Should caravan owners undergo compulsory towing education?

[BruceS]

I'd say that he thought "shit I can't slow down because there's a big twuck behind me"!
Truck at probably 104km/hr so what speed did he go to overtake?
See it all the time on the Freeway into/outof Adelaide....
Always in a hurry to their funerals?

[Mrbolly]

Yes Bruce, you do see it and when you try to pass them with a road train, getting it done is always a heart in mouth experience,

But even when you are assessing them and the road for a good spot, assessing just how twitchy the van is, the question is can I get by without seeing them bang the van into the Trailer on the way.

[native pepper]

I'd say, the majority of vans you see on the road have a twitch, even when not overtaking. most seem to wobble down the road and when they overtake, they all sway and it's just good luck they don't end off the road.

As My Brolly says, it can be frightening coming up to a van or 2 in a road train and wondering what they will do when you decide to overtake. They seem to have no understanding of the dynamics involved in towing an unbalanced light trailer, how to load it and how to control it at any time, other than at a stand still.

Problem is when you are pulling over 100 tonnes, you can't afford to slow down every time you come across a van. My approach was if possible, sit back then build up speed so when you get to them you can wiss past before they even know it. Most are in some form of day dream and even when they have the channel contact on the back, they never cooperate, answer of even move over from over the center line they all seem to be attached to.

The number of times even in the bus, you contact them and say you'll be coming by at such and such a point, but never get a reply and when yo get there they tend to not want to move over at all. So we just give them a blast with the air horns as we are about to come along side them and barrel past, quickly wakes them up.

Caravan override brakes should be compulsory so the driver can control the van separate to the two vehicle and so have more control. Jackknifing is another common thing you see with vans, all down to lack of knowledge and really bad load spread.

Have never been able to understand why vans aren't big dog trailers, much easier to tow, control, load backup and no load on the tow vehicle to unbalance it. Plus load distribution isn't paramount, unlike with a pig trailer setup as vans are and extremely dangerous in any avoidance situation. The worst thing about vans is they tend to unbalance the tow vehicle, so you have weight going from the front to the back constantly, making it very hard to have full control.

Take a 25ft van, move the dual wheels to the back, add a single or boggy dolly and you have a very stable safe trailer. You could fit either boggy or tri axle rear and carry a lot more weight and so easy to backup