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Trailer Faux-Pas


Andy - a15cro

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Heading down to Leicester yesterday with an empty trailer, suns shining, Anna’s riding shotgun, everything’s good, when after an hour in a police bike points me to the hard shoulder.

 

Pleasant guy, points out that I had overtaken the unmarked police wagon that’s going up and down the motorway, in the third lane! DOH! I wasn’t speeding which was a big plus. 

 

Unfortunately, because it was the covert vehicle, he has to report me, so now I’m in a lucky draw for either, words of wisdom, a driver improvement scheme, or contribute to the Police Christmas Party! Thankfully no points though.

 

Lesson learnt, it was just a ‘I never give it a thought moment’, maybe just a little complacent; however made more frustrating by seeing much worse behaviour by motorists for the next 7hrs round trip. 

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Yeah it’s frustrating not being able to use the third lane when you get the two lorries playing 54.5 vs 54.6 mph game. 

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It is surprising how many do not know that rule judging by how many camping trailers you see on the M5 in the outside lane on a Friday off to Cornwall.

 

Not sure if there is an awareness course for that, but hopefully you will get no points 

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Just now, jeff oakley said:

It is surprising how many do not know that rule judging by how many camping trailers you see on the M5 in the outside lane on a Friday off to Cornwall.

 

Not sure if there is an awareness course for that, but hopefully you will get no points 

 

The frustrating thing is that I know the rules, it was just a moment where I was making progress and never gave it a thought!

 

The police guy said theres no points attached to this one, hopefully just a letter pointing out the error of my ways! 

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Perils of empty trailers on good tow cars! You can forget they're on the back, when on the motorway etc.

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It’s the speed limits that always catch me out, too easy to forget about the trailer on the back and let the speed creep up to 70.

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Years ago, I reported a RAC driver to his HQ for driving in the outside lane of the M5 while towing an empty trailer at nearly 90mph in the rain.  The trailer tyres were bouncing 6-8 inches off the road and it was fishtailing - incredibly dangerous.  I should have called the police and reported it, but getting a ticking off from the boss would probably be sufficient.

 

I mentioned it in here afterwards and got criticised for reporting it, saying that he was probably rushing to a job, which I think is not a good excuse to justify putting other road users at danger unless you’re police / fire / ambulance - and not always then.

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2 hours ago, Mark (smokey mow) said:

It’s the speed limits that always catch me out, too easy to forget about the trailer on the back and let the speed creep up to 70.

 

Many years ago, towing my previous Westfield up to the Aintree Sprint, early one Sunday morning, completely forgot there was a Westfield and trailer attached to the back of the old 535 Sport I had at the time. booted it to pass a really slow moving coach, (only moved over to lane two), but did wonder why the coach was flashing me, till I spotted the Westfield in the rear view mirror, and slowed off again. :laugh: :blush:

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Back in the mists of time while at  Uni I bought a “new” mk3 cavalier ex taxi 260k miles, to replace the MK2 rust bucket.   I needed to get it from Preston to South Wales and hired a trailer for a day so needed to get back to preston, also wanted to get a few hours at TokyoJoes.. The trailer empty towed so we’ll and I knew the roads though mid Wales so we’ll, I was flying.     I’d spotted a car quite a bit of a distance behind which disappeared, As I slowed down entering a 30 zone it caught me and the blue lights came on…  Apparently there Meistro 2.0 diesel was struggling to keep up and they where doing over 90 in places… But fair play I got a ticking off, got sent on my way.   End of shift and no actual evidence I guess.    

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