards the centre of the road where they can see more clearly.  There were feral goats that were grazing halfway up the sides of road cuttings that would panic at the last minute and try darting down the road cutting bank and across the road.

Then I tried the Sturt Highway coming home. Better fencing than the Barrier highway but similar problems with more domesticated animals: horses, cows, camels, llamas, koalas, possums, sheep..... 

I saw a semi trailer that had a brilliant yellow set of lights that started at the centre top of the front of his rig, pulsed downwards to his roo bar, and then pulsed in both directions outwards from the centre of his roobar.  The message was clearly, here I am, move to the left or right quickly.

After a roo strike on the passenger front corner of the roobar, and a couple of near misses with animals in the remote stretches, with no other vehicles in sight, I got into the habit of driving with my 4 way flashers on, alternating between high and low beam, and if in doubt, blowing the horn. It worked well.    Sunset and sunrise and the hour either side of it, are not good times to be driving on the Barrier Highway. Its one of the reasons why you see so many semis pulled over with the driver sleeping then.  If I was towing a van, I would have done the same.

Coming home, during the great wet, I had my windscreen covered by very muddy water thrown off the wheels of a passing semi that had just come from unsealed roads. I couldn't see through the windscreen for what seemed like ages. Scary stuff.

Windscreen damage.

Most commonly occurs when the oncoming semi is descending a hill, which to him, has a left curve in the road, and you are coming the other way.  His load shifts to the right, putting greater pressure on the tyres closest to you.  The gaps in the tyre tread spread apart for all the tyres facing you, Wedged rocks are released and  are thrown up and to the right. They richocet against the mudgards, then bounce off the road surface and take out your windscreen in its most vulnerable place, your driver's side bottom corner. 

Next time you see an approaching semi descending a hill like that, move as far left as you can.

The other time you are likely to catch a stone, is as a result of holding up a semi for a while. After finally passing you, the semi driver will give his steering wheel a flick, which will cause the rear wheels of the trailer to flick off the bitumen, pick up rocks, flick back onto the bitumen and release rocks caught in the tyre pattern. It will be the rearmost set of 4 tyres which will flick rocks at you. In this situation, it will usually be the centre bottom of the windscreen that is struck.

 

Being run off the road: The zip lane trick.

You are doing the right thing, and travelling in the left lane to allow the semi behind you to overtake you.

The Semi driver is determined to get in front of you before your zip lane ends. In the mirror, you see him approaching fast, so you throttle off.

He gets into the position so his roobar is exactly in line with your bumper bar, his mirror is inches from yours, and then he deliberately brakes and changes down gears, decelerating quickly.

You think to yourself: poor bugger, he has 16 gears and a heavy load and cant get past me. You look in your rear vision mirror, and you see the red flash of his brakelights bouncing off the side of his trailer.  Braking ? why would he be braking ?

You realise your zip lane is about to end, and your only option is duck in behind him. You don't need to brake hard initially, because your last glimpse was that he was overtaking you quickly.

You never dreamt he would brake while overtaking you. Then you realise he doesn't intend to go past you at all. 

You brake hard, but didnt realise that the end of the zip lane is covered in gravel from many others who have accelerated hard at the same place on the road, and he is only inches away from your drivers side. You cant afford to have the caravan swerve under heavy braking, and you cant afford to lose your steering now that you are on marbles. Instinctively, you could reach for the electric van brakes, (or you could run off the end of the zip lane), then you realise, oh fk, I am not towing the van, I am towing a boat and trailer with override brakes only.

The moral of the story, is if you are long distance caravanning, don't annoy semi drivers or get too close to them. They are often tired and frustrated at being delayed.  Be courteous and give them a wide berth. Drive defensively and assume they are tired, and whether they want to or not, their vehicle may be going to throw stones or mud at you. 

Yes, we will do that run again. Adelaide to Port Douglas in June 2016.  The wet season.

-- Edited by David and Donna on Tuesday 29th of December 2015 01:29:54 PM

-- Edited by David and Donna on Tuesday 29th of December 2015 01:34:47 PM

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All pretty standard stuff when driving in the outback.

Barrier highway at night! nope.

Aware of conditions and still hit a roo traveling a bit quick were we?

Re truckies, never have a problem with them, they are on the road to earn a living, give em a bit of consideration and they will reciprocate, reckon your being a bit paranoid here.

"4 way flashers on, alternating between high and low beam, and if in doubt, blowing the horn. It worked well." seriously? imagine if we all did this when driving on country roads, would be like Christmas in the asylum.

"Yes, we will do that run again. Adelaide to Port Douglas in June 2016." I would seriously reconsider David, you may not be as lucky next time.

I've been traveling these roads regularly for over 40 years and never felt any of the emotions you describe, never hit a roo or anything larger than a bird.

Might be better if you stick to driving in built up area's.

-- Edited by Santa on Wednesday 30th of December 2015 09:36:42 AM

Great post Donna and David - an honest and factual report on your trip and what you observed. We are not all 'road warriors' and sometimes find ourselves in situations that are unknown simply because we have never experienced them before when we venture into uncharted water.
Your report and what you observed is valuable....may even save a life.
Good Luck.

Thanks for clearing that up dogbox - often wondered why trucks brake lights sometimes come after they have passed us.

exhaust brakes work off the exhaust pipe as you described. engine brakes work of the engine (Jacobs brake) which converts the engine from a power producer to an air compressor by a change of the valve timing

an in modern trucks the brake lights are activated to indicate the slowing of the vehicle

then there are retarders most of the ones that I had anything to do with where electric an where like an electric motor applying forces in the drive train very effective but very heavy used a lot in coaches

-- Edited by dogbox on Sunday 3rd of January 2016 04:35:55 PM

Sorry if I offended you, Dave and Donna, the way I read your post was that you were on a tight schedule, and maybe inexperienced with long distances , I suppose some others read it the same way, again, apologies if I offended.

This is a friendly forum, join in and enjoy.

David and Donna wrote:

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Im sorry to say that im feeling a bit surprised by the tone of some of the quick (and witty ?) replies to our first and honest post on this forum. 

 

 

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I stand by my original remarks David, your comments indicate that you were totally unprepared for what you encountered on what was not exactly a Sunday afternoon drive in the Adelaide hills.

I'm not a road warrior or a chest beater, the conditions you describe are par for the course on this drive of 5000km return, mostly through remote outback area's.

My post was not meant as a put down, what it was meant to convey is the adventures you encountered are common place on this trip, some of us are not phased by the unexpected on the road and handle it in their stride, others obviously find the events you describe highly stressful.

David and Donna wrote:

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Im sorry to say that im feeling a bit surprised by the tone of some of the quick (and witty ?) replies to our first and honest post on this forum. 

SNIP

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 Spot on David and Donna - I worded my reply to show the true worth of your post. I was being honest too!

Keep contributing.

Regards

I will be staying well away from the roads that run between Adelaide and Port Douglas in june.

As for brakes lights coming on, I doudt that anything other then a fault in the electricals. 

Enjoy your travels.

And as for the Barrier Highway, we hit a cow last june on our way out there, about 120Km east of Wilcannia. About 12Km before Emmdale. And yes it was Dark (about 7:30pm) and yes there were heaps of roos, goats and the occasional cow (steer) on the road, but every roadside stop we passed from about 3:30pm was chocka block full of vans etc. We had decided to push on till Emmdale and overnight there, but didn't quite make it.

Luckily I was only travelling at about 80Kph by that stage, instead of the usual 100Kph to 105Kph, due to the wild life, but this bugger bolted out of no where. Even with a set of IPF driving lights and a LED light bar mounted on the bull bar, we got very little warning. I almost managed to miss it, and if I wasn't towing the van we would have been fine, but we clipped it behind the ear and killed it outright.

Luckily because of the bull bar we sustained minimal damage to the vehicle and were able to continue our trip, and got it repaired when we got home, including a nice new steel bull bar.

IMHO some people touch the brake pedal to disengage the cruise control.

Aussie Paul. 

as I stated earlier the brake lights come on when the limited speed is exceeded with the activation of the engine brake/exhaust brake/ retarder usually on a bit of a down hill run which is why you see truck brake lights come on an you think why is he braking
another a worn out truck driver who isn't very smart or else I would have gotten out long before I did

Totally Off Topic - Troopy - did you get any steaks off your road kill :)

We've found Toll and Linfox drivers to be the most professional and courteous to vanners (us anyway) - they usually call you up on UHF and thank you after passing.

The worst are one man band truckies and small local companies who believe they own the road and resent long RVers.

We once had a small time truckie company try to run us off the road when he overtook when there wasn't the length of road for him to do so - I wouldn't have overtaken a caravan with a car, let alone a truck. He then sat behind us and abused us on the radio.

On the H/W from Port Augusta to Coober Peedy we had a truckie who was for some reason unwilling to overtake us, despite the speed he had come up on us and the long straight roads. When I saw a rest area, I called him on Ch 40 and he acknowledged my call to tell him that in 1 km there was a rest area and I would pull into it so he could pass (the drop off into the stones on the side of the bitumen was not a good place to move left). I pulled over and he drove past - no "thanks mate"

G'day David & Donna,

Just a thought, but you mentioned that you were travelling in a zip lane. I haven't ever seen a zip merge in an overtaking lane. I'm not saying there aren't any, just saying I've never seen one. On all of the overtaking lanes I've used, the broken white line continues until the left end ends & there are merge right and left lane ends signs (ie: vehicles in the left lane must give way to vehicles in the right lane) As against a zip merge where the broken white line ends before the left lane ends & the sign reads "form 1/2/3 lanes" (where the vehicle in front at the merge has the right of way, regardless of which lane its in)

There seems to be a lot of confusion with drivers re these 2 different types of merging. I quite often see the reverse, where someone in the right lane fails to give way to someone in the left lane in front of them at a zip merge (Lower North East Rd at Highbury heading north is a shocker for it!)

Could this have been a contributing factor in your close call with the truck? (As in, you didn't realise that you were required to give way to the vehicle in the right lane?)

Just asking, not judging! ;)