Thread: Its about time they took action on the cowboy trucking companies.

Serious question, and I'm not trying to start a debate or flame war here.

Why is it that when B-doubles want to overtake (usually at 110+), they accelerate to within <5 metres of your vehicle before pulling out into the right lane?

Is there some sort of technical/safety reason for this or is it just plain dickish behaviour? Why not move across say a good 50 metres beforehand?

This has even happened when I've had the cruise set to 115+.

Originally Posted by B92 8NW

Serious question, and I'm not trying to start a debate or flame war here.

Why is it that when B-doubles want to overtake (usually at 110+), they accelerate to within <5 metres of your vehicle before pulling out into the right lane?

Is there some sort of technical/safety reason for this or is it just plain dickish behaviour? Why not move across say a good 50 metres beforehand?

This has even happened when I've had the cruise set to 115+.

They are getting a tow in your draft to slingshot past you as all the drivers watch 'Days Of Thunder'

Originally Posted by rick130

They are getting a tow in your draft to slingshot past you as all the drivers watch 'Days Of Thunder'

Well land rovers do have terrible aerodynamics, so it could be true...

Seriously though, when driving a 4BD1 (na) 110 with a roof rack through Wyoming in very strong headwinds, we noticed if we tailgated one of the trucks, we could back off about 1/4 of the accelerator travel. It was like having a turbocharger! If we lost the truck, we usually couldn't catch up...

So why don't they do something about the grossly overloaded grey nomads wobbleing along at 60?. Pat

Originally Posted by isuzurover

Well land rovers do have terrible aerodynamics, so it could be true...

Seriously though, when driving a 4BD1 (na) 110 with a roof rack through Wyoming in very strong headwinds, we noticed if we tailgated one of the trucks, we could back off about 1/4 of the accelerator travel. It was like having a turbocharger! If we lost the truck, we usually couldn't catch up...

With mine on a given piece of road where i may need, say, 12psi of boost @ 100km/h, I can drop this to 6-8psi when tailgating a semi.

Sometime in the dim, dark past, roughly around the Neolithic era I had to drive a small Avis Toyota pantech filled with karts and Bridgestones top secret test tyres for the next years CIK European Kart Championships from Orange NSW to Geelong Vic.

I had to meet one of Bridgestone Senior Vice President's of Motorsport, plus a driver, tyre engineer and mechanic the next day for another couple of days of testing. (I was a mechanic and reserve driver)

The poor little Toyota topped out at something like 90km/h@ I think 4250RPM on the flat with a tailwind and those revs were redline.

Off we went.
During the night down The Olympic Way semi after semi would pass and I'd tuck into their slipstream before they pulled back in.
We'd have a convoy of six to eight semi's with a little Avis van as tail end Charlie, and they would pull me up to 110-115km/h with the over rev buzzer howling it's head off for hundreds of km.

We arrived in Geelong at daybreak well ahead of schedule, no one could work out how I got there so quickly, then the Japanese fella's didn't turn up for a day, they went sight seeing instead.......

Stupid and dangerous it was, but it was also nearly twenty five years ago now and I sure wouldn't even attempt something like that again, but it made me very aware of how important a tow was when racing and how much of a hole in the air the front vehicle made.

If a law is bad or unpopular then people will evade it or disobey it. Truck speed limiters are unpopular in the trucking community. If the limiter setting had been legislated at 110 km/h then there would have been much better compliance. There will always be cowboy operators but the myriad of stupid laws and regulations affecting the road transport industry tend to make cowboys out of many decent operators.

I agree wholeheartedly that something needs to be done about caravan and motor home operators. Many of these are a right PIA and a danger to others.

I believe the behaviour of trucks rolling up close behind you before overtaking is to minimize the time they are out overtaking. Usually only an issue on single carriageway/undivided highways. On dual carriageways it is only likely to happen if there is a lot of traffic in the right-hand/overtaking lane.


But then again the behaviour of a few can reflect on the whole industry as we all tend to generalise.

Originally Posted by rick130

They are getting a tow in your draft to slingshot past you as all the drivers watch 'Days Of Thunder'

Thanks for that. I must remember that next time I'm driving a 625HP B-double of tens of tonnes and I come up behind a hatchback.