TRUCKIES VS CARAVANNERS
GUIDE Trucks and Caravans – Part 1
WORDS MARTY LEDWICH, IMAGES MARTY LEDWICH AND COREY KELLY
Allegedly, the caravan and trucking fraternities have been at war with each other. This war is played out on our nation’s roads. The battles take place in roadhouse car parks and roadside parking bays. The propaganda war, however, wages on social media.
‘War is mainly a catalogue of blunders’ – Winston Churchill
ABOVE Sometimes a lack of signage is to blame. There was no indication of this caravan parking area at the entrance to this roadhouse in Townsville
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Want to know what it’s like to be a truck driver? Consider upgrading your normal car licence to a light or medium rigid truck licence. I can tell you from experience, it is a lot more complicated than when you got your car licence. There is just so much you have to think about when driving a truck that we take for granted in the car. For example, they teach you to expect a car to pull out in front of you at every intersection, so you are required to physically look at every side road as you approach them. You have to be able to reverse a large vehicle into a loading bay using mirrors only. The skills you learn are invaluable for towing and will make you a better driver.
If you have never towed anything bigger than a box trailer or you have limited experience towing a large caravan, give serious consideration to doing a towing course. Apart from gaining invaluable driving skills, you’ll learn how to properly load your rig, making it more stable. You’ll gain confidence in the handling of your set-up enabling you to keep pace with the other traffic on the road.
The call to introduce towing licences is one that continues today and probably with good reason. The high number of caravan rollovers and increasing insurance costs as a result would seem to support the argument. Strangely, the RV community has continually rejected the notion. RV Daily looked at this issue back in April 2017 and we reported the UK actually did introduce such a scheme. In essence, if you want to tow anything heavier than a 6x4 box trailer, you need to upgrade your licence by sitting a separate test and demonstrating you can reverse a trailer.
Who’s in the wrong? Have a look at this video captured on a truck’s dashcam. (Apologies for the language.) Basically, it shows a truck and a caravan coming to blows while traversing a roundabout. If you ask me who’s to blame, I would say all three drivers. The caravanner performed an illegal lane change while driving through the roundabout. If he had been displaying a “Do not overtake turning vehicle” sign on the back of his van, he would have been in his right to cut the corner the way he did. He also should have pulled over to exchange details with the truck driver following the collision. Some may say that he may have felt threatened by the truck drivers. Given his attitude towards them (you can hear him mouthing off at the truckies on the CB radio), I’m certain he had little fears for his safety. The truck driver in the video entered the roundabout at a very dangerous speed with the clear intention to have a go at the caravan driver. Both truck drivers displayed clear aggression towards the caravanner.
Now, as I mentioned earlier, the problem with these types of videos is there is no context. We do not know what events led to this incident. That said, there is little that could excuse the behaviour of any of the three drivers in this video. Apart from risking their own lives, they risked the lives of any other motorists around them at the time.
This is the sort of behaviour we need to stop right here, right now.
GUIDE Trucks and Caravans – Part 1
TRUCKIES VS CARAVANNERS
‘War is mainly a catalogue of blunders’ – Winston Churchill
Allegedly, the caravan and trucking fraternities have been at war with each other. This war is played out on our nation’s roads. The battles take place in roadhouse car parks and roadside parking bays. The propaganda war, however, wages on social media.
ABOVE Sometimes a lack of signage is to blame. There was no indication of this caravan parking area at the entrance to this roadhouse in Townsville
WORDS MARTY LEDWICH, IMAGES MARTY LEDWICH AND COREY KELLY
If you have never towed anything bigger than a box trailer or you have limited experience towing a large caravan, give serious consideration to doing a towing course. Apart from gaining invaluable driving skills, you’ll learn how to properly load your rig, making it more stable. You’ll gain confidence in the handling of your set-up enabling you to keep pace with the other traffic on the road.
Want to know what it’s like to be a truck driver? Consider upgrading your normal car licence to a light or medium rigid truck licence. I can tell you from experience, it is a lot more complicated than when you got your car licence. There is just so much you have to think about when driving a truck that we take for granted in the car. For example, they teach you to expect a car to pull out in front of you at every intersection, so you are required to physically look at every side road as you approach them. You have to be able to reverse a large vehicle into a loading bay using mirrors only. The skills you learn are invaluable for towing and will make you a better driver.
The call to introduce towing licences is one that continues today and probably with good reason. The high number of caravan rollovers and increasing insurance costs as a result would seem to support the argument. Strangely, the RV community has continually rejected the notion. RV Daily looked at this issue back in April 2017 and we reported the UK actually did introduce such a scheme. In essence, if you want to tow anything heavier than a 6x4 box trailer, you need to upgrade your licence by sitting a separate test and demonstrating you can reverse a trailer.
Who’s in the wrong? Have a look at this video captured on a truck’s dashcam. (Apologies for the language.) Basically, it shows a truck and a caravan coming to blows while traversing a roundabout. If you ask me who’s to blame, I would say all three drivers. The caravanner performed an illegal lane change while driving through the roundabout. If he had been displaying a “Do not overtake turning vehicle” sign on the back of his van, he would have been in his right to cut the corner the way he did. He also should have pulled over to exchange details with the truck driver following the collision. Some may say that he may have felt threatened by the truck drivers. Given his attitude towards them (you can hear him mouthing off at the truckies on the CB radio), I’m certain he had little fears for his safety. The truck driver in the video entered the roundabout at a very dangerous speed with the clear intention to have a go at the caravan driver. Both truck drivers displayed clear aggression towards the caravanner.
Now, as I mentioned earlier, the problem with these types of videos is there is no context. We do not know what events led to this incident. That said, there is little that could excuse the behaviour of any of the three drivers in this video. Apart from risking their own lives, they risked the lives of any other motorists around them at the time.
This is the sort of behaviour we need to stop right here, right now.