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Spark said..

MDSXR6T said...

firiebob said...
But here's the rub kids, I tow a caravan and sit on 80, been doing it full time over two years so far. But I like to think I do the right thing

I appreciate you think it's the right thing to do but it's 20km an hour under the 100kmh towing legal speed limit. You're crazy if you don't think it's rude to other drivers or holds up traffic.

Road trains, blokes towing boats or camper trailers loaded with gear never seem to have problems doing the speed limit and don't hold traffic up so i don't see why people towing caravans think it's acceptable.

If you can't tow safely at 100km/h or can't afford the fuel then you can't afford the caravan

Last line is bang on I reckon!

And it was 30 km under the speed limit of the roars I was originally speaking of. I might go and do 50 in a 80 and see what Kind of reception I get from other drivers

As far as I am aware, driving 20kmh or more UNDER the posted speed limit is a bookable offence. Mind you, that offence is like the travelling in the left lane unless overtaking one. I doubt anyone has EVER been booked for that even though there are signs everywhere asking you to do so.

It's a $50 fine to drive 20km below the speed limit. The speed limit for caravans is 100km/h. The police are always cracking down on other inconsiderate road users so why not the grey nomads?

There is simply no excuse not to drive at the legal speed limit. They are the jet ski's of the road and unfortunately the majority continue to ruin it for the minority.

^^ In WA I think the minimum speed limits only apply to the freeways these days but there is a ticket for driving unreasonably slow. Unfortunately 'unreasonably slow' is probably so vague that it rarely gets issued, unreasonable to who?

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firiebob said..
Sorry guys I got to get back to the Caravaners forum, there's a debate going on about the best toilet chemicals to use

The best toilet chemical for a caravaner's caravan is a caravaner.

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MDSXR6T said...
It's a $50 fine to drive 20km below the speed limit. The speed limit for caravans is 100km/h. The police are always cracking down on other inconsiderate road users so why not the grey nomads?

There is simply no excuse not to drive at the legal speed limit. They are the jet ski's of the road and unfortunately the majority continue to ruin it for the minority.

Haha what a tool of a statement, do you work in talkback radio by any chance..?
So they drive at 80k an hour big farking deal
That hundred Kay you gotta drive is going to take you an extra ten minutes
That package you have to hotshot to the mine site owned by the company that goes out of its way to pay zero tax in this country, was more than likely ordered by some fat moron who was too lazy to get out of his air con office to realise he'd ordered the wrong part.
Suck it up and enjoy the view
90% of the rest of the world has to walk

Clearly the majority of responders are less than middle aged, given the age-ist bigotry expressed.

I don't like **** drivers more than most, and certainly don't like being held up unreasonably, but bagging people who out there giving life a go despite the **** pensions or superannuations they live on surely is narrow minded.

As for driving below the speed limit, or driving with a tail wind, they both reduce fuel consumption up to about 20%. A lot when your total income is no better than a piss freaks pocket money.

Now drivers who have no consideration or courtesy for other drivers, such as owning the road that their forebears paid for with taxes from lower wages, and worse working (and living) conditions, they get me going.

What is wrong with you people. Get a grip.

Everyone on this forum has a great life. We are all living it up.

We love all water sports. Water is life.

But to hear people whinging about s**t like this is really pathetic.

Just pathetic.

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Windpasser said...
What is wrong with you people. Get a grip.

Nothing is wrong with "us" people. On most problem roads the legal speed limit is 110km for us and their legal speed limit is 100km. The government has decided this is perfectly safe and legal. Sitting at 30km/h under the legal speed limit for 50kms+ is inconsiderate for other motorists regardless of who's driving what.

Beardead, i appreciate the reduction in fuel consumption but if you can't afford all the running costs, you can't afford the toy. Regardless of whether its a boat, caravan, ferrari, jetski or the latest Gulfstream jet.

My gripe is with those that are driving slow and without any courtesy. The two aren't mutually exclusive.

The words "caravan", "towing" and "speed" should never all appear in a sentence together,......but I just did it.

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theDoctor said..


That package you have to hotshot to the mine site owned by the company that goes out of its way to pay zero tax in this country, was more than likely ordered by some fat moron who was too lazy to get out of his air con office to realise he'd ordered the wrong part.
Suck it up and enjoy the view

DOC' SCORES A BULLSEYE!!!

All the below were "super urgent panic station hotshot jobs",

Arrive on site with urgently required pump - to see 6 identical pumps still in packing cases in the yard, and I delivered all them too...

Drill rods to a mine site - as some sleep deprived mug had ordered a batch using the wrong part number - and the ones on my truck were also wrong....

A BHP site making sure they used up the budget allocation for the month, so the budget didn't get cut next year....

Arrive in South Hedland at 3am Sunday morning, to find we have the wrong delivery address, wrong company name and wrong telephone number......

Arrive in Karratha with a truck loaded to the limit with concrete pipes - and being told to go back as there is a cyclone warning and no one will unload us...


I didn't mind the driving - and if those "fat morons in the a/c office" were happy to pay my boss more than 8.5K for me to take a 35kg hydraulic ram to Dampier, I wasn't going to complain - it put food on the table and paid the mortgage.
[the hydraulic ram was to for a machine in a quarry with a damaged ram - stripped thread blamed on the apprentice]

and yep - enjoyed the view as much as I could, although I am still a bit peeved that I have driven all over this great country of ours, but rarely had time to "stop and smell the roses"

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Chris6791 said..
^^ In WA I think the minimum speed limits only apply to the freeways these days but there is a ticket for driving unreasonably slow. Unfortunately 'unreasonably slow' is probably so vague that it rarely gets issued, unreasonable to who?

Unreasonable to the line of traffic stuck behind the wobbly??

What about "obstructing traffic"?
I've heard obstructing traffic is "on the books", but rarely used.
It is pretty hard to catch up with offenders - due to the police car being stuck at the back of the line

They do it for the economy.

Express your displeasure with the horn. The most under utilised item on a car.

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Windpasser said..
Everyone on this forum has a great life. We are all living it up.

We love all water sports. Water is life.

But to hear people whinging about s**t like this is really pathetic.

Just pathetic.

Really? Its a forum. In a general part of the forum that pretty much exists for 'stuff' and whinging is part of that.

People sit in a pub whinging about all sorts of stuff. Its a decent way to get stuff of your chest. If you sat there and were totally politically correct, who would care? 'Nah, everything's roses, I've got nothing to say'.

So, let people whinge. Its better than getting angry at everything in life and lets off steam.

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sn said..

Chris6791 said..
^^ In WA I think the minimum speed limits only apply to the freeways these days but there is a ticket for driving unreasonably slow. Unfortunately 'unreasonably slow' is probably so vague that it rarely gets issued, unreasonable to who?

Unreasonable to the line of traffic stuck behind the wobbly??

What about "obstructing traffic"?
I've heard obstructing traffic is "on the books", but rarely used.
It is pretty hard to catch up with offenders - due to the police car being stuck at the back of the line

Reminded me of an instance just south of Karratha. Large loaded prime mover asked his escort who and what was behind him. We were back in the queue a bit.
Escort came back on radio, saying two flat bed trucks, couple of 4x4's (us) and a wobbly.
Ol girl driving the wobbly came back in a flash, "careful who you are calling an effing wobbly mate You keep that up, and I will pull you over and sort you right out!!!
I couldn't see from laughing. Prime mover driver came back on, with laughter. Escort said zilch.

You think they are bad on the road I have to put up with them at work, they simply cannot park inside their lane on the ferry most times a meter over the center line which blocks any other vehicles coming on yet semi drivers don't have a problem and a lot of these caravaners are arrogant old pricks.

There is new era coming of self driving or autonomous cars.
Even nowadays I can imagine how magnificent it could be if every car had cruise control actively reading max speeds from Google maps.So once setup on cruise our car will drive with max allowed speed unless brake is pressed or accelerator to the max to indicate that we want to overtake something .
I can't wait for cars driving by themselves so I don't need to worry about anything that happen on the road.
Computers will not be much interested in constant jumping quee on motorway, changing unnecessary lines or flashing lights and horns to others.
Computerized truckie could go without the need to rest /sleep from Cairns to Perth.
Automatic cars will keep the safe distance between them - or vice verse - can tailgate closely to save on electric fuel.
Suddenly also all speed control cameras and radars becomes completely obsolete and cops need to find another job to fill the time and government coffers,

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beerdead said..
Clearly the majority of responders are less than middle aged, given the age-ist bigotry expressed.

As for driving below the speed limit, or driving with a tail wind, they both reduce fuel consumption up to about 20%. A lot when your total income is no better than a piss freaks pocket money.

Now drivers who have no consideration or courtesy for other drivers, such as owning the road that their forebears paid for with taxes from lower wages, and worse working (and living) conditions, they get me going.

Ummmm.........pot, kettle, black.

It must be hard living off a self funded retirees superannuation fund thats had the benefit of growing in a low (subsidised) tax environment (that the younger generations don't get the benefit of) and having to drive a 2 year old Land Cruiser instead of the brand new model............my heart bleeds lol.

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Macroscien said..
There is new era coming of self driving or autonomous cars.
Even nowadays I can imagine how magnificent it could be if every car had cruise control actively reading max speeds from Google maps.So once setup on cruise our car will drive with max allowed speed unless brake is pressed or accelerator to the max to indicate that we want to overtake something .
I can't wait for cars driving by themselves so I don't need to worry about anything that happen on the road.
Computers will not be much interested in constant jumping quee on motorway, changing unnecessary lines or flashing lights and horns to others.
Computerized truckie could go without the need to rest /sleep from Cairns to Perth.
Automatic cars will keep the safe distance between them - or vice verse - can tailgate closely to save on electric fuel.
Suddenly also all speed control cameras and radars becomes completely obsolete and cops need to find another job to fill the time and government coffers,

Google owns Waze which is a pretty damn good app for navigation/mapping. It relies a lot on user data input and they've not long updated it with speed zones. They must be building a huge dataset on roads, traffic and driving ready to feed into their self-drive program.

I've tried to outsmart it's directions but i've never beaten it as far as estimated time of arrival. It's not overly popular in WA but in Asia it is. It's always thinking, if it detects a slow down in traffic it re-routes you on the fly if it finds a better option. The more people that use it, the more data it gets and the better it picks a route for you.

I saw the other day that the road authorities in some cities in the US are getting their data and reports of road hazards and traffic jams direct from Waze as the live data beats anything they can do.

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choco said..
You think they are bad on the road I have to put up with them at work, they simply cannot park inside their lane on the ferry most times a meter over the center line which blocks any other vehicles coming on yet semi drivers don't have a problem and a lot of these caravaners are arrogant old pricks.

Don't forget the old buggers who are too cheap to pay rent so they park on your front lawn for a couple of nights

I drive a ten year old turbo diesel 4x4 with two SUP's on the roof and tow a 21 foot 2.3 tonne caravan. Under decent conditions I can safely, economically and easily tow at 100 kph. If I encounter a stiff headwind then I have no issues of pulling up for a couple of days and wait it out, spending a few extra days on the water or in the bush really does not bother me greatly as I am "semi retired" and not on a tight schedule. A couple of years ago heading west I copped a massive head wind and fuel economy went from about 14 ltrs per 100 k's up to around 24 and it was very hard to maintain a decent speed, spent two lovely peaceful nights out on the plain waiting for it to die down.

When I am "on the road" I am on channel 40, what really does "get up my nose" with 'fellow caravanners' is when you have 3 or 4 travelling in convoy at 20 kph below the speed limit and failing to leave a decent separation between rigs, effectively creating a 200 mtr or so rolling road block. I encountered one of these 'caterpillars' on my last trip across the plain, just over the border in SA.

I called them up and got no reply even though I could hear them chatting amongst themselves. As I passed the rear rig the radio came alive, I was described as a "reckless cowboy" and the other three (in between making disparaging comments)made like an old "wagon train" and closed up ranks. Thanks to the terrain and great visibility I was able to pull out and pass the rest but the comments directed at me were far from complimentary. Once passed I got back on the radio and "thanked them for their cooperation in allowing me to pass" and asked if the lead driver was having issues seeing as his late model 4x4 was having issues maintaining 80 kph?

If you come up behind me please do not tuck in right behind the van, even with good extended mirrors I cant see you when you are tight up against my bumper and you cant see the road ahead. If you hang back about 20 mtrs or so I can see you and will give you a quick flick of the right hand blinker to let you know you're good to pass, when I see you pull out I will lift off the throttle and you can slingshot past. I do this for trucks all the time and the truckies (who are earning a living and driving to a schedule often appreciate it). If I am holding up traffic I WILL pull over at first opportunity (when safe to do so) and let you all come past, but I cant just veer off onto the gravel at will, I need to be a bit cautious.

I'm no angel but I really don't want to p1zz off other road users and actually try to do the right thing, so please don't tar all of us "wobblies" with the same brush.

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Windpasser said..
What is wrong with you people. Get a grip.

So are you advocating we all enjoy the ride at the speed of the slowest?

PS Note that the PSA compares the speeder vs the person driving at the speed limit.

This Enjoy the Ride slogan, **s me to tears - the only people who can Enjoy the Ride are the passengers - the driver is there to DRIVE!
The Driver is not there to look out the windows at the scenery. The Driver has a legal responsibility to ensure that they don't endanger themselves or others.





I don't have an issue with a single vehicle ( be it car, truck, road train, caravan, boat) doing 80 instead of 100 - Pass it when you can.
I do have issue with rolling road blocks of such that are just enjoying the ride and the scenery of the car in front (ala Rupert above) and never making an attempt to pass.
Its rude, inconsiderate and especially so when they are cognisant of their action to others.
Its no good waving their fists and tut tutting at the cowboys who are just Enjoying the Ride, at their own pace.

It's always intensely ironic that the proposed solution for drivers being arseholes (driving at 80kph with a caravan in a 100/110 zone), is for the grumpy drivers to be even bigger arseholes (tailgating, pushing in, harassment).

The safety argument is also extremely amusing. (Because they were driving slower than I wanted to they forced me to do something stupid and made me have an accident!)

I find I get more personal satisfaction in almost all areas of life by being aggressively courteous and responsible. It feels so good and powerful to do the right and safe thing instead of raging and trying to get one over the other person. It applies equally on the road, on the water (ride away from crowds, kooks and dickheads) and just general life. I don't always succeed, but it's a good thing to aim for.

While we're at it, driving at 80kph while towing is sometimes the only possible option. Hills and headwinds and heavy traffic (lots of starts and stops) spring to mind. The difference in fuel consumption between doing 110 and 80 up a hill while towing a load is more like 50%. Apart from costing more, it can mean the difference between comfortably making the next fuel stop and running the tank near dry. When you add in wear and tear on the vehicle and tyres then the cost escalates rapidly.

Counting the cost in simple dollar terms is possibly the smallest part of the argument. You have one group who feel entitled to drive as fast as they want, no matter what the cost. And another group trying to move efficiently and safely. Perhaps the real solution is a little consideration, from both sides.

I don't think there's all that many aldi canned food eating, gxl landcriuiser driving nomads looking to save fuel money. I'd say they're retired and not in a rush, maybe tired old eyes and nagging wives also ;). Most of them seem reasonably setup financially, I'd predict more cheese and wine in those vans than XXXX .

I know some folks charge around, my folks 200 series hardly notices the van with ~700Nm torque. An extra 20km/hr makes a big difference when you're doing long days getting from a to b, my olds last van trip was 20,000km East to West return - would have been a long trip at 80km/hr on some of those long flat roads!

Each to their own I reckon, just overtake the slow ones safely and move on!

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Cord said..
Head over to caravaners forum to check the mentality of some of these tards. One old bloke states that he will not drive anyhere unless he has a tail wind...........ffs its not a sailing boat.

I might as well be driving a sailing boat then. I can do 100 with a tail wind but hit a head wind and I can be down to under 60 with my foot flat to the floor.

What a bunch of wingers, get a life. Life is too short to worry about this sort of crap.

... and here we have Caravan & Motorhome magazine actively encouraging caravanners to break the law and not sit in the left hand lane. (2)

Point 4 showing they should be sitting at 90-95kph.

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deekay said..
What a bunch of wingers, get a life. Life is too short to worry about this sort of crap.

Its only too short cause slow pokes keep holding you up

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rod_bunny said..

... and here we have Caravan & Motorhome magazine actively encouraging caravanners to break the law and not sit in the left hand lane. (2)

Point 4 showing they should be sitting at 90-95kph.

Written by 70 year olds, for 70 year olds