Please be careful this grey nomad season

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T

Theduke

Joined
Apr 29, 2017
Messages
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Location
, NT
Hey everyone hope everyone has some epic trips planned for the next few months. Please take care out on the roads, I drive hundreds of thousands of km for work each year and come across at least 10 rollovers a year. Dont forget preventative maintenance, patience, commonsense as well as tyre pressures.

After having someone from Victoria today (thinking that theyre still on the M1 loaded with traffic) cut in front of me less than 5m ahead after overtaking although the road ahead was clear as far as the eye can see I dont know what his problem was but scared the crap out of me thought he was going to hit me to start with.

Hope everyone enjoys their trips this year stay safe and dont forget to let people know where you are.
 
Hey duke, if youre a truckie, I take my hat off to you mate.... you guys keep this country running and are subjected to the dumb actions of irresponsible nerds on the roads all the time. Personally I couldnt handle what you dudes have to put up with. The grey nomad season must give you the shivers... good luck and stay safe.
btw, I pull a van and am grey on top.... but I have my 2 way on channel 40 and always communicate with a semi in my mirrors. :Y:
 
I drive around doing testing on roadworks all over the NT I couldnt be a truckie. The things I see from inpatient, careless and naive drivers make me cringe sometimes and has almost cost me my life on more occasions than anyone should have to deal with.

Wish everyone safe travels
 
Heading out this weekend with the family in a 30Ft Caravan, my golden rule is 90/95 Ks making it easy for anyone to overtake...Sure I get the odd honk and people giving me crazy looks like can't you go any faster but having experienced caravan sway a few times I would rather get there than not at all...As the duke mentioned I get all kinds of people cutting in front little do they realize how hard it is to stop when you have got a total length of around 13mtrs.

Hats off to the truckies I for one could not cope with the stress of their Jobs O:)

Stay safe and enjoy Easter with your families silly season is only 2 weeks (for now) ;)
 
BigWave said:
I'm sure many car drivers annoy many truckies, but I've also seen many bad truckies.
Maybe it's the tiredness from long hours?
Sorry if that pisses some of you off, but it most definitely cuts BOTH ways.
We just gotta be courteous of each other on the roads.
Click to expand...

So true Im on a motorbike outside of work so treat everyone like they dont see me
 
Yep, it's that time of the year again when the northern roads start to fill up with travellers seeking an escape from the southern cold. Unfortunately, some of them left their knowledge of road rules behind when they set forth and things get a bit scary out there.

Driving west out of Emerald yesterday I came up behind a caravanner doing just a smidgen over 80 in a 100 zone and he was 'Tail-end Charlie' of a convoy of 5 rigs that were almost bumper to bumper with no space to slot in between any of them. I was stuck behind them for almost 30 kms before I got the break to overtake the lot in one go and at a guess, there were another 8 to 10 vehicles stacked up behind me (including road trains) waiting to have to try to get around the lot in one hit.

Jeff
 
What can be really annoying and makes people take risks to overtake is vehicles often towing caravans or trucks and some
car drivers, is sitting way below the speed limit say 20-25km below on single lane highways, yet speeding up to and exceeding
the speed limit on overtaking lanes? Don't these drivers look in the mirror and see the 60 cars behind them?

Anyone from Victoria who has travelled the Melba Highway out to Yea then turned right to Mansfield would know about this?

I call it security lane syndrome? As they are drivers that are often nervous but feel safe when an extra lane appears?

Dash Cam Australia has some scary footage with much uploaded by professional truck drivers and it shows the insane
risks taken by many drivers when overtaking.

I must say i often have truck drivers pull over when a location appears to allow drivers to get past, like prior to long hill climbs.
Cheers to the many great truck Drivers out there who cart freight around the Nation. :Y:
 
I'm a novice grey nomad (my second year - solo) and will be heading North from Vic this winter towing my van.
I generally sit on around 95, as I'm in no hurry - it saves fuel and lets me look around and enjoy the scenery.
If a truck needs to overtake (I understand they have schedules and are not generally interested in the scenery), I get on Ch 40 and advise that I'll slow down when they're in the overtaking lane.
They're almost always appreciative of this gesture from a grey nomad with a van.
They seem to like us more (say thanks) if we communicate and are willing to help them get by.
I bet that makes them more accommodating of us in general.
 
Yes agree BigWave,
Truckies are most appreciative when you show them you are aware of them and make and effort to let them past..
So are motor cycle riders, often you get groups of Riders heading up to the hilly windy roads on Weekends, when i see them in my
mirror i allow them to pass, and make sure every rider gets past. :cool:
 
back when i first started driving it was trucks that held everybody up . back in them days it was an old perkins 6354 pulling an old gates and tarps trailer that would struggle at every hill . boots on the other foot now . and i have driven my fair share of trucks carting grain ,cattle and hay not all at the same time though .
pulled with every thing from a kenny and a drop deck an old 1418 gates and tarps and a few old acco 8 wheelers .
truck these days complain that people pull in front of them and dont give them enough room , then when on the hwy they will get right up your clacker and sit there no more than a few meters away . so if you do need to brake hard for some reason you cant . cuts both ways .
 
When towing the caravan, I try to avoid most of the roads that have a high volume of truck traffic. I will even go hundreds of kms out of the way to avoid the likes of the Bruce Highway or the Newell, too many ratbags in a hurry doing stupid things and that goes for cars, trucks and caravaners.

I have noticed in my travels around the country that some areas definitely have worse drivers when it comes to road courtesy than others with the Hunter Valley/Newcastle/Lake Macquarie region topping my list of the country's worst. The Gold Coast runs at a close second followed by the Sunshine Coast, but for some strange reason, Brisbane in between are more courteous drivers.

Jeff
 
toowoomba is quite well known for drivers doing the unexpected more than average . i have twice in the last few years seen some one go the wrong way around a round about in toowoomba and also turn left from the right hand lane from ruthven into james street.
in texas i have maybe 10 times seen strangers from out of town drive all the way up the main street on the wrong side of the traffic island. but having said that hands up wh has not made a mistake on the road even a small mistake . i cant put my hand up . although i have not gone the wrong way on a round about i also have never had an crash in quite a few million Ks touch wood i keep it that way .
i did make one insurance claim once . the roo and deer that tried to run through the side of my cruiser did the left hand door no good at all .
johno
 
I work for a Utility company, amazing how many overseas tourists from China end up in our NO Go to public zones if you leave gates open while onsite.
Most can't speak English, and it takes about 10 mins to work out where are they are heading? GPS got them confused after we get them back on track
a fair bit of laughter all round. :D
 
BigWave said:
I'm sure many car drivers annoy many truckies, but I've also seen many bad truckies.
Maybe it's the tiredness from long hours?
Sorry if that pisses some of you off, but it most definitely cuts BOTH ways.
We just gotta be courteous of each other on the roads.
Click to expand...
Truckies include the best and worst of drivers. Tailgating on Melbourne's freeways is one of their worst crimes (one B-double side-swiped me smashing in the side of my vehicle, and kept going, his overloaded trailer swinging back and forward over the width of three lanes). A few tailgate for the fun of frightening people, if no one else is watching....(listen on UHF)
 

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