What is it with Winnebago's and caravans??

[TheRealPoMo]

... it's probably a lot worse than speeding up on the multi lane overtaking lane......

Nothing is worse. Death by firing squad to all the guilty

...speeding up is not state specific, it happens all over in every state.

Yeah, with you there.

Best drivers I have seen for consideration of faster vehicles was South Island of NZ while on holiday.
Trucks consistently pulled off the road and stopped while going up alpine passes to let one or two cars by - which I know is a pain for them.
Tourists in campers must have taken the example, because they did it too.

[GBC]

The upshot is that in NSW you'll see the trucks drop back, time their run and come flying through into the double lanes or they won't make it. I'll disagree about being state specific - NSW is worst by far for this.
Come over the border into QLD and clowns (not van drivers either) just sit in the right hand lane and clog it up - they might even slow down a bit.....

We could learn a lot from NZ. They have awesome traffic signs like "A few vehicles behind you? Pull over and let them pass", simple effective messages that make roads efficient. Of course people would need to pull their heads out of their arses over here to read them.

[Moonlighter]

The upshot is that in NSW you'll see the trucks drop back, time their run and come flying through into the double lanes or they won't make it. I'll disagree about being state specific - NSW is worst by far for this.
Come over the border into QLD and clowns (not van drivers either) just sit in the right hand lane and clog it up - they might even slow down a bit.....

We could learn a lot from NZ. They have awesome traffic signs like "A few vehicles behind you? Pull over and let them pass", simple effective messages that make roads efficient. Of course people would need to pull their heads out of their arses over here to read them.

That is brilliant.

Who thinks we should start a campaign to get signs like this installed before every overtaking zone or straight stretch of single lane on the highway?

"A few vehicles beind you? Pull over and let them pass!"

Followed up by

"Yes, that means you, #+=ckhead with the van/Camper!"

[Feral]

Two issues compound this.
1. many speedo's are just not correct, manufacturers dont calibrate them, most read 5kph, some as much as 10kph under at 100kph, so the bloke holding you up going just under the limit might actually think they are doing the speed limit.
2. easiest place to put in passing lanes is the nice flat bit, the reason vehicles seem to speed up when they get to these bits is because they can get to the speed they actually want to be doing, that their underpowered rigs cant do towing the big load up the hills or through winding country.

BUT neither situation is a valid excuse for not easing over and letting a trailing string of vehicles go past.

[FisHard]

Two issues compound this.
1. many speedo's are just not correct, manufacturers dont calibrate them, most read 5kph, some as much as 10kph under at 100kph, so the bloke holding you up going just under the limit might actually think they are doing the speed limit.
2. easiest place to put in passing lanes is the nice flat bit, the reason vehicles seem to speed up when they get to these bits is because they can get to the speed they actually want to be doing, that their underpowered rigs cant do towing the big load up the hills or through winding country.

BUT neither situation is a valid excuse for not easing over and letting a trailing string of vehicles go past.

I agree with all 3 statements 100%.

[fairpractice]

Hi. My 2 cents worth. I figure it's a comfort/security thing. Going along carefully on normal highway then using the extra space on a overtaking section as a chance to get a bit faster. Very selfish attitude though. cheers john

[Volvo]

Okay fellas im giving my Reno'd Van a shakedown shortly heading down south so go easy on me if you see me on the road ey...Dont blow your Horn, push me off the road or tailgate me !!! Especially tailgate!!!Go to peices when im tailgated n foot wants to hit the anchor lol..

[Dignity]

I have been as frustrated as everyone else but what aggravates me most is the road planners as Fed mentions and i worked out some years ago is that some of double lanes are on flat sections but it appears that more of them are on the downhill run which is probably why the majority of vehicles, not restricted to towing either speed up. It still frustrates me but I try to time my runs but only succeed half the time.

I too found the NZ system worked well, but then again on the South Island there wasn't much traffic once you left the cities.

[littlejim]

You share the road with a range of egos, not only those in Winnebagos. Down this way there are plenty, in all sorts of vehicles, who pull into the overtaking lane half a mile before the merge into one lane, worried that you might get past.
Main thing is to keep your cool, think of England, set yourself up for the next overtaking chance.
Have been about 10th in a line behind a bloke on an old motor bike who did4 MPH round the bends then flattened it on the passing spots.
After about 10 minutes the following cars started going nuts trying to pass him on blind bends with double lines.
Thank Xst most got away with it, the bloke in front of me had to swerve back over the double lines violently when someone did come the other way, and he ran off the road.
I helped push him back on to the road. When I caught up to the nutter on the bike, it was just a matter being in the right gear as you came out of the curve, and timing your run to out accelerate him. But you are sharing the road with a wide range of personalities.

[Shark Poker]

Anyway, i'm trying to go out in the bay the other day and there's this fella in a great big slow boat taking up the entire width of the channel..........

image.jpg

[Corry]

A really cool trick I've used that works most of the time (I only do it after following for ages and a line of traffic has built up and those holding them up obviously don't care), is try and politely contact whoever it is holding everyone up on the UHF, not many of them don't have one, and then let them know that they have a wheel on the van that looks flat, or is wobbling excessively, they then soon pull over to have a look, problem solved.

Cheers
Corry

[oldboot]

One thing that works for me......get up and get on the road early.

Most of these turtles ( slow and carrying their home on their back) don't rise early, it takes em a while to cook their breakfast and pack up the rig, so many of them do not get on the road till arround 10am.

it seems to be a flocking or hearding thing...but they all come from the same places..and leave arround the same times.......like the Witsundays.

So if you are on the road early.....real early and you don't muck about with long breaks..you can leave most of em a few hours behind you all day.

If Im heading north out of Brisbane on a long trip I like to be over the gateway bridge no later than 5am.

That puts me in Gympie arroud 7 for first piss and leg stretcher and outa there and long gone, before the shops open of the school run starts.

Past the Bundaberg turn off by about 9 and that puts most of the north bound, long haul traffic at least 2 hours behind me all day.

That includes most trucks, sales reps, holiday station waggons, back packer vans, caravans motorhomes, long wides and all types of muppets and idiots.

It also helps to know where these turtles nest, so you can have some idea where they will come from and when.

For example......going north or south you want to be past the Whisunday turn off before 9am or not till arround lunch time in turtle migration season....then you have to think about the post lunch second wave....there seems to be a bit of a window betwen about 11.30 and 1.30.

A hour or two either side of 10am, the turtles with their southern rego's pour out of there in droves at the height of the season.

One trip, we got out of Mackay late......between Mackay and Proserpine we counted 56 caravans and motorhomes heading south with NSW or VIC plates....the southern return migration had begun.

cheers