Thread: What happened to your D3/D4 today?

Originally Posted by gavinwibrow

Is it only WA that has a blanket maximum of 100 when towing anything?

Definitely WA, haven’t looked at Eastern states as haven’t towed it there yet.

SA is posted limits (where safe to do so)

Originally Posted by Tombie

Definitely WA, haven’t looked at Eastern states as haven’t towed it there yet.

SA is posted limits (where safe to do so)

In my towing travels across the country I only remember WA being the towing nanny state

Originally Posted by OldGuy

I believe so..

I think it is as well. I did not enjoy the long drive in WA with a boat with so many people overtaking us towing a boat. Two or three did not overtake us safely!

It seem an odd rulz to me as boats and trailers here in Vic travel well at 110kph on freeways where it is legal. I wonder where the history of the idea came from? Some trucks are speed limited to 100kph. They seem to be mostly on dual lane roads and easy to safely overtake then of course.

Originally Posted by NavyDiver

I think it is as well. I did not enjoy the long drive in WA with a boat with so many people overtaking us towing a boat. Two or three did not overtake us safely!

It seem an odd rulz to me as boats and trailers here in Vic travel well at 110kph on freeways where it is legal. I wonder where the history of the idea came from? Some trucks are speed limited to 100kph. They seem to be mostly on dual lane roads and easy to safely overtake then of course.

Have just bought a diesel non turbo 80 series LC for kid going to live in NW and 100kph is barely possible when not towing so maybe it’s a Toyota adjusted thing over here?

Seriously though, WA is supposed to have the best roads as well.

Originally Posted by NavyDiver

I think it is as well. I did not enjoy the long drive in WA with a boat with so many people overtaking us towing a boat. Two or three did not overtake us safely!

It seem an odd rule to me as boats and trailers here in Vic travel well at 110kph on freeways where it is legal. I wonder where the history of the idea came from? Some trucks are speed limited to 100kph. They seem to be mostly on dual lane roads and easy to safely overtake then of course.

The 100 max for towing any trailer extends to semis, road trains etc in WA.

If I recall correctly some multiple trailer loads are limited to 90, and I noticed that also applied for some mineral road trains we saw in regional Qld.

Originally Posted by PerthDisco

Have just bought a diesel non turbo 80 series LC for kid going to live in NW and 100kph is barely possible when not towing so maybe it’s a Toyota adjusted thing over here?

Seriously though, WA is supposed to have the best roads as well.

I'll drink to that - having pulled the 3.5T van in every mainland state and territory over the last couple of years we are generally way ahead for both major highways and regional roads - even our gravel was better than most of the eastern versions.

To be fair eastern roads would get more of a pounding/heavier useage than many of ours.

Plus in the good old days when Main Roads was a government agency they made excellent roads, but since privatisation/contracting out the results have been a bit more mixed - although they seem to have the QC in their contracts better sorted now.

Originally Posted by gavinwibrow

Is it only WA that has a blanket maximum of 100 when towing anything?

Yes - I got busted shortly after moving down to Kalgoorlie from Alice Springs - towing a 6x4 garden trailer behind a VG Commodore ute at 108 km/hr just out of Norseman. Showed my NT drivers licence and was almost done for that too - apparently I was supposed to have changed to a WA licence straight away.

As for the roads being better over here - well yes, they generally are. But it wasn't that long ago that parts of the Great Eastern Highway - the main road in to the state traffic volume wise - were in pretty sad condition, especially if you were unfortunate enough to be driving a cab-over prime mover pulling one or more trailers. And the main road north of Perth, from about Muchea to about Bindi Bindi, was an absolute shocker. Fortunately these have now been brought up to a decent standard, though there are still a few rough spots on the Great Eastern Highway.

Driving across the Nullarbor though, the road quality increases noticeably when you cross the border into South Australia. Not sure what it's like now, but it used to be the same driving down from Alice Springs when we lived there. Open speed limit in the NT where the road quality was "ordinary" at best, and then you had to slow down to 110 when you crossed the SA border and were traveling on a much better constructed and maintained road. I was working up near Coober Pedy last year, and the highway up that was was still as good as I remembered it when we used to drive down from the Alice on a pretty regular basis.

Originally Posted by gavinwibrow

The 100 max extends to semis, road trains etc in WA.

Same as many other states.
They seem to sit on an actual 105Km/hr,which is actually 110Km/hr on the speedo of most late model vehicles.

Which is why the speedo 5% or so out,reading higher than actual,as per regs,is dangerous at times.Some show 7% more than the vehicles actual speed.