Caravanners

aye i have a similar thing at abart top speed around 55mph

my folks love their caravan, ive been on loads of holidays around european in various makes of caravan. we used to have an old izuzu trooper but my old man now has a Kia Serento. says its a great tow car.

i dislike caravans as much as the next man. especially the ones with sat. dishes ontop! i do think however it is a great way to go abroad if you have a family as the avg cost of 2weeks anywhere remotely decent is very expensive. middle britain family with 2 kids? buy a caravan!

G

int the roads in britain clogged up enough without more mobile chicanes

What's wrong with a Hotel?
When ever we get caravans near us we get people turning up on the doorstep to ask if we want our drive tarmac done.

Now then here's a thing right, we've just bin talking about this in the Slaughtered Lamb. How come right, my old dad had a caravan and a family of five and he had a Morris 1800 to tow it with, 20 years ago a bloke didn't need a 2 or 3 litre four wheel drive vehicle to tow a caravan so how come he does now? Is it because in those days men where men and wimmin just made do?

dunt some folk still use orses to pull the bloody things

GRUNT said:

Now then here's a thing right, we've just bin talking about this in the Slaughtered Lamb. How come right, my old dad had a caravan and a family of five and he had a Morris 1800 to tow it with, 20 years ago a bloke didn't need a 2 or 3 litre four wheel drive vehicle to tow a caravan so how come he does now? Is it because in those days men where men and wimmin just made do?

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Now this is where people get the idea of c/vans doing 33mph, and ya dads c/van, was prob., small and lighter than modern ones, coming back from Dorzzit last year on the A34 i was doing 70mph, (with the gaylander ) when 2 c/vans being towed by 4x4s overtook me
As for holding up traffic, im more likely to be HELD UP by people in "series and lightweights" covered in stickers saying "one life........get one"
So it looks like old piggy is in the minority here then, if i didnt drink so much on holiday i would get myself a roof tent and bush hat and pretend i was surrounded by lions.

i am a caravanner and PROUD we dont go 33mph more like 60! towed with a TD5 disco, tiznt slow!

Hi All,
If you want a good caravan forum then try this one Caravan Talk (Powered by Invision Power Board)
I have been towing for years but I have to agree with some of the comments from non caravanners on here but all I will say is that you can't tar all caravanners with a bad image some of us do think of other road users when towing and pull over etc to allow faster vehicles to pass.

Trevor.

GRUNT said:

my old dad had a caravan and a family of five and he had a Morris 1800 to tow it with, 20 years ago a bloke didn't need a 2 or 3 litre four wheel drive vehicle to tow a caravan so how come he does now?

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Shared experience alert...

My Dad drove us around the UK and Europe in his white 1973 Morris Marina 1800 Coupe (2dr ) with the tin snail hitched up behind. I owe plenty to caravanning in terms of broadened horizons (both culturally and, ahem, girls) and still enjoy the way that I can always switch off from day to day routines when we go camping.

I do hate the iconsiderate way some caravanners drive. Main bugbear is their inability to pull over once in a while to let traffic pass.

Widget said:

Shared experience alert...

My Dad drove us around the UK and Europe in his white 1973 Morris Marina 1800 Coupe (2dr ) with the tin snail hitched up behind. I owe plenty to caravanning in terms of broadened horizons (both culturally and, ahem, girls) and still enjoy the way that I can always switch off from day to day routines when we go camping.

I do hate the iconsiderate way some caravanners drive. Main bugbear is their inability to pull over once in a while to let traffic pass.

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On an A class road all HGV over 7.5 tonnes are restricted to 40 mph , I have not heard anyone complain about them yet , do you think that they too should pull over to let faster traffic pass ??

On an A class road its more likely that an HGV will slow the trafic flow down than a caravan .

I too owe lots to caravan holidays as a child and adult alike , yes there are those who do drive at 33mph but as mentioned before they are a minority .

Anna

Only on single carriageway roads Anna and only for goods vehicles exceeding 7.5 tonnes... on dual carriageways it's 50 and on motorways 60 with the majority being physically limited to 56mph.

Limits for goods vehicles up to 7.5 tonnes have the same speed limits as caravans - i.e. 10 mph slower than cars without any trailer.

The most likely traffic hold up isn't the speed limit, it's the MLOC (Middle Lane Owners Club) founder member driving his Rover 75 / BMW 5 series or supercharged Merc at less than 56mph in the middle lane of a motorway because "I pay my road tax and it's my right to drive at the speed I choose and in the lane I choose, besides I'm obviously more important than everyone else because I have a newer car and no idea how to drive it" refusing to more over to allow lorries to crawl past and turning a 3 lane motorway into a single lane! It's unsurprising how many of said vehicles are towing caravans!

This is the only thing anyone should be allowed to do with a caravan...

YouTube - Blowing up a caravan...

Cheers,

My bugbear with some caravanners (some horse boxes and all other slow moving traffic) is the ability to cause a very long queue on an A road with limited overtaking opportunities.

This is compounded by them speeding up on the straights to prevent overtaking, and not pulling over at 5 mile intervals (as recommended by the Caravan Club) to let the build up of traffic past.

Seeing as T. bLiar likes making new laws, do y'reckon we can get him to pass a new one that bans caravans from the roads except between the hours of 23.00hrs and 06.00hrs? At least that way us civilised people who understand the complexities of booking a hotel will be able to travel unhindered.

Yeah, like the idea. Hey, I know, I'll start one o' them government petition thingies, then I'll PM everyone on LZ to get them to sign it, that should get the job dun and make me really, really popular to boot!

Marcus said:

Yeah, like the idea. Hey, I know, I'll start one o' them government petition thingies, then I'll PM everyone on LZ to get them to sign it, that should get the job dun and make me really, really popular to boot!

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Mine does that!!!

So does that mean that your Landrover does not go into the overtaking lane of a 3 lane motorway then. if you did use the 3rd lane then you would be able to pass the slower moving traffic.

I totally agree with you about the MLOC,, they should all have their driving licence taken away ,its totally wrong and infuriating for all other road users.

Road like the A69 and the A66 are major trunk routes for HGV cross country and they're single carriageway for a major part of it . There is always queues and slow moving traffic due to the speed restrictions imposed on HGV. MOST Caravans cannot/wont overtake the trucks so it makes it harder for other non towing motorists to overtake and that leads to more slower moving traffic.

As for smaller A class roads etc i understand that caravans do slow the traffic and I agree that they should pull over to let traffic pass ,I am always aware of the traffic around me But I have to stress that there is no rule to say that HGV should pull over and being honest I find that I have far greater amounts of traffic behind me when im driving an HGV than I do when towing my caravan .

As always there is exceptions to every rule but please dont Tar us all with th same brush as we are not all the same .

It seems that caravaners and in the minority on here which amazes me as a large proprotion of caravans on sites are towed there with Landrovers .


Sad though it is you cant have it your own way all the time. though it would be a nice though

Anna x

Anna Grant said:

It seems that caravaners and in the minority on here which amazes me as a large proprotion of caravans on sites are towed there with Landrovers .
Anna x

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Hmm - there are a few of us, but if you want wall-to-wall caravan stuff then the Discovery owners club will be your bag.

Anna Grant said:

So does that mean that your Landrover does not go into the overtaking lane of a 3 lane motorway then. if you did use the 3rd lane then you would be able to pass the slower moving traffic.

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Not at all, mines a Tdi and regularly sees 80. As it's illegal for HGVs to use the 3rd lane (overtaking lane is a misnomer) consequently the traffic builds up alarmingly quickly thanks to 1 person's antisocial behaviour.

I've only once seen a traffic copper on the M4 clearing the middle lane of MLOC members - once in 19 years of driving. What's the betting he was one of the coppers they replaced with a speed camera?

Cheers,

ADZ the point I was making was that surely you would use the 3rd lane to pass as articulated vehicles are allowed to use it?? Thus allowing you to be on your merry way and leave the traffic jams behind !