Caravan Etiquette - is this a thing of the past?

[Lionelgee]

Hello All,

I remember when I was being taught how to tow loads - including caravans that there was a road etiquette concerning the build up of cars behind you; and the space maintained between the next caravan or trailer.

Namely, that you allowed sufficient space between you and the next towed vehicle to allow a car to overtake - one caravan or trailer at a time.

The second courtesy was once you come to an overtaking lane you let the cars behind you get past BEFORE you overtake the caravan or trailer in front of you.

Coming out of Rockhampton and heading home towards Bundaberg this morning there was a motor home followed by two four wheel drives of Japanese origin that were both towing rather big caravans. Behind these three vehicles there was a build up of at least six cars. Prior to the first set of overtaking lanes cars had to dice with the three recreational vehicles in order to get past them. There was no space between each vehicle to allow safe leap-frogging to get past each of them. It was a case of a job lot of taking on all three vehicles at a time to get past them.

Then once the first set of overtaking lanes came up - you guessed it the crawling Japanese tow vehicles overtook the mobile home.

This left a stream of cars backed up behind the mobile home until the next series of overtaking lanes. This included me waiting until the next set of overtaking lanes.

It seems that caravan tow people are not doing themselves any favours nor attempting to improve their reputation. Or maybe I am just too old fashioned and believe in courteous driving

Kind Regards
Lionel

[justinc]

Mate you are not old fashioned and yes that sort of thing really gets on my goat. I too tow a big van and always let vehicles go first when coming to an overtaking lane. I even slow down a little if need be. There is definately a huge amount of discourteous grey and not so grey nomads out there! !!

Jc

[V8Ian]

Welcome to my word Lionel.
In fairness I find most 'vanners courteous, the nomads at least. Victorians seem to be the exception, they can't go caravanning without at least three more like minded adventurers. They insist on driving like a camel train, tight formation so they don't get separated.

[Graeme]

The law requires that you leave overtaking space unless about to overtake yourself.

As for the vans overtaking first, its much safer for the vans to use the overtaking lanes and let single vehicles overtake after the overtaking lane if necessary. However taking all the overtaking lane to get past is poor manners - trucks too often do this too. Best if the slow vehicle up front slows more to allow all vehicles to pass.

[pop058]

[Aaron IIA]

Recommended minimum gap between any two vehicles at any time is two seconds. Legally required minimum gap between any two long vehicles is two hundred metres. If this is adhered to, there would be plenty of room to overtake.

Aaron

[Chenz]

In a similar vein, I tow a boat a 6.2 metre Barcrusher up and down the coast. The number of times I get overtaken and then have the car slow down to a speed below that at which I was going is staggering.

Next overtaking lane I have to go past them and you guessed it, they speed up because they don't want to be behind a boat.

This gets even more annoying on the multi lane Freeways where they hop past you then do the same thing, you pass them and then they pass you and slow down and on and on it goes.

I can sit on the speed limit on the flat but do move over to the slow lane when going up hill and I always allow cars to pass where it is safe to do so. If they give me a yell on the UHF I can even work out the best place for them to pass and get them by ASAP.

[Jeff]

Remember the Caravanner's Code. It's not about the journey, or even the destination, it's about how many cars you can hold up on the way there.

Jeff

[LandyAndy]

Overtaking lanes,here we go.

THEY ARE EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE TO BUILD!!!!!!,we could utilise them much more efficiently with a change of rules and speed limits.

Modern roadtrains can hold their 100kmh uphil on most overtaking lanes.The issue here,the police prey on overtaking lanes,so now people overtake these behemoths at 110kmh in fear of a ticket.1,maybe 2 vehicles get past,total waste of an overtaking lane.

Caravans,especialy towed by anything less than a D4 are lucky to maintain 80kmh,or even less at least we get a few more vehicles past.

My thoughts.Limit heavy vehicles to 80kmh and over 750kg trailers to 60kmh on these overtaking lanes,also increase the vehicle speed to say 130kmh only in the overtaking lane(after all we ALL have been doing it for years).

This way the investment in the overtaking lane gets maximised.It wont cause much grief to truckies,they are smart enough to chat to one another on overtaking lanes/safe overtaking areas and back off to let a stronger truck around.It would help clear the backlog of traffic behind vans and trucks,and also help trucks get by vans.
Andrew

[Pedro_The_Swift]

Gees you guys get upset over little things,,
There are a million more obnoxious car drivers than obnoxious caravaners.
What is it with you that you HATE people obviously on holidays?? Its not our fault you only have a long weekend and decide to drive a thousand kays each way,,,
Why should I let you pass someone I've been following for the last 100kays??

So common courtesy is pushing in to the front of the line?

If you all worry about your reputation as car drivers (and you all do,, right?) do you think the not car drivers care?

exactly.