S.B.

Then there would be no food in the supermarkets for you to buy and cook in your shed on wheels

JDM

" I'm doing 60 on an NSL road why should I pull over to let you by????"

Nobody suggested you should I'm talking about the vast majority of shed-on-wheels owners that one encounters.
In any case I doubt you are cornering at 60mph like the rest of us, so why not get your *** out of the way and I won't have to slow you down and return the favour.

logiclee

Should have made myself clearer mate, I was quoting internal lengths as do most manufacturers.

An 18' overall length is going to be around a 15' van. A budget lightweight 15footer is going to be OK for a 306 but a high spec luxury 15footer like a Swift Corniche would be far too heavy for a 306.
A 306 TD has a kerbweight of 1120Kg so 85% is a van with maximum weight of 952kg. Most modern 15footers with a good spec are over that.
A 15' Swift Corniche has an unladen weight of 1165kg and a maximum laden weight of 1465kg way too heavy for a 306 size of car and too heavy for most of the Mondeo class.

There are so many people towing out there that don't have a clue about weights and loading there did ought to be some regulation IMO.

Cheers
Lee

stuy112

Quite agree with you Lee.... but my old caravan was 18' internal length and although i cant remember the exact weight it was (just) within the 85% rule (as proven to the police!), aslong as I took the bare essentials with me! It also has a lot to do with the loading, my new pikey palace is smaller @ 15' and is far more stable/towable with a lot of weight in it, loaded correctly!

Suresh

Caravanners are anti-social idiots. I accept a slow lorry holding up the traffic as it serves a useful purpose taking goods from A to B. A caravanner on the other hand is happy to inconvenience the rest of humanity for their own selfish purposes.

They are a massive problem on the autobahn and always a source of congestion.

Ban the bloody things. If someone wants to live in a shed on their holiday, let them do it in their own garden or send them to caravan parks. There is no reason in the world to be so inconsiderate to other road users. !!!

Suresh
(rant over )

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Another important thing about carvans and trailers that should be pointed out is that most of them spend 90% of their lives laid up doing nothing.

Then suddenly it gets dragged out for the weekend and expected to do 500 miles without any problems.

Cracked UV fatigued tyres, sticky draw bar, locked on brakes, broken torsion beam, dry wheel bearings - to list a few dangerous faults through lack of use/servicing.... And the family is left daunted at why they are left jack knifed in the middle of the M5!

Which is why I think that all caravans and trailers should undergo MOT equivelent tests. It would save a lot of lives and traffic jams. There is a large amount of people who don't seem to comprehend that a tyre has useful shelf life of about 5 years depending on storage.

I must admit I'm a bit anti-caravan. We used to have motorhomes instead. A rather nice Fiat Ducato Autostratus. Alko chassis - so it handled better than the original van it was based on and by far more stable than a caravan. Plus it would quite easily sit in the fast lane on the motorway if needed, although the one roof vent had a habit of opening if you went over 3 figure speeds

After having a motorhome, caravans seem rather illogical to me. With the only problem of parking the damn things (height restrictions on 90% of the Uk's car parks ) and relying on a moped/bike to run down to the shops instead of being able to un-hitch the car.

The new next door neighbour are carvaners, odd people. Not sure why but I've took an instant dislike to them I thinks the fact they spent Ł60 on the most ugly outdoor lights B & Q sell and that they spent a fortune resurfacing the drive and not made it bigger to accomodate their huge caravan...thus their 1 car is parked in the street right on a very nasty tight bend (I'm amased that a Chav hasn't ran into it yet), and their other sticks out and blocks off the pavement.

It's a bit petty I know, but their house frontage is exactly the same size as ours, we can fit 5 cars on our drive since it was resurfaced plus the garage. They can fit two, but the caravan is the length of 1.5 cars and it blocks off their garage making it useless (pure stupidity), if they used their heads they could have made the drive bigger and been able fit everything on and be able to use the garage

What has this got to do with being stuck behind a caravan on an A road?

Well, I see these people as the typical type of hated caravaner. They don't think of the poor people stuck behind them, or the fact they are oblivious to the manky old tyre ready to blow out. Same as they don't think about the mothers and their pushchairs who cant get past the **** end of their car as it's sticking out on the pavement, and the other car in the road is an accident waiting to happen.

Rant ~FIN~



(sorry I had to mention my neighbours, as they are rather annoying to say the least)

Chip

Suresh
And where do you go on holiday then?
To a Thomas Cook 3T rated hotel I bet. Nice. Pokey little room with a 2 ring electric cooker in the "kitchen corner" of your room. Loads of chavs and beer swilling, tattooed Brits to watch over as well. Lovely. And dont forget to go down to Joe's English restaraunt for your Full Monty English greasy Brekky.

Chip.

Suresh

I will be staying in my shed for two weeks this year as per usual. Actually that's not true, as I have now attached some castors to my shed and look forward to pushing it around the roads of Holland this summer as I like the freedom that mobility gives me. Hope I can get in the way of a few caravanners this year. That would be nicely ironic .....

unclebuck

LOL - when they get angry at being stuck behind you, just console yourself in the knowledge that they are 'only jealous'.

UB

Chip

Probably a good decision if you live in Holland as you'll be able to keep a good pace as it's so flat.

Chip.

druddle

Was on the M42/M40 on Wednesday and there was a caravan on its side with (yes its true) a Volve on the hard shoulder with a twisted towbar.

Dont know the circumstances but it did cause massive traffic problems, but it meant i could follow a black Porsche 959 all the way to High Wycombe so it wasnt too bad !!

Dave

MooseRacer

Caravans are not a problem on motorways, or to a lesser extent, dual carriageways. On these roads they may hold up other traffic for a few fleeting seconds. As owners have posted, most tootle along at 60'ish causing no real holdups.

It's on single lane A and B roads where they are a pain in the ****.