Driving standards

[alastairq]

I did pass a Land-Rover lightweight on the M1....towing what I took to be a ex-military 1 3/4 ton trailer [normally towed by an LGV]...but, it may well just have been a trailer, lightweight [1.1 ton]

 

Whatever, the vehicle and /or trailer may have been well loaded, for, as I went past, I noticed the whole thing was a very definite Vee-shape....[although, it seemed to be tracking well]

Edited July 4, 2016 by alastairq

[Jenny Emily]

I see a lot of caravans so front heavy that the rear wheels of the towing vehicle must be hard on the bump stops. They can't be fun to drive, and must kill the rear suspension and tyres. Some people seem to have no common sense. I saw one person have his caravan unhitch on a speed bump because the jockey wheel hit the ground so hard it wrenched the hitch off. Luckily he was only going at walking pace or it could have turned pretty grim for him.

 

Luckily since 1997, a separate licence is needed to tow a trailer over a certain weight, such as a caravan. I suspect a lot of new drivers are completely ignorant of this fact though, as born out by the number of people towing badly loaded caravans, and people using the final lane on a motorway to overtake whilst towing.

Edited July 4, 2016 by Jenny Emily

[Horsetan]

 

Presumably this will lead to an increase in drivers going straight over the top.

[Fat Controller]

The latest brainwave down here is to put bolisha beacon crossings immediately (and I mean immediately) after mini roundabouts, the result being a car will turn off the roundabout and immediately have to stop at the crossing with the back of the car blocking the mini roundabout, with the resultant chance of it being hit.

 

Now I am sure they can come up with some bull about it slowing the traffic to prevent accidents etc but to my mind it really is silly.

The roundabout at the sea end of the main street in Penarth has five exit/entrance roads; four of these have pedestrian crossings immediately after the roundabout.

[Kickstart]

Found that a large saloon is one of the most stable tow vehicles around.

We tow a bike trailer fairly often. Problem these days is finding a car with anything more than a nominal unbraked towing capacity.

 

Tow cars we have had:-

 

Audi 100 Avant - pretty awful to drive normally but only marginally worse when towing.

 

Borrowed Rover 827 - Did the job OK, and the auto box on this coped well.

 

Alfa 75 2L TS - remarkably nice to tow with. Even managed to be rather better on fuel when towing than when driven normally.

 

Alfa 155 2L 16V TS - had a pair of these. Pretty good for towing, not bad on fuel when towing (not as good as the 75). Quite a surprise as they are not that low geared.

 

Jaguar X Type 2.5 - towed well enough, but quite a revvy engine (heavy flywheel on a revvy engine is not a good combination). Not as good as the 155, and when towing used a lot more fuel.

 

BMW 318 - tows OK, but fairly gutless low down and not so good on fuel when towing.

 

Wondering whether to try and convert the trailer to braked, which would make choosing another car far easier.

 

All the best

 

Katy

[F-UnitMad]

IMG_20160704_183747_1467654129273.jpg

Presumably this will lead to an increase in drivers going straight over the top.

Mini roundabouts are an Instrument of Satan.

Get three people approaching from each road at the same time, & nobody knows who should give way first.

[PhilJ W]

A single axle caravan or trailer if it is not possible to balance the weight evenly slightly tail heavy is preferable but no more than 52/48%.

[Baby Deltic]

...Wondering whether to try and convert the trailer to braked, which would make choosing another car far easier.All the bestKaty

Is the car dual braked because there aren't many vacuum braked trailers around nowadays. You're going to need to show a class 7 headcode if you're driving with an unfitted trailer. ;-)

[newbryford]

Mini roundabouts are an Instrument of Satan.

Get three people approaching from each road at the same time, & nobody knows who should give way first.

 

I hope you don't visit Swindon. (Other similar locations are available)

 

 

Cheers,

Mick

[Baby Deltic]

I hope you don't visit Swindon. (Other similar locations are available)

 

Magic-Roundabout.jpg

 

Cheers,

Mick

We have one like that in Colchester. We have another set of junctions which replaced one big roundabout which reportedly has the most traffic lights in one place than anywhere else in Britain. Edited July 4, 2016 by Baby Deltic

[Guest]

I hope you don't visit Swindon. (Other similar locations are available)

 

First time I drove through Swindon and saw a sign for the magic roundabout I thought it was a piece of urban art.

 

Then I discovered it was an actual diagram.

[newbryford]

We have one like that in Colchester. We have another set of junctions which replaced one big roundabout which reportedly has the most traffic lights in one place than anywhere else in Britain.

 

Is that the one on the A133 near Tesco at the eastern end of town? If it is, I've regularly used it to get to the UoE. Good fun deciding which way to go round the middle - clockwise or anti depending on how the guys in front are driving.

 

Cheers,

Mick

[Baby Deltic]

Is that the one on the A133 near Tesco at the eastern end of town? If it is, I've regularly used it to get to the UoE. Good fun deciding which way to go round the middle - clockwise or anti depending on how the guys in front are driving.

 

Cheers,

Mick

That's the one. The one with all the traffic lights is at North Station.

[newbryford]

That's the one. The one with all the traffic lights is at North Station.

 

Been there done that a few times in the last couple of months. Eyes everywhere.

Easy after daily negotiation of the former roundabout at Whitebirk in Blackburn.

 

Five entry/exit points, two are to/from a motorway, varying from two to four lane entry, with four lanes around the middle and traffic lights at every entry point. Just have to watch out for cockwombles that change lanes part way round because they haven't understood or seen the clear lane markings and overhead direction signs.

 

Cheers,

Mick

[Horsetan]

I hope you don't visit Swindon. (Other similar locations are available)

 

Magic-Roundabout.jpg

Do feel free to visit Hemel Hempstead....

[PhilJ W]

We had/have the pleasure of such a roundabout at Sadlers Farm on the A13. Fortunately if going from/to the A13/A130 you now by-pass it but for any other routes you have to negotiate it.

[Jenny Emily]

I've only been to the magic roundabout once and that was enough. One innovation with it though was that it was possible to quite legally go anti-clockwise around the big roundabout thanks to the mini roundabouts within. The look of fear in the eyes of other drivers was something to behold though.

[Quarryscapes]

The roundabout at the sea end of the main street in Penarth has five exit/entrance roads; four of these have pedestrian crossings immediately after the roundabout.

 

Driving through Pwllhlei you have a pedestrian crossing (with lights) followed a cars length away by a roundabout and about 5 cars lengths to another roundabout, but with a pedestrian crossing again between them (no lights) Should you make it to the second roundabout your exit will no doubt be blocked by yet another pedestrian crossing, again with lights! 

[MJI]

I see a lot of caravans so front heavy that the rear wheels of the towing vehicle must be hard on the bump stops. They can't be fun to drive, and must kill the rear suspension and tyres. Some people seem to have no common sense. I saw one person have his caravan unhitch on a speed bump because the jockey wheel hit the ground so hard it wrenched the hitch off. Luckily he was only going at walking pace or it could have turned pretty grim for him.

 

Luckily since 1997, a separate licence is needed to tow a trailer over a certain weight, such as a caravan. I suspect a lot of new drivers are completely ignorant of this fact though, as born out by the number of people towing badly loaded caravans, and people using the final lane on a motorway to overtake whilst towing.

 

See this a lot, those vans are well over the towing limit for that hitch, most hitches are 75kg, those bashing the ground are illegal.

 

I used to load to as near to 75kg as I could, then get the car level by inflating the self levelling shocks 4 bar AFAIR (Monroe they were fantastic).

 

With around 200bhp and a total weight of around 3 tons (car van people) it did not go too bad either, hills were a non issue, but I did manage 11mpg once with a head wind, (on LPG)

 

We had the van for around 10 years and because I spent ages checking and measuring it was so stable that if I had gone to France I would have been happy to use their towing speed limit.

 

Same year as we sold the van, the car was written off by a low flying Peugeot which had been hit by a BMW

[MJI]

We tow a bike trailer fairly often. Problem these days is finding a car with anything more than a nominal unbraked towing capacity.

 

Tow cars we have had:-

 

Audi 100 Avant - pretty awful to drive normally but only marginally worse when towing.

 

Borrowed Rover 827 - Did the job OK, and the auto box on this coped well.

 

Alfa 75 2L TS - remarkably nice to tow with. Even managed to be rather better on fuel when towing than when driven normally.

 

Alfa 155 2L 16V TS - had a pair of these. Pretty good for towing, not bad on fuel when towing (not as good as the 75). Quite a surprise as they are not that low geared.

 

Jaguar X Type 2.5 - towed well enough, but quite a revvy engine (heavy flywheel on a revvy engine is not a good combination). Not as good as the 155, and when towing used a lot more fuel.

 

BMW 318 - tows OK, but fairly gutless low down and not so good on fuel when towing.

 

Wondering whether to try and convert the trailer to braked, which would make choosing another car far easier.

 

All the best

 

Katy

 

I used to use a V6 Vauxhall Omega, pretty capable cars all round. It was a great tow car.

 

[MJI]

A single axle caravan or trailer if it is not possible to balance the weight evenly slightly tail heavy is preferable but no more than 52/48%.

 

No, load the trailer or van to the lowest maximum load of the hitch or the tow bar, most vans and cars are 75kg nose weight.

 

You need to measure to avoid damage and snaking.

[newbryford]

I used to use a V6 Vauxhall Omega, pretty capable cars all round. It was a great tow car.

 

 

Was it any good at driving on grass verges?

[45156]

I hope you don't visit Swindon. (Other similar locations are available)

 

I was there last week, and came upon this one.  I have, in the past, always managed to avoid it after my first encouter with it which scared the sh&t out of me, as nobody seemed to know what to do - even the locals.  This time I reached it as I'd gone wrong at one of Swindon's other roundabouts of which there are many.  There are also a number of other oddly configured roundabouts and clusters of them around some of the bridges under the railway on the way to the GWR museum (and, unfortunately shopping precinct which used to be part of the works).

[johnarcher]

I hope you don't visit Swindon. (Other similar locations are available)

 

Magic-Roundabout.jpg

 

Cheers,

Mick

I quite enjoyed that roundabout, when I was a driving instructor I used to describe it to pupils who complained about the double mini roundabout in Bodmin.

Edited July 5, 2016 by johnarcher

[ParkeNd]

I used to use a V6 Vauxhall Omega, pretty capable cars all round. It was a great tow car.

 

Just copy the "travellers" to find the best tow car. A Ford Transit short flatbed. Also great for parking at work, supermarkets, and in hospital car parks.