Kangaroos and towing

Jim Featherby · Veteran Member

Kangaroos and towing

Peter_n_Margaret · Guru

I got this one in broad daylight on the dash cam a while back.

It hopped up and jumped away, seemingly unhurt.

Cheers,

Peter

tea spoon · Senior Member

bit hard with our van it has hydrolic override brakes .......and i tow at 85 which is a good speed for....... in case offs........

gdayjr · Senior Member

I had a close call at just over 100 kph on a motorbike on the Oxley Highway

My BMW has all the modern brake assist packages, so no need to panic.

a different rider may have a worse outcome, but experience is everything at times like this

Tony Bev · Guru

Very good advice to any newbie travelers, Jim

A lot of people seem to swerve, to avoid an animal on the highway, and I have no idea why they do it

My opinion is that (I have hit plenty of Kangaroos, over the years)

The worst scenario, by keeping the steering wheel straight while braking, and knowing you are going to hit a Kangaroo
Is that your vehicle could end up as a write off, and you may cry, when you see the damage

But on the other hand...

The worst scenario, by swerving and braking, to miss a Kangaroo
Is that you may not be alive, to see if the vehicle is a write off, or to cry at the damage

hako · Guru

My personal opinion, but I'd never apply "emergency braking" to avoid any animal on a wet or dry road or whether or not I was towing. Once you hit the brakes hard, you run the risk of vehicle instability and the result is not nice.

I cannot guesstimate whether the roo will jump fast or slow or stop, and braking may result in the roo hitting the side of the vehicle and not the bullbar which is designed to cope with this impact.

My opinion is grip the wheel, maybe touch the brakes and hope I miss it.

Good Luck.

msg · Guru

hako wrote:
My personal opinion, but I'd never apply "emergency braking" to avoid any animal on a wet or dry road or whether or not I was towing. Once you hit the brakes hard, you run the risk of vehicle instability and the result is not nice.

I cannot guesstimate whether the roo will jump fast or slow or stop, and braking may result in the roo hitting the side of the vehicle and not the bullbar which is designed to cope with this impact.

My opinion is grip the wheel, maybe touch the brakes and hope I miss it.

Good Luck.

Yep Way to go

skins · Senior Member

sorry couldn't help it .

Craig1 · Guru

will this work- nope

-- Edited by Craig1 on Monday 28th of June 2021 09:53:19 PM

-- Edited by Craig1 on Monday 28th of June 2021 09:53:53 PM

-- Edited by Craig1 on Monday 28th of June 2021 09:56:23 PM

Warren-Pat_01 · Guru

Hi Peter,
Often a roo that has been hit & seemingly uninjured will hop off into the bush & die. It seems shock kills them as well as being severely injured.

Any animal can cause catastrophic damage to you, your car & trailer, van. The best solution is to slow down while you're in the area. At night when they are feeding, drinking off the edge of the road, slow down & dip your headlights.

The first fatality on the new Eyre Highway (SA section) occurred when a small car swerved for a wombat - the driver wasn't aware that they were being overtaken by a passenger bus!

Aus-Kiwi · Guru

Kangaroos dont tow very well !! Little buggers bounce too much !!

Aus-Kiwi · Guru

Actually I near had a fatal last year with hitting a few Roos ., After hit disabled the fuel injection driver . Engine stopped . No brakes, no steering! Or near nill !! Was heading towards transformer pole . Managed to drive around pole , through school sign outside Ilford primary school !! Be aware driving evenings ! What I found the farmer was chasing Roos off his property after some rain !! A car coming the other way avoided collision by driving down the grass on side of road . $40k damage !!! This was in school
zone doing sub 40 kph .

dogbox · Guru

Warren-Pat_01 wrote:

Hi Peter,

Often a roo that has been hit & seemingly uninjured will hop off into the bush & die. It seems shock kills them as well as being severely injured.

Any animal can cause catastrophic damage to you, your car & trailer, van. The best solution is to slow down while you're in the area. At night when they are feeding, drinking off the edge of the road, slow down & dip your headlights.

The first fatality on the new Eyre Highway (SA section) occurred when a small car swerved for a wombat - the driver wasn't aware that they were being overtaken by a passenger bus!

came across some good Samaritans from the city that gave a roo a bit of a knock , they stopped to check found it was still alive. picked it up with the intentions of taking it to vet as they where driving to vet with roo on back seat, it woke up , ripped the upholstery to pieces tying to get out

Bobdown · Guru

Beware that a lot of times roos are in pairs, a couple of years ago near Capel WA, two come across the road at 6.30 am at about 90 kph (not towing though)

Missed the first one by mm, the second one hit the drivers door, went under the back wheel, damaged the rear wheel arch, ripped the back bumper off from drivers side.

Stopped down the road a bit, as I saw him in the mirror laying in the middle of the road, got out and he bounded off like nothing happened.

$4k worth of damage and the paintwork never matched properly, insurance less excess.

Always look for the dumba$$ second one trying to make across as well.

Cheers Bob

-- Edited by Bobdown on Tuesday 29th of June 2021 05:31:19 PM

Dick0 · Guru

hako wrote:
My personal opinion, but I'd never apply "emergency braking" to avoid any animal on a wet or dry road or whether or not I was towing. Once you hit the brakes hard, you run the risk of vehicle instability and the result is not nice.

I cannot guesstimate whether the roo will jump fast or slow or stop, and braking may result in the roo hitting the side of the vehicle and not the bullbar which is designed to cope with this impact.

My opinion is grip the wheel, maybe touch the brakes and hope I miss it.

Good Luck.

Yep, that's the safest way to go!

Mobi Condo · Guru

Jim Featherby wrote:
Friendly advice. Yesterday I was towing a 3 tonne van, wet road at about 90kph. Two kangaroos jumped straight out from the bushes in front of me. Emergency braking applied, unfortunately couldn't avoid hitting the second roo. I had an aluminium bullbat on the Jeep. The roo died instantly. The only damage was a plastic mudflap and probably need a wheel alignment.
My point is, the car and van stopped quickly and perfectly straight with a slight skid, no danger to us. Recently I saw on this site some unfortunates in the same scenario who rolled both car and van sadly.
It is so very important when towing, once you are on the highway have your electric brake controller set to maximum and never, never, never swerve. Those two rules alone could save your life.
Happy travels

x2, brought up on old rule (which was buried VERY deep in the Australian Road Rules}, it was illegal to swerve for an animal.

Woomera CFS & Emergency Services attended a serious roll over back in the late 1990's where a car swerved to miss a "tiny weeny innocent little joey" some k's out of Glendambo on the Stuart Highway.

The driver and other adult in front seats were SERIOUSLY injured as in multiplegia for both, child in rear badly injured from the rollover which cleaned a few hundred metres of Salt bush AND the dear little joey was killed as the car still hit it.

PLEASE NOT EVER SWERVE.

Mariner30 · Senior Member

Roo's are much softer than roadside gumtrees or a school bus full of kids. True.

oldbloke · Guru

hako wrote:
My personal opinion, but I'd never apply "emergency braking" to avoid any animal on a wet or dry road or whether or not I was towing. Once you hit the brakes hard, you run the risk of vehicle instability and the result is not nice.

I cannot guesstimate whether the roo will jump fast or slow or stop, and braking may result in the roo hitting the side of the vehicle and not the bullbar which is designed to cope with this impact.

My opinion is grip the wheel, maybe touch the brakes and hope I miss it.

Good Luck.

Pretty right. I would give them a bit more than a "touch" though. I never have my controller set at "max". Mine is set about 5. Brakes need to be balanced so that the car pulls up the car and van does same.