Towing speed !
Today I have just returned from a nice new year break.
On our journey home I only saw 3 caravans being towed........ they pasted me doing at least 70 MPH !
I was plodding along at 60 MPH , agreed the conditions were good however I wish fellow tuggers would slow down .
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Why, did they inconvenience you?
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Whilst I agree (...kinda)
1. Have you never exceeded the speed limit or broken any other road law when towing or solo?
2. I regularly see behaviours both towing and solo, which I personally consider far more dangerous than a little excess speed on the motorway (towing without mirrors, massively mismatched rigs or rigs that are so badly loaded the car is pulling wheelies. Drivers on mobiles or undertaking other activities that distract them from driving).
I know I make mistakes and more on occasion!
....just saying
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I thought it was a fair comment really , I don't exceed 60 MPH when towing , and generally drive within the Law , I have been towing 15 years and have seen a few overturned caravans , I guess its not always caused by speed , but think as does the law that 60 MPH is enough .
Can't see how it could inconvenience me other than if he lost control .
Cos that would cause a hold up ...........
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A question to those who think that speeders are doing little wrong!
If, 5 miles later down the motorway, you came across one of these same caravans lying on its side after presumably snaking and everyone was out of the car and uninjured, would you stop to help or would you 'wave'
and carry on?Oliver T
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You might think you are safe towing a caravan at 70 mph but if anything goes wrong such as burst tyre etc you have that much less chance of maintaining control to make a safe stop. We have all seen caravans pass us with the driver unaware of a slight sway and you wonder if it is going to get worse. It could put others at risk so yes I think they are selfish idiots.
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I can't control the world, and I'll lose no sleep if someone is towing over 60mph or someone solo is doing 80mph, just as it could be the doddery old person at 20mph or the 100's on the road that should have gone to specsavers.
Just journeying through life can be fraught with danger, I just do my own thing and chill.
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As DaveFL says. I could be argued that there are some caravans at 70mph that are a better all round outfit than those outfits we've all seen that are obviously mismatched or cars that are sat way down its suspension and are travelling at 59.9mph.
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Because a) it is illegal and b) it is dangerous.
if the speedsters want to injure or kill themselves carry on, but not at the expense of injuring or killing innocent others. That would apply to both caravaners or just car drivers alike.
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It must have been the same outfit going down the lane to Chatsworth , just before Christmas............😨
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I keep my towing speed in mph. below my age in years. But you don't know how very, very old I am.
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One is equally as bad as the other MollysMummy
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The towing limit is much higher in France (depending on outfit) and much lower in Switzerland. Which is correct? Seems fairly arbitrary to me but we all see badly matched, badly loaded outfits which are unsafe at 50 mph and others that are probably OK at higher speeds.
I try not to judge others, just go at the speed I consider to be safe for the outfit.
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I am with MM and DaveFL on this one, Can someone please explain why 60.1mph is dangerous but 59.9 is safe? How Is the OP sure he was doing 60 (how accurate is your speedo) and the others were all 'pasting' him at 70? Perhaps at an indicated 60 you are only doing 55. I am not condoning the speeding and do think it generally unwise to drive at 70 with a 'van in tow but I have yet to see unbiased data that says such speed in itself is a significant cause of caravan incidents as opposed to other factors such as poor load distribution, tyre blow outs, driver inattention etc etc. I have seen outfits exceeding the speed limits with the van like a dogs tail wagging about, particularly when coming home from Devon 2 years ago and do think they are idiots to drive like that, however as long as they stay clear of me both on and off the roads and caravan sites, I don't care too much what they do.
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We have all seen people exceeding the speed limit(towing and solo) and wonder whether they have a desire to sample the benefits of the local A&E. I try to keep to the speed limit when towing, but modern cars and stabilisers create a sense of security. The best way to appreciate speed is to breakdown on the hard shoulder of a motorway, really scary.
I would also add that the difference between 60 and 70 doesn't seem a lot, but at 60 you travel 89ft a second, but at 70 you are travelling at 104ft a second.
Enjoy the journey.
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How do we not end up in A&E when we cross the channel?
Not only are we driving the same vehicle on the wrong side of the road, but at a higher speed that if we go below it we get pulled over for not driving fast enough
How also do we not end up in A&E when we go from 30mph, to 40mph, to 50mph, to 60mph when towing and to 70mph when solo
How, then are motorways with higher speeds the safest roads?
Thinking time to react to an event is on average 0.7 seconds, so in your sums that is 61.6ft and 72.8ft.
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Mollys Mummy - I think both of us
I originally used metric measurements and reverted back to feet. However, you might need to check your calculation for 70. 1 foot per second equals 0.682 miles per hour, which gives 102.667 per second. However, the message remains the same , give or take a few inches!
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I did the sums to see whether my maths was the same .... not to check your maths ....
70mph divide by 60 = 1.1666 miles per min
1.1666miles per min x 1760 x 3 = 6160 ft per min divide by 60 = 102.6666 ft per sec
Those are my working in the margin
.....but as you say, what are a few feet per sec between friends?
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