SLROC Forum

it is not just caravans what about the people you pass then they just have to pass you and slow down again then the middle lane hogger short of side swipeing them  to get them to move over then the commercial vehicles pacing each other for miles on a dual carriagway or 2 lane motorway

Please don't tar all us caravaners with the same brush, we get enough of that from Top Gear!  I don't dawdle as I understand the frustration it can cause.  That said it still amazes me how other people drive, overtaking in dangerous places and pulling out in front without any intention of speeding up.

Don't underestimate modern diesels.  I've recently started to tow with a mazda 6, similar to the Mondeo.  Night and day compared to to the 300tdi I had before.  Yes limited on the weight it can pull, but power and stability by the bucket load. 

One point worthy of mention though is nose weight.  Knowing I was droping from 150 kilos to 75kg I took stuff out of the front box and moved heavy things about.  I weighed the front of the van and it went to the top of the scale, 120 kilos.  I've since done some further repacking.  With very little in the front box and nothing under the front bunks I've got it down to 75kg.  God alone knows how heavy it was when I used to tow with the Disco, as I never bothered about it, but I suspect it was well in excess of 150kg.

Alan

Best caravan I ever had was in the mid eighties, I towed it behind a Ford Granada in a bangers and caravan race at Armadale stock car track, the body never lasted  a full lap so I was left with a bare chassis loosely following behind on a chain.Funny enough,I was actually sponsored at that time by a caravan company!

Not all of as dawdle along at pensioner speeds, everytime I get somewhere with mine everything seems to be lying on the floor! (Discovery 3 towcar, plenty horsepower!)

Ahhh but what you need is an autologic performanc remap, then you would have plenty of power, 49 horses and 52 lb of torque extra and it goes like they really should. Strathearn do them at a good price

http://www.autologic-diagnostics.com/media/uploads/pdfs/brochures/LR_Performance_Tunes_Graphs_Flyer_EN05w.pdf

I tow a Senator Arazona with a Td5 Disco with 190K on the clock and no probs. My rant is other drivers who have got to overtake us at all costs, whether it`s on dual carriageway or on country road/lane they pull in front, you and expect us to pull up safely. So please all you drivers out there give us a break, would you do these things if there was a police car behind you?.

Mines a Pirouette,,,, here's hopin it doesnt live up to its name,,

Reminds me of when I was towing my 26' Swift behind my Disco II coming back up from the Isle of Wight a few years back.  The caravan started to snake, nothing I did could stop it and I ended up spinning a full 180 and facing the oncoming traffic on a thankfully fairly quiet motorway.

Anyway, as I didn't hit anything, and there was bugger all damage to car, caravan or contents, I don't count it as a 'crash'. 

(Police were very helpful, rolling road block, etc, to get me turned round, and didn't even get breathalised!! - Wasn't drinking, obviously, cause I'd have spilled it!!!)

Having used the A9 north for years i think i have seen everything (maybe not yet)
Disco 1 auto  with Fleetwood Colchester and try to keep as close to 55/60 as is safe to do so.
Amazing the clowns who try to pass then realise there is another vehicle in front of me holding me back a bit, and as for the ones who overtake on the chevrons, you would not print what i think of them.
We need more hi-vis police traffic cars out there to keep everybody moving safely.
cheers

Jim A
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1996 300Tdi auto(jap reimport)

we had a near death experience in glencoe in april we were stuck behind a line of cars when the one behind me decided to overtake into the face of an artic coming the other way, with myself ,caravan and artic all locked up she got in with inches to spare, i saw her a little later in the petrol station and challenged her about it, she appologised saying she thought i was the hold up , not the three cars in front of me that she couldnt see..

and on a cheery not the A9 is closed northbound tonight again with coach crash.

and on a cheery not the A9 is closed northbound tonight again with coach crash.

Signs all the way down from Aberdeen saying it was at Broxden Roundabout so I cut cross country past that only to find it was actually closed  Southbound just north of Auchterader - Luckily for me the queue was just at the turn-off for the water treatment plant so I did a U and diverted myself again, past Strathearn Engineering and out again onto the A9 again at Gleneagles..... but that q must have been 3-4 miles ? 

..... and todays totally un-apt caravan name - the " Whirlwind" I passed outside Forfar.

thats another crash then the one iwas on about was near kingussie diversion off thru newtonmore

thats another crash then the one iwas on about was near kingussie diversion off thru newtonmore

Its on the BBC as two killed in a van/coach collision at Ralia. The sooner they finish dual-ing the A9 the better !

Meanwhile, closer to home, they've stripped the surface of our road for a mile or so past Sharons place. A major improvement - and thats before they lay the new tar !

They call the A9 a killer road, there is know such thing as a killer road it does not do anything it is just there, it is the way some people drive on it or pay attention to road signs or the speed limit.

They call the A9 a killer road, there is know such thing as a killer road it does not do anything it is just there, it is the way some people drive on it or pay attention to road signs or the speed limit.

A good point, most crashes will be due to some form of human error, misjudgement or inattention  - but there is also an expectation that, for example, the road surface will be up to a reasonable standard....and with budgets cut the level of repair is often lot what one might expect - see "Jet Patcher". A friend came off his bike a month or so ago after hitting a newly "repaired" section of road, which turned out not to be solid at all, just a layer of loose tar covered chippings. 

I had a Glenelg - built for highland roads   

My first caravan was a Thomson Glen Nevis